junk-monkey Every now and then for the last couple of decades I have taken the occasional look at a Woody Allen film (with as open a mind as I can muster) in an attempt to work out what it is that people seem to adore about him so much. Having just read an extended magazine interview with the man in which he came over as a genuinely likeable human being I thought I was in a good place to have another go at finding what 'it' is.Whatever it is I didn't see it here. You would have thought with a title like 'A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy' there would have been some sex or comedy in it. Apart from one throwaway line line delivered near the end of the thing which was genuinely funny - more for the delivery rather than the content - the film didn't raise a smile! And the sex was endless talk about off- screen activity and a couple of 'humorous' on-screen sub Benny Hill fumbles.I remember hearing an interview with Jack Lemmon, many years ago, in which he said that when Billy Wilder was directing him in a scene in 'Some Like it Hot' Wilder gave him a pair of maracas to hold, and told him to shake them after Tony Curtis said his line and stop before he delivered his own. Lemmon was perplexed. The scene's dialogue was a snappy and rapidfire to and fro interchange. The maraca shaking would slow it down to a crawl. But Wilder was the director and Lemmon did what he was told. When Lemmon saw the film with an audience he understood. Curtis' s line were funny. So were Lemmons'. If Lemmon had come in with his line as soon as his actor's instincts told him to, the audience would not have heard it because they were still laughing at Curtis's previous line. His line would have been lost. Curtis's next line would make no sense... and the scene would have collapsed like a house of cards. Wilder knew where the laughs were and built space into his direction to let the audience enjoy them. Allen doesn't leave any space for the audience. We're not given any space to get the' jokes' (such as they are) because there's always someone talking straight after them. What they are saying is usually inane piffle and by the time you've registered that what they are saying is of little consequence and not a zinging comeback (if was generous I could concede that a lot of the inconsequential dialogue here is Allen's carefully crafted, verbal equivalent of maraca shaking) any humour in the 'joke' that just went past has evaporated.The less said about Allen's helpless, "oh look at me,I'm so clumsy" shtick the better.I'll give it a couple of years and have another go and seeing what the Allen cultist adore so much.

leonblackwood Review: I really wasn't that impressed with this movie because I didn't find it that funny or slightly interesting. The concept, which is basically about a group of friends who lust over each other in the wilderness, got a bit tedious after a while and Woody Allen's weak jokes and silly characters didn't have any depth or substance. The fact that everyone is lusting over Mia Farrow, didn't help because I really couldn't see what was so adorable about her. Woody Allen, who plays a mad inventor, was also quite annoying after a while and he just seemed to be running around, setting up rendezvous's with the different characters. The whole look and feel of the movie was quite dated and the storyline goes down some weird avenues that go a bit too far. Disappointing!Round-Up: With only one movie left in this Woody Allen series, I still haven't seen anything that amazing from this accomplished writer/director and I personally think that the movies with Diane Keaton are much better than the Mia Farrow ones. All of his films seem very similar to one another and the concepts, which are usually based around troubled relationships set in New York, aren't that imaginative. Before I got into this filmography, I was hoping to see the mind behind his unique work, but all I have seen is that he is definitely one for the ladies and he loves writing about relationships which are in turmoil, which shadows his own life in his latter years. Because I watched these films back to back, I honestly got fed up with them after a while and his humour is for a certain crowd which I am not part of.Budget: N/A Round-Up: $9millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there Woody Allen movies about a group of friends who get together in the wilderness and end up lusting for each other. 3/10

Red-125 A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) was written and directed by Woody Allen. Allen also stars in his iconic role as a more-or-less decent guy with the ability to say or do the wrong thing in almost any situation. Woody has surrounded himself with talent in this film. Jose Ferrer plays the pompous professor Leopold, and Tony Roberts plays the "fast" doctor Maxwell, who is Allen's best friend. The real clout comes from the female actors: Mia Farrow is Ariel--engaged to Leopold, but maybe in love with Woody, or maybe even with Roberts. Julie Hagerty plays Dulcy, a young but not-so-innocent nurse who has accompanied Maxwell for the weekend. Mary Steenburgen portrays Allen's wife Adrian, who has become frigid for reasons that she knows but we don't.Shakespeare realized the potential of midsummer's night for fantasy and for love, and so did Ingmar Bergman in his film "Smiles of a Summer Night." Allen has never been afraid of taking on a challenge, and he maintains the tradition with a script where almost every man wants almost every woman, and vice-versa. The film is all about love, and all about sex. However, because it's rated PG-13, you know that there won't be any on-screen nudity. Actors talk about sex, they arrange secret meetings and talk about sex some more, but we never see them without multi-layered early-1900's clothing. That's OK--this movie is about the chase, not the consummation.The film contains some beautiful scenery, so it would work marginally better on a large screen, but it was certainly satisfactory on DVD. Incidentally, the soundtrack is composed entirely of music by Felix Mendelssohn. You may not realize that Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream contains a melody we hear all the time. You'll recognize it instantly.

evanston_dad Woody Allen's spoof of Ingmar Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night" is one of his weaker efforts. Mia Farrow can be a wonderful actress, but she's just not the go-to person for comedy, and Allen would have done better to stick with her for his more serious work only.Even not very good Allen films, though, are good for a one-liner here and there, and "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" does deliver there. There aren't enough to make up for the film's stupid ending, but there are enough to make it possible to sit through.With this film, Allen was in a bit of a holding pattern between his excellent films from the 1970s and his fertile period in the mid-1980s.Grade: C