Watched the Director’s Cut, which clocks in at 146 minutes
Steven Spielberg’s got a lengthy filmography with a lot of highs and very few lows. It’s remarkable how consistent his output is, considering how long he’s been at it and how many movies he’s made. On the other hand though, when the movie stinks, it really stinks. And that is unfortunately the case with 1941. It’s especially disappointing considering this is the first outright bad movie he’s made and the level of pedigree both on camera and behind the camera.
The story of 1941 is as follows: Days following Pearl Harbor, there’s a panic in the air in Los Angeles. People are uncertain of what’s to come in the war, and they are buying into the fears that they are the next targets for the Japanese attacks. In the movie, the fear is not unfounded, as it literally opens with the Germans and the Japanese coming onto the shore and discussing about what it is they should destroy. The rest of the movie follows military officials chasing the sub and trying to stop them from coming onto the shore.
There’s many many problems with the movie, the biggest of which is that it’s just not funny. And for a movie with the words “A Comedy Spectacular!” on its poster, that’s a major issue. Of course, comedy is subjective and not everyone will find the same things funny, but to me, it just wasn’t funny. The movie bombards with gags and keeps them going on far too long to the point of exhaustion. And at 146 minutes, it’s so incredibly bloated that at one point, I just contemplated turning the movie off all together and coming back to it later. I didn’t, but it’s bad when the gets me thinking that way. No matter the run time, I always try and stick it out, but this was a long two and a half hours. I’ve watched movies of similar length where it felt like five minutes. This was not one of those times.
All the gags feel like they are thrown together in a chaotic manner, and they don’t really have a cohesive feel to it. It plays like an assault on the senses, with so many sight gags, explosions, screams, et cetera to the point of exhaustion. It’s especially bad because very few of the gags, if any, are even funny, so for them to go on as long as they do, it’s just not a pleasant viewing experience.
I could maybe forgive some of that if I could tell who it was the central character is supposed to be. From what I could gather, it was supposed to be John Belushi’s character, but if a film doesn’t make clear who the central character is supposed to be, then how can I be expected to enjoy it. It just doesn’t seem like a whole lot of thought was placed into characters and story, instead relying on gags to pad out the run time. Gag heavy movies like Monty Python or The Naked Gun series, at their best they have a lot of gags, but a lot of thought is also placed on the story and the characters. They don’t sacrifice the characters and story for a gag.
1941 is just a huge disappointment on a lot of fronts. Spielberg is a very talented director and he had already shown that with Close Encounters and Jaws, and for him to make this movie makes you wonder what happened that caused this. It’s a waste of Spielberg’s directorial prowess, the comedic talent on screen with Belushi and Aykroyd, who were SNLcomedic heavyweights, and Robert Zemeckis who would go on to make Back to the Future and Death Becomes Her. It’s a waste of talent on all fronts, and it’s easily among the worst movies Spielberg’s ever made.
Watched the Director’s Cut, which clocks in at 146 minutes
Steven Spielberg’s got a lengthy filmography with a lot of highs and very few lows. It’s remarkable how consistent his output is, considering how long he’s been at it and how many movies he’s made. On the other hand though, when the movie stinks, it really stinks. And that is unfortunately the case with 1941. It’s especially disappointing considering this is the first outright bad movie he’s made and the level of pedigree both on camera and behind the camera.
The story of 1941 is as follows: Days following Pearl Harbor, there’s a panic in the air in Los Angeles. People are uncertain of what’s to come in the war, and they are buying into the fears that they are the next targets for the Japanese attacks. In the movie, the fear is not unfounded, as it literally opens with the Germans and the Japanese coming onto the shore and discussing about what it is they should destroy. The rest of the movie follows military officials chasing the sub and trying to stop them from coming onto the shore.
There’s many many problems with the movie, the biggest of which is that it’s just not funny. And for a movie with the words “A Comedy Spectacular!” on its poster, that’s a major issue. Of course, comedy is subjective and not everyone will find the same things funny, but to me, it just wasn’t funny. The movie bombards with gags and keeps them going on far too long to the point of exhaustion. And at 146 minutes, it’s so incredibly bloated that at one point, I just contemplated turning the movie off all together and coming back to it later. I didn’t, but it’s bad when the gets me thinking that way. No matter the run time, I always try and stick it out, but this was a long two and a half hours. I’ve watched movies of similar length where it felt like five minutes. This was not one of those times.
All the gags feel like they are thrown together in a chaotic manner, and they don’t really have a cohesive feel to it. It plays like an assault on the senses, with so many sight gags, explosions, screams, et cetera to the point of exhaustion. It’s especially bad because very few of the gags, if any, are even funny, so for them to go on as long as they do, it’s just not a pleasant viewing experience.
I could maybe forgive some of that if I could tell who it was the central character is supposed to be. From what I could gather, it was supposed to be John Belushi’s character, but if a film doesn’t make clear who the central character is supposed to be, then how can I be expected to enjoy it. It just doesn’t seem like a whole lot of thought was placed into characters and story, instead relying on gags to pad out the run time. Gag heavy movies like Monty Python or The Naked Gun series, at their best they have a lot of gags, but a lot of thought is also placed on the story and the characters. They don’t sacrifice the characters and story for a gag.
1941 is just a huge disappointment on a lot of fronts. Spielberg is a very talented director and he had already shown that with Close Encounters and Jaws, and for him to make this movie makes you wonder what happened that caused this. It’s a waste of Spielberg’s directorial prowess, the comedic talent on screen with Belushi and Aykroyd, who were SNLcomedic heavyweights, and Robert Zemeckis who would go on to make Back to the Future and Death Becomes Her. It’s a waste of talent on all fronts, and it’s easily among the worst movies Spielberg’s ever made.
