Review of ¡Three Amigos! (1986) by Fong K — 21 Sep 2017

I'll preface this by saying that this a movie I grew up with and watched quite a bit between the ages of 5 and 10. I had forgotten a lot of it until seeing it again recently. It's not one that I currently watch over and over, mainly due to its being missing in any decent DVD release.

Recently, Three Amigos was almost reluctantly released on Blu-ray, and I'm sad to say that I have to now nitpick this movie a bit, despite my enjoyment of it. There are things that I hadn't noticed before.

First of all, the film is uneven tonally. It starts out with the scene of Carmen entering the bar looking for help. It's a dramatic western sort of scene that doesn't have any comedy in it and doesn't jive well with what follows.

Second, Chevy Chase doesn't seemed all that enthralled to be in this movie. Perhaps it's his deadpan comedy acting, but he seems bored to me. Third, having seen some of the cut footage, it's clear to me that the people of the village aren't set up properly.

We feel no real sympathy for them because we haven't seen them in happier times, which is what was in the original opening to the film. Maybe I'm just wrong about all of this. Perhaps the final version of the film is the best that it can be.

It's a strange combination of ideas that's been put together and a proper tone was probably difficult to establish in the first place. I hold it in high esteem for enjoyment and nostalgic value, but cosmetically I think I could have been better.