Mr. Magoo

Mr Magoo is as wealthy as he is short-sighted and it is this combination that sees him trapped in the museum he is patron of late one night, when a robbery occurs. The CCTV footage makes him look like he was in on it and the FBI/CIA investigation focuses on him as they try to locate a stolen diamond while keeping the robbery on the low-down. Meanwhile, as he fishes, Magoo manages to have the stolen jewel dropped into his fishing box (best not to ask how) and thus is unwittingly pursued by thieves and cops. OK. This is based on a old cartoon character so I tried to ignore the modern PC outrage over this film by disabled groups protesting the depiction of partial blindness. According to IMDb it was this that saw the film sliding into video obscurity however I beg to differ. I was outraged by this film – but not for the reasons of objecting to the fact that it gets laughs out of a disability, but rather the fact that it totally fails to get laughs out of a disability. I'd love to pretend to be politically correct and sensitive but there we go! No, the main problem I had with the film is that it is simply not funny. Obviously the gags are all pretty obvious and can be seen coming from miles off but it still surprised me by how lazy it all was. The plot makes no sense but this was perhaps to be expected, however the total delivery is poor. A constantly "wacky" score is forced upon us in a desperate attempt to make us believe that it is hilarious when it is not. Nielsen was a great choice for the lead but even he can do nothing with this rot and in failing to improve it he just becomes part of the problem. The support cast features turns from Garner, Hudson, Tobolowsky, Lynch, Ferrer and McDowell all of whom are either wasted, look embarrassed or both. As director Tong seems to worry that the jokes will surprise his audience and, I assume, fearing injury from split sides, makes sure that we all get a chance to see each and every gag coming from quite a distance. Overall then, a film that will appeal to few audience demographics outside of children and those currently drunk. The jokes are obvious and lazy and all that is left is a terrible plot that (perhaps correctly) assumes the audience has the IQ of a basket and just hopes that a man stumbling around is enough to make it – for me personally, it wasn't.

Leslie Nielsen is usually someone whose movies I really like (even critically panned flicks like "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" and "Wrongfully Accused"). So the fact that I'm slamming "Mr. Magoo" should show that it's a piece of junk. It casts Nielsen as the myopic title character, something gets planted on him, and he makes a mess of everything. It seems like the combo of Nielsen and director Stanley Tong (behind two of Jackie Chan's movies) would make this one hilarious movie, but it doesn't; it seems like they just have people to do anything, and there's no real humor here. So, the original cartoon with Jim Backus providing the voice was worth seeing, so avoid this movie. Leslie Nielsen has also done much better, so there's no reason to waste your time on this. Also starring Kelly Lynch, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ernie Hudson, Malcolm McDowell and Miguel Ferrer; they probably don't wish to emphasize this hunk of junk in their careers.

The movie "Mr. Magoo" is an adaptation of the popular cartoon. For what it's worth, it does a good job of presenting itself as a live-action cartoon. Leslie Nielsen has made a career of acting in screwball comedy. He seems to fit his role well as the famously weak-eyed character. In this day and age of political correctness, making a movie such as this was bound to raise a few hackles. The little disclaimer run by Disney about the blind should give you an idea what the PC movement has done to movies today. The point of the cartoon was not to put down the blind at all. So forget what others say, and look this "Magoo" over!

This movie seems to be made of mistakes. Leslie bumping everywhere, a ridiculous plot, and, the gran finale, Rio de Janeiro looking like a jungle... STUPID! Side-note: the 2nd biggest city in the world is located on Brazil. It's São Paulo.

This movie is by me considered one of the worst ways for movie enthusiasts to spend money. Sorry, Leslie, but I hardly think that bumping into things or other strange things caused by bad eye-sight are fun the first time. Building a whole comedy on this causes people like me to be very bored and calculate how many cappucinos are wasted. The plot is one you see after the first five minutes, but assuming otherwise in this genre isn't too common. Nevertheless, a primary school-class were at the same show as I, and they laughed a lot. Mr Magoo is originally a cartoon-character and is probably better suited to stay so. The film just doesn't seem funny to me.

Mr. Magoo sucks! Period. I hated this movie all together! Leslie Nielson is funny in Naked Gun and Wrongfully Accused, but in Magoo he is just a big disappointment. A stupid movie. > There is no funny moment in this movie at all. Nielson's portrayal of Magoo is so obviously that you know that he can see. Disney made a big mistake of trying to make a good movie. But it wasn't! How can Magoo ride on a ironboard in the snow he is blind? That is dumb! Good thing I watched this only on cable and not paying for the rental price for it.