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Epicurus.com - Don't Drink the Water
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List Price: $9.99
Our Price: $6.99
Your Save: $ 3.00 ( 30% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Starring: Erick Avari, Mayim Bialik, Dom DeLuise, John Doumanian, Michael J. Fox
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0786936209495
Format: Closed-captioned
Label: Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2003-07-01
Running Time: 100
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1994-12-18
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Editorial Reviews:
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Ever-popular Michael J. Fox (MARS ATTACKS!, THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT) and Woody Allen (SMALL TIME CROOKS, DECONSTRUCTING HARRY) star in this hilarious comedy where an outrageous mix-up labels an unsuspecting family of American tourists as a notorious ring of spies! The Hollanders are enjoying their trip behind the Iron Curtain until Walter (Allen) innocently snaps a picture of the sunset ... over a politically sensitive area! Before he knows it, his family is the focus of a major international espionage incident! Forced to seek refuge at the American Embassy -- it's up to the Ambassador's diplomatically inept son (Fox) to keep the Hollanders from landing behind bars! With Mayim Bialik (BEACHES, TV's BLOSSOM), Dom DeLuise (ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS) and Julie Kavner (DECONSTRUCTING HARRY, TV's THE SIMPSONS) in a great cast of familiar faces -- you'll laugh along with the hapless Hollanders as they find out just how hard it is to get around the Iron Curtain!
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great fun!
Comment: I enjoyed the film very much. Good high energy performances (and far superior to the Jackie Gleason/Estelle Parsons early '60s version....Gleason, who was brilliant in so many other areas, just couldn't get this right).
Correction: Allen's wife is not played by Julie Hagerty (ref "Airplane" and "Lost in America," but Julie Kavner, who had appeared with Allen previously in "Oedipus Wrecks," from the short film compilation, "New York Stories."
Customer Rating:
Summary: DON'T DRINK THE WATER WOODY ALLEN!!
Comment: One of the best movies ever made by Woody. A rare look at the complexities of the former Communist world through the antics in the US Embassy of an invented country of Vulgaria. Like a great old cartoon, with wonderful characters, especially the leader of the local KGB, played by Vit Horejs! He is hilarious, as is Woody's wife portrayed by the incomparable Julie Kavner. Michael J. Fox stars as bumbling son of the out of office Ambassador. Great comedians all. With documentary film style camera work. Great!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Woody's Worst?
Comment: My wife and I are great Woody Allen fans. While we have most of his movies, this is one we missed. Based on the high Amazon ratings, we ordered it. What a dog of a movie! Michael J. Fox, Dom DeLuise and the girl playing Woody's daughter stink. Their combined horrible acting brings down the movie. Casting Fox in this role is beyond comprehension! His "acting" was pathedtic. He couldn't stand still for even a few seconds in a scene. Woody should have burned all copies since this leaves a bad taste for his other great films. Save your money on this one. Clearly it is Woody's Worst! I never trust those five star ratings again.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Stagey Gem
Comment: This one is a must for fans and will certainly earn Woody more of the same. I like it because it was very stagey, no surprise for a filmed play. Woody has made some brilliant films and this isn't one of them, but its fun, energetic and we see him in classic Jewish Kay/Hope/Marx/Lewis/Allen mode. Great fun. And dont forget the marvellous Julie Hagerty, voice of Marge Simpson, but even so much better as a comedienne.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A very surprisingly average comedy.
Comment: `Don't Drink the Water', directed by Woody Allen and based on a Broadway play by Allen is distinctly different from most of his other films due to its dated and just ordinarily funny plot and jokes.
As amazing as it may be to say this, almost all of Allen's movies hold up extremely well over time. There seem to be no serious dependencies on the events of the day. Even Zellig, which takes place in a definite time in history, stands up as well as, for example, `Casablanca' or `The Godfather' based on the durability of the story. The movie under consideration, however, depends a lot on early cold war situations as they may have played out in an American embassy in Prague, Budapest, or Warsaw in the early sixties. Much of the background depends on the pre-Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy administration. Even the title pictures Eastern Europe as not much more advanced in public sanitation as a Banana Republic, let alone our favorite target of such jokes, Mexico.
I believe this movie, which may have been made for television, was filmed relatively recently, probably after Michael J. Fox left `Family Ties' and while or before he began his last TV series before retiring due to Parkinson's Disease. I have strong suspicions, however, that the play was written in the early sixties, not too long after the time in which the play takes place.
One result of this being an adaptation from a stage play is that there is little or none of Allen's visual humor. All on screen business is written to be done on a stage with one scene on stage at a time. There are also practically none of Allen's favorite topics and plot tricks. This is nothing more than a stage comedy, and virtually none of Allen's other movies are `nothing more than stage comedies'.
That does not mean this is not funny. Allen is as good a joke writer as he ever was. It's just that the movie doesn't engage our interest. Compared to, for example, two average Allen movies, `Shadows and Fog' and `A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy', the characters simply don't sustain our interest. This may be due in part to weaker acting by Fox, Kavner, DeLuise, and Herrmann, when compared to Mia Farrow, John Malkovich, Jose Ferrer, and Tony Roberts, but I don't think so, as the principle's are pretty well cast into parts for which they are eminently suited. Julie Kavner, for example, plays almost exactly the same role as she does in the excellent `Radio Days'.
Even the plot resolution and the minor love interest are predictable.
So, while I am a great Woody Allen fan, I suggest this is one of the very few of his works you can pass up without feeling any sense of loss. It is enjoyable to watch once, but it has little staying power.
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