Didn't laugh once

Rating: Null/10 (20 June 2004)

*Somebody* has to say it, you either get this movie or you don't, and you're not some kind of idiot if you don't. This movie just fell flat with me, it relied too heavily on cheesy, nonsensical wordplay, and the Marx brothers seem to have a standard, all-purpose delivery for every single joke: fast. The famous "slow burn" scene felt amateurish to me. The lauded "anarchy" in this movie strikes me as a lame excuse for sloppy editing and writing, I guess it's easier for a scene to lead into another with no segway at all, or for pun-oriented conversations to begin and end like a light going on and off. Really, this is not so much a movie as a string of miscellaneous gags with a VERY flimsy story to try to tie it all together. If you want an example of classic comedy intertwining elegantly with a story watch a Chaplin or Keaton movie.
Shouldn't the Marx brothers be totally forgotten by now?