Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

udar55 A Las Vegas mob boss (Martin Balsam) comes up with an ingenious way to launder money - buy a bank! He sends pal Doc Fletcher (Michael Caine) to Switzerland to buy a bank with the help of local contact Prince Gianfranco di Siracusa (Louis Jordan). Along for the ride is the kingpin's wayward son Albert (Jay Leno). Prince Siracusa has a deed for a bank (really a rundown apartment over a pizza parlor) and then things get complicated when his "cousins" (Stéphane Audran and David Warner) want Fletcher to buy in on their Iranian silver mine. Also figuring into this are a banking exec (Tom Smothers) and his ditzy wife (Cybill Shepherd). Ouch! Caine has been upfront about his taking roles for their locations (paid vacation!) and I can't think of any other reason he would have taken this. It is billed as a comedy-thriller, yet manages to never be funny or thrilling. You would think with such a cast that some sort of sparks would fly, but this nearly 2 hour flick is a bore. It doesn't help that the main plot twist doesn't kick in until 90 minutes in (even though you've guess it when it is introduced) and the tricks to swindle some buyers turns into an anti-THE STING. Lots of moments of people talking...and talking...and talking. It says something when the comic highlight is Caine accidentally dropping a breakfast egg in his lap. I lay it all firmly at the feet of director Ivan Passer, who thinks having such a capable cast can immediately pass for a top notch film. Definitely not the case. I'm sure Caine's wife thanks him though.

manuel-pestalozzi ... turns out to be silver laundering. That's what this maybe overly cerebral movie is about. Most of the protagonists try to give their criminal actions a whiff of legality by diverting the flow of money to Switzerland. It was an item then as it is now. Almost all the action is set in Switzerland, in the Italian speaking part south of the Alps, to be exact. And Switzerland is basically boring (i.e. no shots fired, no bloodletting, no moans or shrieks in the night). Nonetheless, the movie has some beautiful scenes. The way the freshly arrived crooks find out that their bank's offices is above a crummy pizza parlor, for example. Or the visit in the shady count's empty palazzo. The count takes one of the elegant, anorexic chairs and smashes it to the ground to stoke the fire. (Then he hands a chair to Caine. He should have smashed it likewise, to the dismay of the Count - what are you doing? - who meant that one to be sat on. Instead Caine just sits down - a missed opportunity!!) Also very good is the scene in the small private plane which runs into some serious turbulence, with the Count very scared an Caine not scared at all, taking the opportunity to clarify options and attitudes. Louis Jourdan, who plays the Count, is a mayor asset to the movie. Cibyll Shepherd is in one of her better parts here (interesting wardrobe and make-up) and also has a few really good scenes. Overall this movie is worth watching.

Michael Complicated-to-the-point-of-derisory goings on; set in the less-than-fascinating world of the silver shares market, Swiss banks, crooked syndicate bosses and their schemes and so on. And on. And on. For at 110 minutes, this painfully protracted, alleged 'comedy' becomes unbearable as its visual jokes are repeated ad infinitum. The humour itself, although not exactly in the 'Road Trip' class of vulgarity, is unlikely to appeal to anyone over the age of 7. Everyone acts superfluously silly under the impression they are doing a good job, oblivious to their director, who is busy making some sort of jet-set Jacqueline Susannesque melodrama. Cybill has her work cut out as she frequently has to play the scenery as well as her designated role. The sort of film you may at least be able to laugh at, as opposed to with, provided you can drum up the enthusiasm to keep your eyes on the screen.

tvman-3 This is a movie I could easily have missed. It played at a theater I worked at, and was an unusually rare booking in that, as I recall, it actually played for less than a week (talk about filler).Nevertheless, it really is a gem of a comedy. Years later, working in a video store, I would frequently put it on the store monitor to play, and almost never got through the whole thing, because invariably someone would see a bit of it and then want to rent it.Contrary to another user's comment, it would be hard to claim that Jay Leno's role is third. He has a good part, but he could hardly be placed ahead of Louis Jourdan or Tom Smothers. Possibly ahead of David Warner.This is not some people's idea of comedy, as there are no fart jokes or car crashes, but it's a movie you find yourself chuckling at all the way through. A collection of classy comedic performances from the stars and supporting cast members Joss Ackland, Charles Gray, Jeremy Clyde (of Chad & Jeremy fame), and Leno, among others.Be warned if looking for it on home video, however. Though the first release of it was in SP mode, it was later released in a bargain-bin EP/SLP version, which will of course look like crap. If only someone would put this gem out on DVD.