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What's Up, Tiger Lily? Actor: Woody Allen Directors: Woody Allen, Senkichi Taniguchi Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 80 minutes Studio: Image Entertainment Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-07-15 Buy from Amazon |
 "Woody Allen Film for People Who Don't Like Woody Allen Films""What's Up, Tiger Lily" has nothing in common with what most people think of as 'Woody Allen films.' In other words, it isn't about an older intellectual having his heart broken in a seriocomic New York adventure with Dixieland jazz playing on the soundtrack. Instead, this movie is closer to what Mystery Science Theater might have been like with the Marx Brothers as hosts. At this point you are either running from this review in disgust or want to learn more. To make this film, Woody took an early 1960s Japanese spy film, re-edited and redubbed it, and turned it into a pun-filled, absurd comedy about a stolen egg salad recipe. To further add to the chaos, the rock band The Loving Spoonful were tossed into the mix (without Woody's approval). The result is an exceptionally silly film, perhaps best viewed when slightly distracted. Woody stretches the single joke pretty far, and ironically his joke-filled dubbing has more accurate lip-synching than most imported Japanese films of the era that were given a 'straight' treatment. Is this essential comedy? Not at all. Is it worth at least one viewing? Of course. There aren't any real extras on the disc (aside from a slightly less risque soundtrack), and while purist might have liked to see the original Japanese film on the same DVD, what purist could possibly find any of this funny?  "Meet me in the bedroom in 5 minutes and bring a cattle prod."Ever watch a Japanese movie with really bad, dubbed English? Well, in What's Up, Tiger Lily, Woody Allen went out and bought a Japanese spy movie, completely removed the audio track, and substituted his own, along with some minor editing of some scenes. The result is a pretty funny movie about world-class espionage and egg salad. The 'Allenized' (my own word, don't bother looking it up, as it's not in the dictionary) plot involves the theft of the world's greatest egg salad recipe, and the lengths some will go to recover it. There are guns, beautiful woman, car chases, fights, more guns, action, and a marriage between a snake and a rooster. I will admit some of the dubbed dialogue doesn't work so well, but there are a great number of truly funny scenes and hilarious lines. During one of the fight scenes, Phil Moscowitz, the main character, yells out, 'Saracen pig! Spartan dog! Take this! And this! Roman cow! Russian snake! Spanish fly!' which had me rolling on the floor. The laughs are not always forthcoming, but when they do come, they hit hard, in my opinion. The scenes with the Cobra man were worth it alone for me to watch. Woody is not really in the movie, except for inter cut scenes at the beginning, middle and very end. I kind of wish he had done one of the voices in the dubbing, but you can sense his comedic style of writing throughout the movie. Also included is a wonderful music score by The Lovin' Spoonful and they even make an appearance or two, with the help of some crafty editing. As far as extras on the disc, you can choose to watch the movie with either the original, dubbed track or one created for television. There is even a comprehensive section where you can go in and compared the two sometimes subtlety different tracks. Also included is a fairly complete filmography of Woody Allen. My only little, minor complaint was the text in the extra features sections was small and difficult to read. As a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Woody Allen, I did enjoy this movie. Although I think many people would just feel this was a silly, stupid movie with little value, I thought it was an interesting experiment, with quite a few laughs for those viewers with a skewed sense of humor and a little patience. And don't forget to click up to highlight Woody's glasses on the main menu for an interesting little hidden feature.  "More Reasons Why You'll Never Get Away In A Moment..."Whether or not you're a Woody Allen fan - and in my moviegoing experience it's a pretty divisive issue, you either love him or hate him - 'What's Up, Tiger Lily?' is a comic curveball of zingers, one-liners, puns, gags, and all-out innuendo all cleverly sneaking through the side door and turning an otherwise run-of-the-mill spy movie (back then, they were everywhere...EVERYBODY wanted to make the next James Bond) into a giddy treat. The opening shot - featuring a scene from the film with its original audio track, followed by an introduction/confession by Woody Allen himself - doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the madness that ensues, except perhaps to provide a hilarious contrast. The story goes as thus: Fresh from wrapping up one caper, self-proclaimed lovable rogue Phil Moskowitz is enlisted by the leader of a fictional country to retrieve its most priceless treasure - the recipe for the world's greatest egg salad - before it comes their turn to be put on the map. With his two lovely lady-friends, Moskowitz becomes caught in a power struggle between Shepherd Wong, who has a thing for women's football and a passion for mayonnaise, and Wing-Fat, who carries a rather unique camera and whose henchmen officiate the wedding of a snake and a chicken. Yep, that's pretty much the plot of the movie. Any question of where the Spike Network came up with the idea for 'Most Extreme Elimination Challenge' seems answered to a tee with this flick, and again, you don't have to be a Woody Allen fan to enjoy this mindlessly-funny romp, particularly if you get a kick out of all those old dubbed Japanese monster movies. As a bonus, we get the Lovin' Spoonful making an appearance here and there in the flick, and even a few more comical cameos by Woody in the middle and at the end. If you're an afficionado of the classic movie spoof - a genre that includes early Mel Brooks and Zucker/Abrahams works like 'Young Frankenstein' and 'Airplane!' - you'd get a kick out of 'What's Up, Tiger Lily?'.  "A profound and inquisitive documentary"Along with the fictional "Interiors" this has to be Allen's most introspective, auto biographical work: a realistic portrait of the man behind the comedian, everything's here: starting from a difficult upbringing in Tijuana, México (where he met absurdist mexican painter Mateo Valdés Gutiérrez), the amazingly strange story of how Woody wears glasses just for the fun of it and up to his anonymous contributions to the Lingüistic Circle of Prague (where he started his stand up routine, not very succesfully). Maybe the most powerful image from this production is the moment when Allen breaks into tears listening to an old Ramones 8 track, driving his Porsche back to California or maybe when he transforms himself into a black jazz musician while listening to Coltrane in a bath tub, full of desire. "a wilted, faded flower..."Grafting new dialog onto an existing movie wasn't new when Woody Allen did it to an inept Japanese spy thriller. Jay Ward had already done it with "Fractured Flickers." Firesign Theater trashed Saturday-matinee serials in "Hot Shorts." And Spike network's "MXC" twists and tweaks a goofy Japanese game show. "Tiger Lily" is showing her age -- what was novel 30 years ago no longer is. We've seen better movie send-ups ("Airplane!", MST3K). And Woody chose a film that doesn't have enough dialog to smother with jokes, so we're too-often stuck with watching a boring, derivative film. Not in any way bad (there are a few great lines), but not funny enough to watch more than once or twice. |
