Wholly Moses!

I really liked this movie! It's a light satirical comedy. It doesn't try to be academy award material with a heavy story, overpowering special effects, or raw suspense, that seem to be the requirement to impress critics today. This movie achieves its goal very well; a couple of hours of zany humor. The comedic acting is very good, with a notable scene by Richard Pryor as Pharaoh. I really enjoyed Dudley Moore, Laraine Newman, and James Coco in this movie. There are also several funny celebrity cameos. The directing, film editing, camera work, and soundtrack were also very good. The humor has occasional adult content. If you want a break from heavy Hollywood blockbusters, and just want to enjoy an afternoon of chuckles and light humor, I recommend this movie.

While touring the Middle East Harvey and Zoey get off the bus and find some scrolls in a cave. They chronicle the life of Herschel; as Harvey starts reading, we are carried back to the actual time and given a first-hand look at what took place with Herschel and Moses. Several times God speaks to Moses and Herschel is in earshot and thinks it is he being addressed.

My favorite scene is when they are both in baskets floating down the Nile and Moses gives Herschel's basket a push-off course and changes the course of history.

Dudley Moore is Harvey/Herschel and Laraine Newman is Zoey/Zerelda. Many great actors are choice picks for the characters. A shortlist: Richard Prior - Pharaoh John Ritter - Satan (The Devil) Lisa Caimano - Baby Moses John Houseman - The Archangel.

Wholly Moses! (1980) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a pair of tourists traveling through Israel who discover a scroll of the biblical Herschel who was the actual person behind the events in the bible that Moses received credit for. They discover Herschel's path to fame and how Moses stole all of the credit.

This movie is directed by Gary Weis (LA Law) and stars Dudley Moore (Arthur), Dom DeLuise (Blazing Saddles), Richard Pryor (Harlem Nights), John Ritter (Sling Blade), Laraine Newman (Coneheads) and James Coco (Murder by Death).

This cast is absolutely amazing - from the main characters to the side characters to the cameos, really impressive list of actors. Unfortunately, while this concept had potential, and the cast was awesome, it wasn't really that funny. There are a bunch of random and fun circumstances, and Ritter and Pryor were excellent in their roles. I just wanted this movie to be funnier.

Overall, this is a movie that should have been great...but wasn't. I would score this movie a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Nor is it Brooks History of the World Part 1. This came out in between the two and as historical spoofs, it's pretty weak except for Dudley Moore. Moore is pretty good and his performance reminds me of a Lenny Bruce skit. In the bit, Christ comes back but Moses refuses to return. Why? Because Charlton Heston was 6'3" and he was 5'1" and he's vain! Dudley Moore can't be much taller than Bruce describes in the bit and Moses had a funny line or two in the bit so seeing Moore almost bring that bit alive just by being cast and his usual funny self keeps this from being a complete waste of time. There's better historical spoofs. Python is a hard act to follow but Brooks manages it. This one mostly falls flat..

This was a cute movie. That's about all I really can say for the movie itself. It was witty without being clever. It was amusing without being downright funny. It was neither cutting edge nor creatively inspired (George Burns starred in Oh, God! in 1977). But after nearly thirty years of being preached at (The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille in 1956, and on and on), it was nice to be able to sit back and laugh about something most people get totally uptight over.

From this release in 1980, we received Mel Brooks's, "History of the World, Part One." Now I'm not saying that Brooks copied this, or ripped it off. It is obvious that he did not do either of those. These are two totally different movies about different issues.

Wholly Moses is about Moses's "brother," Hershel (an invention) and is set during Biblical times. History of the World Pt1 is just that: a very witty take on the ancient history of the world. While sometimes they do cross paths, they never run completely parallel.

While I absolutely LOVE HotW1, I still enjoy watching Hershel dork his way through life.

If you enjoyed History of the World, you may enjoy this one.

It rates a 4.8/10 from...

the Fiend :.