Review of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) by Tim S — 19 Sep 2014
The thing to remember about A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is that it was based on a successful play. It's a strange hybrid of entertainment, with comedy, romance, music, dance, and drama, all rolled into one.
The main problem that I have with it is that it's just not that funny. I expected a few more laughs than I got and was disappointed, overall. There were a couple of times when I did actually laugh out loud, but only a couple.
Zero Mostel's mugging for the camera gets old very quickly and you just want his character to bite it early on. Instead, you're stuck with him for the whole movie. The musical numbers are fine, being written by Stephen Sondheim, and the film looks good (Nicolas Roeg) and is creatively-edited.
Director Richard Lester keeps things manic with this zany cast of characters, which include the aforementioned Zero Mostel, but also Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford, Buster Keaton, and Michael Crawford. Larry Gelbary, famous for his co-creating of the M*A*S*H TV series, also plays a part in the film's creation.
It's not an entirely effective or successful film for me, but I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on this one.
This review of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) was written by Tim S on 19 Sep 2014.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum has generally received positive reviews.
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