What is it you hate about 1941

I hated it because it sucked

I don't hate the movie, but I do have two particular problems with it -

First and most importantly: I don't find it funny. Now humour is a very personal thing so I hesitate to go as far as to say it's not funny as I'm sure some find it hilarious, just not me. I didn't laugh once. It's not that the situations weren't amusing, but you see each one coming a mile off and for me that made it mildly amusing rather than outright funny. Now amusing can be fine, if the film has extra layers of depth so that it doesn't feel like it has to make me laugh out loud the whole time, but this movie really didn't.

Secondly: I thought it was far too long for a comedy. Airplane! (1980) is under an hour and a half, Life of Brian (1979) is about an hour and a half, even Kubrick's Doctor Strangelove (1964) in 95 minutes. But 1941 runs for two hours and the directors cut runs for two and a half! The extra run time does more harm than good, it slows everything down, gives too much time to minor characters and causes such a long build up for the jokes that nothing takes you by surprise.

But that's the thing, the whole time I was impressed with the production values of the movie and I can't fault the quality of the actors, effects, music, scenery, costume, camera work or anything like that. Almost everyone involved in this film is a legend in the industry (and people I have buckets of respect for) and on paper this should have been amazing, it's just the whole thing together didn't really work. They threw everything at this and tried to make it as big as possible and that was it's own downfall.

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I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

I loved the tribute to Jaws in the beginning...very clever.
The diner scene really got on my nerves. I hate slapstick comedy where a huge mess ensures with no real pay-off, and I honestly couldn't see any here. The fascist Treat Williams character was almost the switch-off point but I waited for Belushi's first appearance which turned out to be as lame as a skit in the last 30min of SNL. I watched no further.

Not hate but certainly not love....

The USO dance extravaganza went on forever - it added so much over-the-top chaos that the plot disappeared in the debris, as did any humor from these characters. Many here comment that the film is just too long at 2:00 (to 2:30); the dance-brawl is a big part of "too much."

Great story concept, too poorly put together. But - a well-crafted drama on this historic situation would be really welcome.

*Everything happens to me! Now Im shot by a child! (T.Chaney)

I think the problem with this movie is either it came out 5-10 years too soon, or it needed a different director, or both. When you first look as the cast and crew, it looks great. The cast includes comedic legends such as Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi (aka, both Blues Brothers), and John Candy. Directed by Spielberg, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and John Williams as composer.

However, the movie was released in 1979. John Williams was pretty successful by that time, with Star Wars, Jaws 1 and 2, Superman, Close Encounter, and several more. But everyone else was pretty new to movies. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale would not write or direct Back to the Future for five more years and had just the Beatlemania comedy "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." Dan Aykroyd, though a SNL veteran (with roles including Elwood Blues), has very few credits before 1941, which is in fact his feature film debut. John Belushi has his SNL career (with Jake Blues as a character) and Animal House before 1941. The Blues Brothers movie would not come out until the next year, so both were relative unknowns unless you watched SNL. Aykroyd and Belushi did not share a single scene in the movie. John Candy is similar as he had his version of SNL (SCTV) but few movie credits before 1941. Finally, Spielberg had just three theatrical movies before 1941: Sugarland Express, Jaws, and Close Encounters. Looking at his list of movies he directed, 1941 seems to be the only true comedy he ever attempted.

The problem is too many people were new to movies and had not honed their craft yet. Put this in the hands of the experienced Mel Brooks (who had the Get Smart TV show, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and High Anxiety by then) and the movie probably turns out better. Wait 5-10 years (and assume Belushi doesn't die), Zemeckis and Gale have Back to the Future, Spielberg has The first two Indiana Jones's and ET, Aykroyd had Blues Brothers (with Belushi) and Ghostbusters.

They needed to have more gags (the Jaws one at the beginning was great) and tone down the mayhem a bit. I wanted Belushi, Aykroyd, and Candy to have more screen time to do what they do best: make comedy. However, most of the screen time was devoted to the four-way lovers quarrel that I feel Mel Brooks did much better 15 years later in Robin Hood Men in Tights (between Robin Hood, Marian, the Sheriff, and Latrine). Brooks also did the brawl scene better in Blazing Saddles, which came out before 1941, when it overflowed out of the Western set into the Studio's backlot (I never felt bored during Brooks's scene, yet desperately wanted the 1941 one to end).

You have the honor of playing the greatest game ever invented. A game with one simple rule. Dodge.

I don't hate it, It was an enjoyable romp, just not top notch.

it's one of those i remember i could never get as hooked on as some other similar movie maker's flicks around the same time period, it just feels too messy and all over the place with few fun parts, around this board it keeps getting compared with "it's a mad, mad, mad, mad world", i couldn't get hooked on that either, it's the sort of movies where they just throw in as much nonsense and stars as possible (well just take the title), and mostly overlong running time, the train bit and yell in this was fun though. taking place in another time period, it's strange to see these familiar 1980's actors in that movie story, one thing that hits you is how some scenes would never be acceptable in an actual movie from the year it's taking place, even more so in modern movies taking place in the past, it's really tragic to see the deterioration and you can only shut the movies off if you got company coming over to avoid embarrassment, also, please pardon me, but how do some of these boys pass as movie stars? it does include some extraordinary cast though like from christopher lee's generation in smaller parts and of course the blues brothers. i came by this most recently on an italian channel, i can't understand why anyone would prefer dubbing rather than subtitles (funny how they kept the japanese in the movie though and only dub english), the voices of the italian women are quite extraordinary i must say, and belushi's dubber has a pretty rough voice but some parts where he just makes noises it seems like they kept his actual original voice.



🎥 📽 🎞




your wavy hair my mind surf on,
in sun until climbing down your cheekbones,
heading for your lips,
where i slipped,
trying to hold on to your hair,
fell down your boobies and bounced back up again.

Everything.