Tumor Movies

I saw a couple of so-called classics last night as part of a campaign to try and knock out some of those that I have not gotten to. Honestly, I don't think one of them is really called a classic, but it's lumped in on account of being a sequel to one that is. "Caddyshack 2" is the dubious one, and "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" is the other. It's mildly interesting to contrast them, and I have no better ideas for what to write today.

We saw the latter of those films first, and boy is it long. I don't know of many comedies that had intermissions even when intermissions were something that happened, but this one's got an intermission. Not that there's any good reason for it being that long except that it was decided that every comic performer who lived at the time should be in the movie. Many of them, like the Three Stooges and Buster Keaton, appear for mere seconds. It's a frustrating, mainly unfunny movie.

"Caddyshack 2" is remembered as a belated sequel missing Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield, among others, but if you ask me, it represents an improvement in some ways. Its story is considerably tighter and more clear. It suffers from the absence of some talented people, but those people were somewhat wasted in a movie that did not apply their abilities to a better story. I actually even like Jackie Mason better than Dangerfield because his comic antics felt germane to the situation, whereas Dangerfield's were funny but felt forced.

I imagine I'd get a lot of argument for saying that Caddyshack 2 is superior to Caddyshack 1, but you'd have to be a baby boomer (or older) totally overcome by irrational nostalgia to claim that it's not superior to It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (the title of which I resent having to type out so often). That film has no more to say in nearly three hours than Caddyshack 2 has in maybe half the time. The axiom goes "Leave them wanting more", but here a more appropriate wording might be "Get out before they want to off themselves."