stamp-587-149747

I'm a fan of classic movies, but I'm not sure why this one is rated so high. I saw it in a restored 1920s-era theater, with a large, enthusiastic audience, and I still could not get into it. Among other issues, the pace is slow, the acting is wooden (with the notable exception of the villain), the plot is predictable, and the overly-dramatic music almost drowns out the dialog in places.

Maybe I'm just not a fan of Mr. Coleman, as I did not much care for the other half of the double-feature (Random Harvest, another Ronald Coleman film). I would rate Random Harvest slightly higher than The Prisoner of Zenda, however.

The first half or so of the movie is decently funny. Unfortunately, things fall apart at about the halfway point, and it never recovers any momentum at all. The incessant political preaching is a bit annoying (although I did find it funny that Trump has a bit part), but the bigger issue is that the comedy and dialogue completely falls flat in the latter half.

Since it was 50% OK and 50% bad, I would ordinarily have given it 5 stars. However, I deducted 1 since they did not using the original version of "Big Yellow Taxi". Why would anybody in their right mind not use Joni Mitchell's incredible version of that song? It's a mystery for the ages...

I'm OK with suspension of disbelief, but this movie takes it to the point of ridiculousness--and beyond! Ironically, there actually is a plot, but the problem is that the plot makes absolutely no sense from beginning to end. I won't rehash the details here, as it makes my head hurt just thinking about it, but suffice it to say that this movie should insult the intelligence of a 5 year old. It's a shame, as most of the action scenes are reasonably good, and most of the acting is acceptable. I would have given it 3 or 4 stars just for the action. However, towards the end of the movie, I got the distinct impression that the writers decided that they had not yet met their quota of woke nonsense, and that was the last straw for me.