Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By Maytal Erez
Format:DVD
Don't plan on eating dinner while watching this movie, 'cause you'll choke! When I wasn't laughing hysterically, I was squirming in anticipation - and enjoying every moment of it!
''Don't Drink the Water is set in the Russian American embassy, where a couple(Woody Allen, Julie Kavner) and their grown daughter (Mayim Bialik) are trying to figure out how to escape and get back home, because...
While vacationing in Russia, the family is chased into the embassy after Communist police accuse them of being spies! While driving the ambassador (Michael J. Fox) crazy, hilarious things happen involving a priest - slash - magician in exile, an Arabic king and his dozen wives.
As always, Allen plays his anxious and neurotic character. In 'Don't drink the water it bounces off those of Kavner and Bialik's calm characters, perfectly. This movie's juicy - you're gonna love it!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Caramba!
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fishing out an old Woody Allen stage play some years later and filming it for television might have seemed like a good idea at the time, and with a cast list like this how could it fail?
Unfortunately, it ends up being a pretty unsuccessful affair. The 4:3 angle, and the suffocatingly small studio set, render nearly all of the performances as toe-curling amateur farce, and whilst the script has some great one-liners, most of them are lost beneath layers of mugging and pathetically out-of-breath mannerisms which lend no credence whatsoever to the situation or the characters.
This is a pretty embarrassing CV entry for all concerned, and even die-hard Woody Allen fans will find very little to sustain their attention for over 90 minutes. The one saving grace is Julie Kavner, who, drawing on her vast TV studio experience with the likes of smash-hit 'Rhoda' under her belt, manages to create a very funny, believable and watchable character. But this only serves to highlight just how howlingly bad some of the other performances are.
Shame.
Unfortunately, it ends up being a pretty unsuccessful affair. The 4:3 angle, and the suffocatingly small studio set, render nearly all of the performances as toe-curling amateur farce, and whilst the script has some great one-liners, most of them are lost beneath layers of mugging and pathetically out-of-breath mannerisms which lend no credence whatsoever to the situation or the characters.
This is a pretty embarrassing CV entry for all concerned, and even die-hard Woody Allen fans will find very little to sustain their attention for over 90 minutes. The one saving grace is Julie Kavner, who, drawing on her vast TV studio experience with the likes of smash-hit 'Rhoda' under her belt, manages to create a very funny, believable and watchable character. But this only serves to highlight just how howlingly bad some of the other performances are.
Shame.
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Bought this for my husband he is thrilled to get it in great condition and very fast delivery. He has been after it for ages Thanks
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Philoctetes
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've just read on IMDB that there's an earlier movie version of this Woody Allen stage play, released 1969 and described by one reviewer as "unbelievably bad!". Well, a new version for the '90s by Allen himself, written for TV, is a total fiasco, and not in a good way.
Strictly for Allen addicts - like myself - to marvel at out of morbid curiosity. It's kind of surprising to find this film arrived so early in the '90s, before Allen's wretched new millenium period. You can see the comic potential: New Jersey Jewish family are forced to take up residence in the American Embassy of an apparently unnamed country behind the Iron Curtain and quickly take the embassy staff hostage themselves as the mother stubbornly begins washing and waxing all the clothes and floors, the whole family tie up the phone lines calling everyone they know back home, and the father proves to be the kind of neurotic twit that would try the patience of an orthodox saint. Michael J. Fox is the screw-up diplomat trying to prove his worth while dad's in Washington, but overburdened by the now resident US family, a dissident priest obsessed with magic tricks and an Arab emir with travelling ululating harem also obliged to stay over.
So where does it go wrong. Woody's character is basically the same as in Small Time Crooks; a badly dressed, rabidly irritating parody of himself and the stereotypical American vacationing ignoramus that, I swear to you, will drive you to the brink of apoplexy long before they finally escape the Soviet secret police. Fox seems intimidated by the famous auteur, who even manages to be taller than him.... Read more ›
Strictly for Allen addicts - like myself - to marvel at out of morbid curiosity. It's kind of surprising to find this film arrived so early in the '90s, before Allen's wretched new millenium period. You can see the comic potential: New Jersey Jewish family are forced to take up residence in the American Embassy of an apparently unnamed country behind the Iron Curtain and quickly take the embassy staff hostage themselves as the mother stubbornly begins washing and waxing all the clothes and floors, the whole family tie up the phone lines calling everyone they know back home, and the father proves to be the kind of neurotic twit that would try the patience of an orthodox saint. Michael J. Fox is the screw-up diplomat trying to prove his worth while dad's in Washington, but overburdened by the now resident US family, a dissident priest obsessed with magic tricks and an Arab emir with travelling ululating harem also obliged to stay over.
So where does it go wrong. Woody's character is basically the same as in Small Time Crooks; a badly dressed, rabidly irritating parody of himself and the stereotypical American vacationing ignoramus that, I swear to you, will drive you to the brink of apoplexy long before they finally escape the Soviet secret police. Fox seems intimidated by the famous auteur, who even manages to be taller than him.... Read more ›
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 26 reviews
3.5 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
