Balloonatic

This Buster Keaton short has a very good title. But as you will discover there really isn't much actual ballooning in it. As you might expect from a short film its pretty simplistic. It begins at a fun-house where Keaton accidentally hitches a ride in a hot air balloon. He is propelled miles away and winds up in the wilderness. He meets a girl out here who isn't initially too keen on him but together they get in to all manner of scrapes including some memorable scenes with grizzly bears.

It would be fair to say that this is not a great feature. It doesn't have a very cohesive narrative and essentially boils down to a series of gags loosely connected into the synopsis above. It's really mainly recommended to fans of Keaton and/or silent slapstick in general. Others might be a bit underwhelmed.

This is not one of Buster Keaton's best short features, but it has some good moments. Most of the gags are of good quality, and most of the sequences work well enough. The main thing it really lacks is that, unlike most of Buster's movies, it never really builds on itself or gets much momentum. In his best features, the setting and story help make the decent gags very funny and the good gags hilarious.

Buster becomes "The Balloonatic" when he is trying to help a balloonist prepare his craft, and it accidentally takes off with Buster on top of the balloon. He winds up in the wilderness, where he and a young woman that he meets (Phyllis Haver) have to fend for themselves.

Although this one doesn't fit together quite as well as his best comedies, being mostly a series of only loosely-connected gags, some of them are very good in themselves. If nothing else, it has enough that it should probably be of interest at least to those who are already Keaton fans.

This is the only short feature of Buster Keaton's I have seen, it is funnier than I thought, what with the bear chases and the hot air baloon. However, it didn't seem as sophisticated, clever or as funny as "The General" or "Our Hospitality", it was lacking the usual clever, knowing edge of silent films e.g. Sunrise, The Kid. Which has now been replaced by CGI. Saying ll that, some of the stunts in it are extremely cool and really funny, perhaps the best introduction to Keaton. It is available on "Seven Chances" and on "Buster Keaton Shorts (Volume 1), along with Convict 22 and other things.

Good, not brilliant, ****/****

Here, Buster Keaton accidentally gets on top of a hot-air balloon. When he shoots himself out of the sky, he lands near a stream filled with fish. Also, there is a young woman camping nearby. Funny scenes follow, which contain, among other things, bears, burning canoes, and waterfalls. See this film because it is yet another one that displays Keaton's mechanical ingenuity. Surely, you will also find it quite humorous.

Well, don't get too excited over the title - there are very little actual ballooning in the movie. No big stunts either, just cheap slapstick gags which some are great, but overall, the film can be quite a disappointment to big Buster Keaton's fans.

Buster Keaton stars as a young man who is so inept at anything, and being so oblivious about his own bumbling ways that it is almost hard to bear. His adventures start at the fun house of the amusement park, where Buster tries to amuse himself at someone's else expense. After failed attempt to hit on a girl on a boat ride, Buster stumbles on a hot air balloon that takes him into the wilderness. Trying to survive in the nature Buster has to overcome many obstacles, to win the heart of a girl.