Futurama can sleep soundly knowing it's still the funniest comedy about someone being frozen and waking up in the future. Its granddaddy, Woody Allen's Sleeper, itself stealing the premise from Buck Rogers, fails to get any laughs from me. For some reason, Allen has chosen to make a comedy like Buster Keaton would have in the silent era. Physical gags with wonky music, even a couple of fast-forward Benny Hill moments. From Keaton (Buster, not Diane, here in an early role), I could have liked it. Here, it seems decades out of date and anyway, can't maintain the conceit. We eventually have to have dialog, and Allen is in full stand-up comic mode, almost never saying anything he means and trolling the future people with every line, for no reason. Similarly, the bizarro-future is just a topsy-turvy version of ours where junk food and cigarettes are good for you (we just got it wrong, see? Jerry Siegel would have been proud.) Very tedious. Things pick up in the third act when the plot mechanics of deposing the future's Orwellian leader take over, and suddenly, Allen's character has a motive and actual drives and emotions (so to speak). But there's a lot of shenanigans before we get to something meaningful.
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frankqb
A futuristic slapstick comedy that, while disjointed and unfulfilling plot-wise, is nonetheless pleasing for its great physical humour.Ralf
Worth seeing for his hilarious robot walk alone.deckard.
diane keaton is a babe.Siskoid
Futurama can sleep soundly knowing it's still the funniest comedy about someone being frozen and waking up in the future. Its granddaddy, Woody Allen's Sleeper, itself stealing the premise from Buck Rogers, fails to get any laughs from me. For some reason, Allen has chosen to make a comedy like Buster Keaton would have in the silent era. Physical gags with wonky music, even a couple of fast-forward Benny Hill moments. From Keaton (Buster, not Diane, here in an early role), I could have liked it. Here, it seems decades out of date and anyway, can't maintain the conceit. We eventually have to have dialog, and Allen is in full stand-up comic mode, almost never saying anything he means and trolling the future people with every line, for no reason. Similarly, the bizarro-future is just a topsy-turvy version of ours where junk food and cigarettes are good for you (we just got it wrong, see? Jerry Siegel would have been proud.) Very tedious. Things pick up in the third act when the plot mechanics of deposing the future's Orwellian leader take over, and suddenly, Allen's character has a motive and actual drives and emotions (so to speak). But there's a lot of shenanigans before we get to something meaningful.nicolaskrizan
anachronistic allenhttp://1001movies.posterous.com/840
nicolaskrizan
early allen is still allenhttp://beyond1001movies.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/840/