gridoon2018 "Don't Drink The Water!" is not a comedy classic, it suffers from some staginess (which is to be expected, being based on a stage play and all), and some comic ideas don't come off at all (like the guy who gets hit on the head with a brick and starts thinking he is two people). But if you have a preference, as many do, for Woody Allen's "early, funny films" (personally, I can find things to appreciate in all of his career phases), this later one is probably as close as you're gonna get to them. Limiting his usual philosophizing about life, death, God and the universe to a bare minimum (though he still comes up with one of his simplest but wisest insights about the universe: "it's a rough place, but if you have someone to share it with, it gets easier"), Woody basically concentrates on firing off one-liners at such a rapid-fire speed that you may have to watch the film a second time to catch them all. And his great lines in this film are too numerous to count ("I heard, he has an idea. You'll find me at the fallout shelter"!). Julie Kavner is one of the most compatible female screen partners for Woody, and there is genuine sweetness in the budding romance between Michael J. Fox and Mayim Bialik; Dom De Luise's contributions are more a matter of taste. *** out of 4.

jzappa This pratfall comedy is a deviation in the 1990s segment of Woody Allen's body of work, who with this TV movie takes an unlikely detour to take a look back at past material. This interlude, made for television, is based on a play he wrote in the late 1960s, which was both produced for the theater and made into a film by Howard Morris, with Jackie Gleason starring. Allen had years since jilted these earlier versions, in which he had no hand, particularly claiming the film version to be a disaster. So, Allen's production can be seen as an opening to at last get it right, to dispatch a swift, easy project made for a more fast- paced medium, a break in the forever bustling director's stride. Allen himself plays the part that before went to Gleason, as an American tourist in Soviet Russia, mistaken for a spy when he naively snaps a picture that turns out to enclose some possibly ruinous intelligence. He and his family, including his wife, the matching presence of Julie Kavner, and his daughter, the unremarkable Mayim Bialik, flee to a American embassy close by for safety. But cursed with the worst timing, they're plunged into the hands of the ambassador's bumbling son, Michael J. Fox, who is supervising while his father is in Washington.The effect waves the obvious flags of its speedy shooting and its demure beginnings. It's a much simpler film than anything else Allen had made for 20 years, fashioned chiefly with extremely extensive, artless takes that afford the actors the breathing room to just act, as that is what the dialogue is inherently signaling their instincts to do, to advance each scene's humor through the dialogue and their bungling interplay as they perform it. The camera is the nuts-and-bolts service, usually inert or following the actors when it needs to keep them in frame. Allen and Kavner argue endlessly, the camera matter-of-factly tracking along as the two actors gesture bombastically. This unromatically commonsensical approach, bred of little alternative to keep the production moving, gives each scene an awkward but extemporaneous vibe, sometimes even elbowing into improvisation. In one scene, Fox clearly flounders a line and just rolls with it, treating it as an ad-libbed flub by his character. This far into a very prolonged, talk-dominated take, Woody likely decided it worked fine. This sort of stammering, repetitive way of speaking is naturally the inborn way to run off Woody's fast- paced, nebbishy dialogue in any case. These are lines that seem to welcome repetitions, graceless stutters, and footnotes into irrelevant points in the middle of a sentence. Fox sometimes backslides through the common snare of becoming simply one more awkward Woody mimic, particularly in his first few scenes, but he prudently counteracts.This isn't to imply that the aesthetics are nonexistent. The frame is almost always restless with the actors' hasty bustling and often hilarious interactions. This could comfortably appear like a much more vigorously edited film than it is, solely owing to the performances. In a hilarious scene where Allen and Kavner masquerade themselves in burkas, a gag I was waiting for from the very moment an Arabian emir and his harem were introduced, the frame comes alive with the entire cast whipping around, apparent and concealed off and on by Woody's flailing burka-clad arms. Though there's much of Woody's distinctive rhetorical banter, there are also some sublimely hectic bits of madcap physical comedy rearing their heads about.A handful of these are too expected. And frankly, there are one too many unfunny jokes, but Dom DeLuise is a bona fide pleasure as the Russian priest who's been ensconced in asylum within the embassy for over six years, locked in his room and, as it appears, practicing his magic tricks. The scene where he puts on his remarkably incapable magic act for Woody and his family, as the embassy's obstinately perfectionist gourmet chef makes off with his rabbit, is a classic bit of comedy leading into another hectic burst. Woody just has a feel for the touches that make these situations funny, like when an enemy bomb renders Edward Herrmann amnesiac and thinking he's the Wright brothers.

Merwyn Grote This oddity is of interest mainly as a curiosity piece -- a chance to see one of Woody's first attempts at writing a play come to life under his guidance. But the subject, Cold War satire, seems dated and the project has the feel of a low-budget sit-com pilot. Woody and Julie Kavner come off best as the bickering American couple and the rest of the cast try hard with material that seems desperate and tired. Ultimately this is a slight and only mildly amusing piece of fluff.

FlickJunkie-2 This 1994 TV movie released to video in late 2000 tells an inane tale of a Jewish American family that, while vacationing in Russia, is mistaken for a ring of spies during the height of the cold war in the 1960's. This is the story of their exploits as they are holed up in the American Embassy waiting for their chance to return to the U.S.The story was written and directed by Woody Allen, who is one of the most accomplished auteurs in the history of film. It is clear that Allen purposely dumbed this screenplay down for TV. Instead of his trademark cerebral humor that cuts like a scalpel, he uses a machine gun approach, hitting the viewer with a fusillade of lowbrow jokes and slapstick gags. The humor ranges from insipid silliness to standard sitcom fare with occasional intellectual ironies thrown in for his devoted fans. Though most of it is infantile, the sheer volume of material (literally five to ten jokes and gags a minute) insures that something will tickle you every couple of minutes.The cast is rich with accomplished comedic talent. Michael J. Fox plays the son of an ambassador who is a hapless diplomat in training. His frenetic and tortured style of comedy is perfect for this role. Dom DeLuise adds his wacky brand of humor as a priest who has been in hiding in the embassy for six years and is trying to learn to be an amateur magician. For him, the extra inhabitants of the embassy represent a captive audience on whom he can inflict one botched magic trick after another. Julie Kavner brings her whiny New York accent and her wonderful sense of sarcastic timing to play off Woody Allen's inimitably overwrought caricature of himself. Kavner is a refreshing change for Allen. We are used to seeing him across from flaky wimps played by Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow. The use of the bluntly badgering Kavner added significant energy to his performance. The cast is rounded out by Mayim Bialik (TV's, Blossom) who was decent, but not great as the Jewish American Princess in captivity.Overall, this was a good comedy that was significantly below Woody Allen's standard. There are plenty of funny lines, but it is a much too farcical. I rated it a 6/10. If you enjoy Woody Allen's normal introspective and intellectual humor, this might be a disappointment.