Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

mmallon4 Director Peter Bogdanovich knows his classic Hollywood with his films being a mixture of new Hollywood meets old Hollywood. What's Up Doc shows it was still possible to make a screwball comedy even in a contemporary 70's setting with actors nowhere near as glamorous or good looking as the stars of the golden age. Regardless the energy, the chemistry and the feeling of classic screwball comedy is present in this Bringing Up Baby inspired farce. Like in Bringing Up Baby a stuffy gentleman is harassed by a woman who has a defiance against the natural order of things and simply won't get out of his life despite his best efforts. Plus I would love to see someone create a diagram explaining the journeys of the four plaid suitcases featured in the movie.What's Up Doc was the first film I saw Barbra Streisand in and this is possibly the shallowest thing I'll ever say in a review but for the longest time I avoided watching any film of hers because of how unattractive she looks. Yet when watching her I was pleased to discover she has enough on screen charisma and likability that when watching her in action I'm not bothered by that, how do I put it nicely, not so attractive facial features of hers. Streisand and Ryan O'Neal manage to cross the fine line that they remind you of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby but they aren't imitating them as they bring their own something to the roles. Streisand as Judy Maxwell is the one member of the cast who can talk at the machine gun rate of classic screwball actors plus something about her personality really projects a Carole Lombard dynamic. Ryan O'Neal as the musicologist Howard Bannister on the other hand is far more nerdy and emasculated than Cary Grant ever was in Bringing Up Baby. The he throws around such as Pre-Palaeozoic Tambulu rocks are all legit unlike the fictional "intercostal clavicle" from Bringing Up Baby. Likewise the time period allows for more racy content, I don't think 1930's censors would have allowed for a shirtless Cary Grant wearing a bow tie.Close to stealing the show however among the cast of live action cartoon characters is Madeline Kahn as the comedic greatness that is Eunice Burns. As Bogdanovich himself states, Kahn was someone who was funny without being aware of it. Her comic voice can make even the most mundane of lines amusing not to mention does there exist a more comically drab name than Eunice? Above all has there ever existed any romantic attraction between Eunice and her fiancée Howard? What if anything do these two see in each other? The scene however which makes me laugh the most is the sequence in which Howard must hide Judy in his hotel room from an always angry Eunice which leads to the eventual destruction of the hotel room. It's the most classic, straightforward, slapstick 101 set up and I don't think I've seen it executed as perfectly as it is here.Few other films take more advantage of their location than San Francisco in What's Up Doc? It's not hard to see why it's a filmmaking favourite as seen in films such as Vertigo or Bullet. The filmmakers definitely enunciate those San Francisco hills with characters struggling to get up them as well as taking full advantage of the city to deliver one of the greatest car chases in film history. The most important requisite for a great car chase or action sequence in general which most modern films don't understand is that it's largely about feeling the weight and physicality on screen along with every beautiful sound effect of car tyres screeching and engines revving (here you can actually see the damage caused to public steps in San Francisco). Everything you see on screen is real making it all the more thrilling knowing that stuntmen are in actual danger. On top of being an edge of your seat spectacle I rank it the second funniest action sequence ever committed to film (the final car chase in The Blues Brothers still ranks supreme for me). It has the cartoon clichés you would expect brought into live action including men carrying a glass plane across a road as well as the chases going through a Chinatown parade. The chase even goes through Lombard Street, the so called most crooked street in the world, and seeing multiple cars drive through it in pursuit of each other is a very humorous sight.

sandnair87 In 1972, director Peter Bogdanovich had the smarts and - let's face it - balls to attempt to make his own version of an old-school full-blown farce, specifically a remake of Howard Hawks' Bringing up Baby. Now, matching up to Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn was always going to be a tough ask, but Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand gave it the ol' college try, resulting in the criminally entertaining What's Up, Doc?A timid professor Dr. Howard Bannister (O'Neal) comes to San Francisco for a musicologists' convention with his prissy fiancée Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn) to get some much-needed grant money. Here he bumps into an eccentric, disaster-prone "daffy dame" Judy Maxwell (Streisand) whose antics slowly but surely throw his carefully ordered life into upheaval. Judy is an inveterate flirt who won't take "no" for an answer but Howard unavoidably finds himself gravitating to Judy's gravitational center. For the plot to crackle with necessary screw-balling mania, a beautifully disordered case of mistaken identity involving identical red plaid overnight cases - one containing Howard's precious igneous rocks, one Judy's lingerie, another full of valuable gems and the final one carrying top-secret government documents - adds to his woes.All through its 94 minute run-time, Peter Bogdanovich is busy paying homage to all his favorite flavors of humor, efficiently packing them into the brief runtime, hurtling from buffoonery and slapstick, to impersonations and word-play, and lets his leading lady have the one song to smooch up a romantic moment. One of the biggest surprises about 'What's Up, Doc?' is how wonderful Streisand and O'Neal are at comedy and at witty banter - and how much chemistry they have. Barbra Streisand has never been sexier than she is in this movie. She succeeds in scaling down her superstar personality to fit the dimensions of farce, giving us a character which is surprisingly appealing. Ryan O'Neal is even better in an equally tough assignment. He is charming as the unworldly professor, who finds himself lost in all the mayhem. With Bogdanovich directing with a lovely lightness of touch, both of them together manage to work up a kooky charm more befitting of the hippie-era of the early '70s. Also notable among the ing cast is Miss Kahn, who in her utterly brilliant debut outing, just about walks off with the movie as O'Neal's impossibly square fiancée.If you miss the screwball classics of the early 30s, you owe it to yourself to watch this one. 'What's Up, Doc?' is sinfully enjoyable!

SmileysWorld I'm not sure what took me so long,but I finally gave this film a long overdue viewing.This film is drop dead hysterically funny and imagine this;not one ounce of vulgarity or profanity.It is a welcome modern era throwback to the old days of Hollywood where slapstick and one liners ruled.There is great chemistry in the cast,the comedy is perfectly timed,and though I am not normally a fan of Barbra Streisand,she looks great here.This film gets high marks from me and gets a long overdue placement amongst my favorite comedy films in cinema history.I highly recommend you see it,but don't blink! You are bound to miss a laugh or two.

krclews This is without a doubt one of my top 5 all-time comedies. I see that most of the reviewers share my love of this movie. All I can say about the haters is "Go buy a sense a humor". While Streisand and O'Neill give great performances, it is the non-stop gags and funny nuances that make this movie a cut above others. As many people have stated also, the cast is just terrific with Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, Liam Dunn and the incomparable Madelyn Kahn taking their turns making this one of the best movies of all time! Of course, the fact that this is Madelyn Kahn's first movie makes it noteworthy in itself. I love all movies, and while the old screwball comedies of the 30's & 40's are very good, I can tell you that I think this sures them all. Don't try to read anything into this movie. There are no moralistic messages or themes, just lots of laughs and fun. Just enjoy the movie.