Loot

Simply put, I enjoyed this thoroughly. Although I am not familiar with the play of the same name, or any of the actors aside from Richard Attenborough, or any of the crew, I suspect this only enhanced my enjoyment.

I had only previously seen Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park and this movie will most certainly make me keen to see him again. I caught this on TV after another movie and I had absolutely no idea what I was watching. It was completely unplanned on my part.

By the end I was laughing obediently at the ensuing hilarity. If you happen to find this movie is to your tastes then the comedy hits hard and uncompromising like a heavy weight boxer. But to be fair I enjoyed The Love Guru and Basic Instinct 2 so I am in no position to comment on 'taste'. I did however enjoy it enough to feel motivated to add my first review for it.

I am rarely tempted to add my own thoughts on any film on IMDb, but when the review for the black farce that is LOOT is compared less than favourably to WEEKEND AT BERNIES in all seriousness then even I feel I have to hitch up the keyboard and redress the situation.

These are two films that are from totally different worlds.

W.A.B's is an American teen romp, the kind that keep the tit and ass count down to get as many 15 year olds in to the multiplex, whilst LOOT is the second to last play written by Joe Orton the darling of the mid sixties theatre scene in London.

Now I have never particularly liked LOOT as a play or as a film, preferring Entertaining Mr Sloane, Berly Reid's performance being worth the price of admission alone, but to compare it to W.A.B.'s is like comparing Hamlet to GHOST because of the presence of a spook in them. But it is easily a far superior film, yes it is a little creaky and the farce is shoe horned in but then that was Orton's style.

LOOT is an example of the sad fag end of the sixties as they misfired to a close.I half expect to see Withnail and I come lurching over the horizon like spectres.

Weekend At Bernies indeed.

see also "Entertaining Mr.Sloane" and the bio pic "Prick Up Your Ears".

You can tell throughout "Loot" that it is trying real hard to be an edgy black comedy. However, it doesn't even compare to the much funnier "Weekend At Bernie's". Why do I compare the two? Because both involve a corpse that moves around a lot.

A couple of young men easily steal a bunch of money from a bank vault. The bank is right next to a funeral parlor and they hide the money in a coffin. Not an empty coffin...one with a body in it. Well, they can't fit all the money into the coffin so they take the body out in order to make room for their stash of cash.

Craziness ensues as the two men try to hide both the money and the corpse from relatives and the police. It seems to go on and on and on. To make things worse, most of the story takes place in a hotel. This probably would've made a more interesting play rather than a movie. 2/10

I wonder if it would be possible to re-edit this comic gem to eliminate the dreadful backing song(s). Its a play in which the absurdity of conventional attitudes is lampooned and the stirling performances by Milo O'Shea and Attenborough carry it off in the larger style required for big screen. It may mystify those hooked on two modern types of comedy film: those which mock the people who don't conform and those which don't ever rise beyond crude vaudeville. Loot sympathises with those who defy and subvert social codes. It has more in common with the intelligent humour of Harold and Maude or The Producers than with the raucous Eddie Murphy / Chevvy Chase shout-fests. Of course, its difficult. The hard of thinking may have to replay some of the one liners to appreciate the ironies - the targets are attitudes rather than personal blemishes. This is not the world of Joan Rivers either - there is no bitchy 'humour' Orton, while deliberately offending against 'good taste' never sets his sights on anything quite so grubby. The cast are all likable but absurd. Even in Orton's more bitchy plays like 'What the Butler Saw' he doesn't aim at vindictiveness - its the institution he undermines. Loot is satire, not sarcasm. The well paced direction and the crisp, non-self-indulgent acting make this a forgotten treat which should be revived, as it has been for such diverse actors as Leonard Rossiter and Kenneth Williams on stage within living memory.

Er......that's because it is a play. A play PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY. Did I mention it is a well known play in England? It's a rather good play.