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I want to see Start the Revolution Without Me again to see if my buzzed impression at the time, that Sutherland and Gene Wilder worked gamely to try to make the send up of period dramas (with a "Corsican Bros" plot) work, and didn't quite.

I remember it as a " Wrong Box" level misfire: much big talent wasted, and idiotic gags that were only marginally funny.

You could see him never quit his working to take it seriously as an actor...

I have to be really depressed to rewatch Ordinary People: where he isn't often credited with an incredible supporting performance.

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What's wrong with "The Wrong Box"?

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I found it sporadic funny: Michael York unfunny, Cook and Moore wasted, as with so many other great actors: redeemed mostly by Peter Sellers' doctor, onscreen for? 3?minutes.

Jokes that should have killed (like the runaway funeral cortège), funny in concept, fell flat.

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Maybe it was pacing, or the mocking of Victorian mores as perceived by 1960s types wasn't as clever as the writing.

In short: not enough yocks for a comedy

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I partially agree, but it also has Ralph Richardson as the world's dullest man. Not many films have TWO of the funniest performances of all time.

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I will love Ralph Richardson forever because of that, and John Mills too.

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I think I'm already on record here saying overstuffed Victorian interiors combined with an atmosphere of forced zaniness just sends me up the fucking wall. It may be the funniest movie ever, I couldn't tell you because I've never been able to make it through more than 15 minutes of the thing. Maybe I need to watch it in installments, like a podcast.

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Roy: "Ralph Richardson... Not many films have TWO of the funniest performances of all time."

Richardson does it for me, throughout this. Also, his scenes with John Mills, who's forced to go through a great deal of exertion lost on Richardson's oblivious character.

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Timing. The timing was totally off.

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Parts of Start the Revolution Without Me are wonderful even though the plot sort of falls apart. Sutherland's "And I shall be Queen!" is almost the best thing in the whole picture.

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