Not very funny

Rating: 4/10 (2 August 2008)

I'm a big fan of Woody Allen, but I found this one boring to the point that I considered not watching the whole thing. But it got better and I'm glad that I saw it through to the end.
The most interesting parts for me were when Woody's and Diane's (still in her hippy period) characters debate philosophical meanings. Is there a God and does He care about us? What is love? Are moral standards absolute?
In "Love and Death" Woody Allen relies more on physical (as opposed to cerebral) comedy than he does in his Annie Hall and subsequent masterpieces. For example, Boris being accidentally shot from a cannon and weapons that break when Boris tries to use them. There are plenty of individual Monte Python quality comic bits, but that kind of comedy has for me by now lost what edge it once had. Much of comedy comes from the unsuspecting audience being surprised by the punch line. Of his early films that use a lot of physical comedy, I recall really liking "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex." I haven't seen it in decades (perhaps not since it was first released) and wonder if its humor still works today?
However, some of the shticks in "Love and Death" still feel fresh, such as the comically attired Angel of Death, and the messages that newly dead people give to our protagonist. Some of the physical comedy bits, such as Boris being accidentally shot from a cannon, reminded me of Buster Keaton. Buster Keaton and Ernie Kovacs (his early TV show) were the best at physical comedy.