Review of What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) by Tim H — 27 Nov 2007

This movie is PG?!? Awesome. I love the fact that the R-Rating wasn't around for a good long time. Now, if you haven't been reading my reviews in the past, you should know that I love Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Film Crew, and Woody Allen. How the hell have I not seen this movie before?

What's Up, Tiger Lily? is a redubbed and recut version of a Japanese Movie entitled "Japanese Secret Police: Key of Keys, only with all the dialogue thrown out the window and the story involving the quest for the perfect egg salad recipe. It really is genius. However, I feel I have to mention the negatives of this movie before I really go into how much I liked it. Like most commentary films (best I can describe it), there really are ups and downs in the film. Frankly, it is almost impossible to slag off an entire film and do it well. But the parts that are funny are golden.

Allen clearly has his reputation by this point in his career and exploits the hell out of it. He constantly shows up in the film as himself, explaining away his cuts as if he was a serious director. For anyone else, I don't think this would work (I'm sorry, Mike and Joel...the skits just aren't funny.) but Allen pulls it off with grace and sophistication.

This really is one of Woody Allen's greats. I watched this movie with non-Woody fans and they really got a kick out of this movie. So pretty much, there's no excuse not to rent it.