User reviews

This film is inspired by an old cartoon character, Mr. Magoo, a nice old man who refuses to wear glasses even though he is myopic and who, because of that, gets involved in comic confusions from which he always leaves unharmed (mostly by pure luck). The plot revolves around the theft of a huge ruby. Of course, given the comic and stereotyped kind of film and characters, I didn't expect a lot of verisimilitude on this plot, so I wasn't disappointed by it, but I understand those who has something to say on this. The lead character is played by Leslie Neilsen, an actor who has become a synonym for comedy and doesn't leave us disappointed. He is great at his work and manages to bring charm and joy to the character, making him enjoyable. Jokes are generally good but, after some time, we have already guessed what will happen. The rest of the cast does a fairly decent supporting job but doesn't have room for do much more. Villains are usually as clumsy as Magoo except for Luanne, a cunning and seductive villain played by Kelly Lynch.

The big problem with this movie is that it ends up being a guilty pleasure. We're laughing at a blind man, a handicapped person, and that makes us feel a little guilty and angry at the movie. The truth is that today it's fashionable to be politically correct, and I cannot think of a more politically incorrect character than Mr. Magoo, as lovely as he can be. The film itself seems to have this awareness, allowing the audience to guess the jokes before they happen and avoiding discomfort. Its super funny and has quality, but was punished by the public due to this feeling of guilt.

Only one word can describe MR MAGOO - slapstick. Unfortunately this isn't no AIRPLANE. Looks can decieve, and that's exactly what MR MAGOO does. Based on the old cartoon, Leslie Nielson plays Magoo, a bumbling near blind man whop stumbles upon a pair of jewel thieves. Now he must hunt them down using...blindness basically. And that's all this film plays off. The blindness of MR MAGOO. Now maybe if they had some funny jokes involving this, but pretty much it's just one of those " droopy dumb grin on your face because you're too ashamed to admit you payed to see this" films.

But MR MAGOO isn't as bad as it's hacked up to be. It's at least got some funny jokes, and it's good wholesome fun for the whole family (Nielson tried to make a "NAKED GUN" for families in MAGOO, but it's no where near as good as that). So see it once, you might hate it, you might love it, whatever. I personally didn't hate it, but I sure didn't like it, or even rate it "okay." 2/5 stars for MR MAGOO-

JOHN ULMER

Slapstick comedy began with the Keystone Kops of the silent era, and the early masters of comedy, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Harry Langdon. One after another pratfall, trip, slip, stumble and knock on the head kept audiences laughing. When there was no dialog but occasional script cards flashed on the screen, action and facial expressions were everything in early comedy. But sound brought some changes, to comedy. It brought dialog that broadened the field and experiences of comedy. Some comedies were all with dialog - witty humor, funny expressions and looks, clever exchanges and zingers. But slapstick did still endure, now with some new purveyors of the art. Only now, it was mostly in couples or teams of players. Thus we had Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello from the 1930s into the 1950s. And, some movies were being made with various actors having an occasional scene with a pratfall or some other slapstick situation. Then, since the mid-20th century, situational comedy began to become more prevalent. And by the end of the century, situational and dialog all but dominated the field of comedy, with occasional antics worked in. But for the most part, slapstick was a thing of the past. The few rare occasions when it has been used to any extent since the mid-20th century with much success have been plots with exceptional screenplays.

Now, why all of this background and discussion about slapstick before a word about this movie? It's to put it in perspective and help one to understand the change in human perceptions that have accompanied the technical changes in the motion picture industry. Quite simply, when there wasn't sound, how long would an audience sit just to watch scenes interspersed with cue cards of the script, however funny the lines might be? The silent movies were made for minimal explanation, with much left to the imagination, minds and intelligence of the audience to understand what was going on in the pictures. What would get laughter more or quicker than a slapstick gesture or incident? But with sound, the human mind wanted and looked for more. Which also explains why the plots of films became much more substantial with screenplays to fill them out.

So, on Christmas 1997, Disney released the movie, "Mr. Magoo." It was based on a mid-20th century cartoon character of the same name. And the studio obtained Leslie Nielsen for the lead role. He was one of the few actors who had successfully made a smash slapstick comedy in the late 20th century -- "The Naked Gun," in 1988. That film led to a sequel and then another, in 1991 and 1994, which, following the trend of the vast majority of sequels, declined substantially in quality from the first film. I've never come across an article or source that explained the who, what and why of Disney making this movie. While Disney had grown to become the top movie studio of Hollywood by the end of the 20th century, it was showing signs of losing touch with the populace - with people and audiences, especially for films of family appeal.

Even with Leslie Nielsen in the lead role, I hardly chuckled at a couple of early goofs and then "Mr. Magoo" soon became tedious with its slapstick duds. The movie bombed at the box office and may have been the biggest flop of all movies of 1997 and 1998. It's total box office even fell short of its budget, by more than $1 million, giving Disney a loss of nearly $20 million. My three stars are for the dog that had the role of Angus. Disney apparently had plans to serialize "Mr. Magoo" with sequels, but its big bomb at the box office and unanimous put down by critics ended that plan. The Disney "empire" was begun by a man who loved to tell and show stories for children and families. The modern Disney entity, indeed, seems to have severed its roots with Walt Disney.

I don't mind watching Leslie Neilsen as he is quite funny at times. This movie is really aimed at very young children who will find the slapstick gags extremely funny and not so lame as the rest of us think! The gags are pretty lame and repetetive, but, oddly enough, I liked the movie. It had a charm and a nice warmness that made me enjoy it!

Funny man Leslie Nielson plays the very near-sighted millionaire Mr. Magoo, who tries to avert jewel smugglers Austin Cloquet (Malcolm McDowell) and Ortega "The Piranha" Peru (Miguel Ferrer) in his classic bumbling manner after indirectly taking the priceless gem Star of Kurdistan during a museum heist by the smugglers.

Nielson has played many comedic, yet bumbling but calm and determined characters, but this is movie is one of his less-captivating ones. It seriously lacks the excitement, fun and suspense to make it enjoyable. It's just a film full of childish action with a boring storyline and a plot that goes no where. Much of the characters lack substance and charm, and even the so-called jokes and gags weren't funny. However, this movie should be really geared towards very young children, who might find the slapstick gags actually funny.

For a family film for all audience to enjoy, I would rather have people get together to watch something else, though.

Grade D---

Leslie Nielsen is usually someone whose movies I really like (even critically panned flicks like "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" and "Wrongfully Accused"). So the fact that I'm slamming "Mr. Magoo" should show that it's a piece of junk. It casts Nielsen as the myopic title character, something gets planted on him, and he makes a mess of everything. It seems like the combo of Nielsen and director Stanley Tong (behind two of Jackie Chan's movies) would make this one hilarious movie, but it doesn't; it seems like they just have people to do anything, and there's no real humor here.

So, the original cartoon with Jim Backus providing the voice was worth seeing, so avoid this movie. Leslie Nielsen has also done much better, so there's no reason to waste your time on this. Also starring Kelly Lynch, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ernie Hudson, Malcolm McDowell and Miguel Ferrer; they probably don't wish to emphasize this hunk of junk in their careers.

Do not see "Mr. Magoo." It is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Leslie Nielson was not funny in it. He has not been funny since the Naked Gun movies. Well it won't take long to figure out that this is not a Naked Gun movie! The movie's plot is ridiculously foolish. Nothing in the entire movie was funny. The first few minutes of the film were animated to look like the old Magoo cartoons. I wish the movie would have stayed that way.

Leslie Nielsen hits rock bottom with this absolutely horrible comedy that is the worst mainstream film that I have ever seen. There is nothing to like about this film, as it is essentially a one-joke film, and the joke isn't all that funny. How many times are we supposed to laugh at an almost blind man making a fool out of himself? That's not funny, that's just pitiful. Nielsen seriously needs to start refusing some of these pathetic scripts, and Stanley Tong needs to stick to making Jackie Chan films, because it doesn't get much worse than this.

Leslie Nielson is a very talented actor, who made a huge mistake by doing this film. It doesn't even come close to being funny. The best word to describe it is STUPID!

Mr Magoo was a hilarious movie. I don't know why everyone gives it so much grief. First of all, Leslie Nielsen is one of the funniest actors alive, and I personally like movies in which the characters just happen to walk right into a worst case scenario. And after three Naked Gun movies, who's better qualified for that job than Leslie Nielsen. In this movie, Nielsen's character, Mr. Magoo, has to solve the case of a stolen ruby from his mueseum. Coming along with him are his dog, Angus and his nephew, Waldo. To those of you who saw the film and hated it, remember, the film is directed toward kids and Disney fans. It wasn't meant to be an "A" class movie.

PS: Would you like it more if you knew that Jennifer Garner is in it?

This movie had terrible acting, terrible plot, and terrible choice of actors. (Leslie Nielsen...COME ON!!!) The one part I considered slightly funny was the battling FBI/CIA agents, but because the audience was mainly kids they didn't understand that theme.

There's a part of me that knows what a godawful, scattershot mess Mr. Magoo is. That part of me begs reason, implores myself to recognize the boldfaced stupidity and flagrant dips into shameless, moronic lowbrow humour barely worthy of a troupe of chimps. There's also another part of me that absolutely loves the movie for all of the reasons just outlined. OK, so I watched it a lot as a kid, and have that nostalgia for it that one can only have with a fond childhood memory of something. But even so, all ridiculousness taken into account, it's a silly bit of fun that doesn't quite capture the tone of the famous cartoon, but fires away on its own whacko cylinders for ninety minutes of eyebrow raising, idiotic bliss. Leslie Nielsen, who has made a career of playing disastrous buffoons, portrays Mr. Magoo, a near sighted elderly gent whose visual impairment leads him on all sorts of adventures and odd situations, which the movie doesn't hesitate to illustrate in bold, silly fashion that gives the animated source material a run for its money. When a valuable foreign jewel which his charitable foundation is tasked with presenting is stolen, he and his asinine nephew Waldo (terminally awkward Matt Keesler) are led on a goose chase to find the two thieves, laughably sultry Kelly Lynch and dimbulb Nick Chinlund. That's about as far as plot goes, and it's all the blueprint you need for the cascade of slapstick muck that bombards your good taste for the better part of an hour and a half. One has to give credit to the stunt crew, who create scene after scene of madness for Nielsen and crew to parade through, from a snow chase on an ironing board, to a South American waterfall derby and all kinds of messiness in between. Some truly talented people got dragged into this, including Jennifer Garner as an Eastern European (HA!), Stephen Tobolowsky as an overzealous, bumbling fed who borders on certifiable, beloved Ernie Hudson as another law enforcement stooge, Miguel Ferrer as a Peruvian drug lord, and the one and only Malcolm McDowell as a sinister crime boss (who else?). The Vancouver locations are cool, especially an over the top Grouse Mountain set showdown. Like I said, it's a whole lot of dumb dumb, and don't say I didn't warn you. But it's also so much Fricken fun, man.

I know it's rather unfair to comment on a movie without seeing the complete piece - but I am going to anyway! I waited for a laugh, I tried to give it time. I think 20 minutes is long enough to wait in a comedy for a laugh. My laugh never came, so I gave up.

It's stupid humour, not so stupid that you have to laugh, though. It isn't anywhere near that high grade. Let me correct that, it's just *stupid* - not stupid humour. They may have intended for certain scenes to be funny, but they weren't. I suppose, if you were really bored you could somehow blend the movie with a hallucination and end up with a mildly entertaining experience.

A very pathetic effort.

Ha! Ha! Ha! I laughed all the movie. Leslie Nielsen knows how to make "stupid" movies. It's not the comedy of the year but it's great for family and friends who want to take a break from BIG BANG movies.

My Vote: 6/10

Horrible Horrible movie, i still can't believe my friend talked me into seeing this! No plot, bad acting, unfunny scenes, and very very stupid dialogue. All i have to say is that this movie is the worst movie i have seen and it's worse than Halloween III which i gave 0 stars too. So i give it 0 stars and a 0 out of 10, well on here a 1, but you get the point.

I left the theater, and I was only 10 years old. That's how bad it sucked. The plot was horrid and the acting was worse. Leslie Nielson should be ashamed of himself and so should the person who made this movie. I was only 10 years old when I went to see this catastrophe with a friend and even at that young, innocent age I did not laugh once at the movie. We (me and my friend) still laugh about how bad the movie was. We ended up going into the 'R' movie my parents were in. Bottom line -- this flick was fricking bad. Mr. Magoo -- more like Mr. Ma-who? This movie could have scarred me for life had I watched the popular cartoon on television as a child but luckily I had never seen it, so i was spared the agony but I will never get back those precious minutes of my life that I wasted.

I enjoyed the Mr. Magoo cartoons I saw while growing up. And I enjoy Leslie Nielson's comic skills. So, I thought, this marriage must produce a funny child.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

This movie was just awful. I don't recall a single funny moment. This is one of the two or three times (in hundreds of films over the years) I've wanted my money back. You will leave this film dejected because you won't ever have that time back to use in a better way. In a comedy, the plot must draw in the viewer and serve as a framework for gags. This plot does neither. It just kinda lies there, gasping like a beached fish.

After seeing this film I felt sick to my stomach and if I had seen one more minute I would have had to rush to the bathroom and vomit til dawn. A sick film that was NOT funny and was NOT worth the money, any money at all. If anybody ever wants to see this movie don't! Your kids will never forgive you and will claim sickness for a week. So if you value your child's education and want to stimulate your child's mind please don't see this movie. I beg of you, DON'T!

The movie "Mr. Magoo" is an adaptation of the popular cartoon. For what it's worth, it does a good job of presenting itself as a live-action cartoon. Leslie Nielsen has made a career of acting in screwball comedy. He seems to fit his role well as the famously weak-eyed character. In this day and age of political correctness, making a movie such as this was bound to raise a few hackles. The little disclaimer run by Disney about the blind should give you an idea what the PC movement has done to movies today. The point of the cartoon was not to put down the blind at all. So forget what others say, and look this "Magoo" over!

This morning, I found myself unexpectedly remembering that this movie existed. I found myself thinking, "Oh yeah, there was a Mr. Magoo movie, wasn't there?" This is more surprising because I remember following the controversy surrounding this movie (advocacy group for the visually impaired said that this movie was demeaning). I even went to see this movie on the day it opened, because I am a fan of both Mr. Magoo, and Mr. Nielson, and thought he would be an excellent choice to play Mr. Magoo. I even remember the opening animated credits, because I thought that they were pretty amusing.

After that, though, its all a complete blank. I think its a pretty sad statement about any movie that it is so lame, so bland, and so utterly without merit that you can't remember ANYTHING from it. I understand that Leslie Nielson isn't always known for appearing in first class comedies, but I saw him in "Spy Hard," in "Scary Movie 4," and "Police Squad 3" and none of these were great movies, but I came away at least remembering *something*. Mr. Magoo, though, is a complete blank.

I find myself wondering now if all the controversy surrounding the film wasn't actually generated by the studio that produced it, in the hopes of generating at least some small amount of interest in an otherwise totally worthless movie.

i honestly don't understand the low rating this movie has on this site.I'll admit it's no masterpiece,but it is vastly entertaining.to me,Leslie Nielson is perfectly cast as Mr.Magoo.if you don't know the character of Mr.Magoo,he was originally a cartoon character who is absurdly near sighted,leading him into all kinds of trouble,yet he is generally oblivious to most of what's going on.oh yeah,he is also very wealthy.the live action movie portrays the character pretty much exactly the same.he always seems to come out of any potential trouble with virtually no signs of any problem.in the movie,Magoo,helps solve a crime and help put the baddies in jail,with a lot of help,from both his nephew and his dog.yes,i said dog.this dog is is very intelligent and saves Magoo from many mishaps,both minor and major.Kelly Lynch portrays one of the criminals and she does a very fine job in her role.not to mention she is hot,hot,hot.anyway,like i said earlier,the movie is certainly very amusing,and contains an absolutely hysterical sequence with Magoo in the kitchen.there's also some great action and some great martial arts moves,courtesy of Lynch's character.for the most part,this is a great family movie,with maybe a bit of mild language.for me,the live action version of Mr.Magoo is an 8.5/10,based simply on how entertaining it is.

I love the animated version of Mr. Magoo and was disappointed by the film version. The character has come under fire for mocking the disabled because of his deafness but he really is the hero each time and it makes a change for a hero to not be in full compliment of his faculties. The film tries but fails to capture the true magic of the bumbler from the cartoons but Leslie Nielsen looks uncomfortable here as more serious roles suit him better. Mr Magoo was always a two joke affair: 1) He couldn't see well and 2) he always made little quips and remarks to himself. Not something that would lend itself easily to an hour+ motion picture. In this case, the late Nielsen's charisma and a few decent gags make this run-of-the-mill, late 90's Disney-cartoon-adaptation a little more tolerable than most of its despised peers.

Overall rating: 6 out of 10.