Gus

Good old Tim Conway.

No matter what, you can always count on Tim Conway for a good laugh; in the movies or TV.

Especially here, in "Gus".

Never mind the fact that Asner, Knotts, Dick Butkus and a field goal-kicking mule provide big laughs here, this is Tim's movie.

Never was there a modern-day pratfall king like Tim, and the scenes featuring him and Bosley (as two losers who kidnap the mule to make Gus' team forfeit) give this movie the laughs that it has.

You'll love the supermarket scene. Guaranteed.

Eight stars. All for Tim's work. He's a national treasure.

Oh, and a nice mule, too.

This has to be the only football movie where a team does its majority scoring with field goals. Then again if I had a kicker like Gus the mule I might realign my offense as well especially if it was as weak as the California Atoms.

Ed Asner is the owner of the team and he's made what is a foolish bet with Harold Gould that if his team gets to the Super Bowl Gould will tear up the note that he holds on Asner, a kind of team mortgage. But with Gus the Yugoslavian mule and his handler Gary Grimes the Atoms start winning for Asner and coach Don Knotts. Can't forget Knotts he's quite the inspirational coach.

Gould is down but not out. He hires a pair of recently released con men from jail, Tom Bosley and Tim Conway for some dirty tricks. As you can imagine they come up short. The final sequence with them is chasing the kidnapped but escaped mule through a supermarket. It's a page right out of the Marx Brothers and their chase scene in The Big Store.

Bob Crane has a good bit part as a broadcaster with Hall of Fame Johnny Unitas sharing the play by play with him. He's every know it all announcer you just love to hate and loves the sound of his own voice.

This Disney film holds up well after over 40 years and a lot of familiar players get to do their stuff.

Gus is yet another of those movies that I feel has been judged too seriously. It's intended to be a football parody, being purposefully made to look goofy and cheesy.

The actors succeed very well at their awkward, funny roles. You may even recognize some of the actors, like Don Knotts and Tim Conway. The jokes are actually funnier than the other reviewers here want to admit, and the theme of the movie - a young man wishing for his parents to be proud of him - is actually quite touching for a comedy. This is a good movie for children to see, with the barest amount of mature content.

People who specialize in nit-picking films, however, will probably not like this movie, however. Two scenes of the film - the second and the last - are filmed almost entirely in slow motion. My guess is that the filmmakers chose to do so just so their film could be 96 minutes long. Also, the effects are admittedly very dated, sometimes purposefully, other times not.

Nevertheless, if all you want is a funny family film, this movie will satisfy all of your wishes. Let your whole family and maybe your mule, if you own one, watch it. Just be sure that no mules are around when a character says, "Oich!"

I saw this movie at theater when I was 6. I made my dad take me at least 3 times because I could not get enough of it. The Supermarket scene is definitely the best scene in the whole film. I always got scared when Tom Bosley fell into the tank of lobsters because it looks so painful when he limps off down the isle with the lobsters hanging off his pants. Overall, this is a fun movie with lots of slapstick. To this day, I still remember the word that was used to get Gus to kick the ball: "Oyage!!" The live-action Disney film is a lost treasure and they just don't make them anymore like they did back in the 60's and 70's.

It is important to always remember that Disney movies, at least then, were made to entertain; to show happiness; success; and a happy ending. Thus, other reviewers perhaps should understand this. You probably would not like Disneyland.

A pleasant story of a man (Gary Grimes), from the former Yugoslavia, who has the chance of a lifetime to come to the USA, and with the help of Gus, his mule, win football games...you know the plot, obviously.

I did not care for the role of Tom Bosley, whatsoever. It was too affected, and very goofy. How ludicrous, that in a hospital or supermarket, no one tried to detain him (or Conway), or otherwise notify the police.

Furthermore, the well-known supermarket scene, was WAY, WAY too long, and very silly.

Still, Disney movies of the 1960s and 1970s never fail to make us happy. The young man (Andy) has a father who does not value him very much.

Great footage, for you football nuts, and the ending is the whole entire movie-priceless.

This show belonged obviously, to Gary Grimes and to Gus, certainly not to Bosley and Conway.

Soon after this, Gary Grimes retired permanently from the whole entertainment world, and today is in charity work.