The Villain

source: The Villain

This movie is horrible, its true... but there is so much worth seeing, if not only to see Arnold Schwartzenegger in a western. The opening scene alone took me completey by surprise and the stuttering telegraph operator is a must-see. The bulk of this movie is painful and youve seen it if you seen any Looney Toones cartoon, but I haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a very long time. Not to mention, Ann-Margaret is freaking hot.

This film is hilarious. Everyone in it obviously had a great time making the film and it shows! Kirk Douglas, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ann Margaret (whew!) and Paul Lynde are all wonderful! A short appearance by Foster Brooks is great. But it's Kirk's horse, Whiskey, that steals the entire show. What a horse! The film is written a lot like a Saturday morning Roadrunner cartoon and the bad guy (Douglas) has his book of dirty tricks just like Wile E. Coyote. And the tricks often backfire (even down to the glue on the railroad tracks and the tunnel painted on the mountain side), a la Coyote with hilarious results! However, there isn't a single "Beep, Beep" in the film. This is a great way to spend a couple hours if you need to laugh, and don't we all? Don't miss this one!

There are no laughs here. When I saw it, the theater was stone silent. Arnold Schwarznegger hadn't learned how to act in front of a camera yet. Kirk Douglas who should have known better is just plain awful. This is one of the few times Ann-Margret is not worth looking at. Certainly, "The Villain" is one of the worst films ever!

THE GOOD : Ann Marget looks sexy . Arnold Schwarzenegger fits surprisingly well the role of Handsome Stranger . Kirk Douglas is obviously having fun with his role of Cactus Jack . The acting is the strongest part of the movie. I did laugh two or three times at some less lame jokes . THE BAD : The whole movie feels like a cartoon that was turned into a movie. I like cartoons. Still , I don't like movies that want to look and feel like a cartoon. Why ? The answer is simple – what works in cartoon doesn't work in a movie . The jokes that are funny in the cartoon won't be funny in normal movie simply because they will look stupid . Not to mention that some of the jokes here are taken straight from the cartoons . Take a look at the tunnel joke – I swear it was a rip off from one of the Road Runner cartoons. THE VERDICT : If you can avoid it. Better watch normal cartoon. I give it 1/10.

According to the book "The films of Arnold Schwarzenegger" by John L. Flynn: "One of the worst films of the seventies, The Villain was an overextended, tedious and crudely embarrassing spoof of the western genre." And this is nothing but true. Incredible, how any movie studio could let this kind of crap be released. This movie is trying to make a Roadrunner movie come to real life, but whereas the Roadrunner movies were very funny, this is only extremely embarrassing. It tries to be a comedy, but not even one second of it is funny. The only reason I watched this all the way to the end is that it has Arnold Schwarzenegger in it, in one of his earliest and lesser known parts. Only if you are an Arnie-devotee, this makes an interesting curiosity. If you're not, there is no reason to waste one-and a half hour of your life to watch this.

You've got kids and you want the whole family to have good time. This is the right movie for you. This movie is simply hilarious. It's like watching the road runner or a sequel of Yosemite Sam and Buggs Bunny. Your kids will probably watch the movie several times and every time they're feeling bored or have nothing to do. In this film Kirk Douglas gets squashed by a rolling big rock, he glues himself to the railroad, he falls in a ravine, he tries to run through a painted tunnel on a Mountain and he glides along a rope stretching between a tree and the mouth of his own horse. I bet your kids are even gonna talk about it when they're grownups and they'll make their kids watch it too. You've never seen Kirk Douglas or Arnold playing similar roles to this. I certainly recommend it.

I'm not quite sure why Kirk Douglas took the part of a live Wile E. Coyote in the film villain other than to say that he had now tried the slapstick comedy genre. But in this case the frustrated coyote is not matched up with the beeping road runner. His adversary is Dudley DooRight in the person of Arnold Schwarzneggar, the Handsome Stranger. Yes folks, that's his character name. We've got a third cartoon character in the mix, Ann-Margret doing a prototype of Jessica Rabbit. Annie's really showing off the stuff today with bosoms akimbo, she's got every member of the cast panting after her with the exceptions of Strother Martin who is her father and still sees Daddy's little girl and Arnie whom she pants after, but who doesn't show the slightest interest. The bulk of the film is taken up with Kirk as villainous Cactus Jack and his horse Whiskey, doing their best to stop Arnie and Ann and rob them of a large sum of money from banker Jack Elam to Strother Martin. It's here where all the comparisons to the road runner cartoons take place. I'm sure Kirk Douglas liked the change of pace, burlesquing his own western image. And he had a tough assignment because the majority of his scenes are alone and the dialog was spoken to his horse. Maybe Mr. Ed should have been cast in the role. If anybody noticed the name of the horse Whiskey is the same name that Kirk Douglas used for his horse in his acclaimed Lonely Are The Brave. Lest you think that because this is a road runner film the ending is a road runner ending. Let's just say that Jessica Rabbit has her needs and priorities as well.

Almost like a Roadrunner cartoon, but live action. Pretty much all the clichés you can think of, including names such as "Handsome Stranger" for the handsome stranger played by Ah-nold, and "Charming" for the beautiful heroine. Frankly, IMHO, Kirk Douglas's horse was the star of the movie. While watching it with friends I said, "I love that horse." I think that animal should have won an Academy Award. (I think there is a "Patsy" award for animals, actually) Probably best to see this one with friends. Probably pretty boring to see it alone, but where friends can feed upon each other it is wonderful. None of Kirk Douglas's implements did come from the ACME company, though :-)

This is a perfect film if you just want to turn off your brain and have a good laugh. I was amazed at how low rated this film is--perhaps too many people take this film too seriously! This was never meant to be high art, but more like an extended live action version of a Wiley Coyote versus the Roadrunner cartoon. There was so much similarity, I half expected that this film would be sponsored by ACME. Kirk Douglas is the hapless bad guy bent on killing the more than amply endowed Ann-Margret (you'll see what I mean if you watch the film) and the incredibly dumb hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Again and again and again his dopey schemes fall flat until the movie comes to a very unexpected and funny ending. While I will admit this is more of a kids movie, adults can enjoy it too provided they don't think too much and just sit back and watch with an open mind.