Cinema Sunday: ¡Three Amigos!

 

OK, after 4 weeks of Star Trek movies, it's time to move on to some serious cinema, a film not based on a TV or comic book franchise but a movie based on an original premise made by professional filmmakers. 

And today that movie is ¡Three Amigos!

And that's what we get for letting Andrea pick the movie. 

¡Three Amigos!  is a 1986 comedy film starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short who portray silent film stars Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms and Ned Needlander.  They are famous for their series of Three Amigo movies. When they are unceremoniously dumped by their producer, they are more than happy with the unexpected stroke of luck of a telegram inviting them to go to Santa Poco in Mexico and perform for El Guapo. 

OK, about that telegram...

It is a desperate plea from a woman named Carmen, daughter of the village leader of Santa Poco, looking for help to stop the unceasing violent raids by the vicious killer, El Guapo.  

The Three Amigos do succeed in "chasing" off three of El Guapo's men who are more bemused and confused than anything.  The Amigos think they put on a good show, the village thinks the Amigos saved them and El Guapo is curious what this shit is all about. 

When El Guapo shows up in Santa Poco the next day with 50 men in tow, well, the jig is, as they say, up.  

The Amigos ride out of Santa Paco as fast they can do.

El Guapo's men ransack the village.

And El Guapo scoops up Carmen as an early birthday present for himself.  

The Amigos guiltily return to Santa Poco and realize it really does fall to them to save Carmen and help this poor town. 

The Amigos get to El Guapo's compound where he's getting ready to get down and party for his birthday.  

Hilarity ensue as the trio infiltrate the compound despite themselves and successful extricate Carmen from El Guapo's clutches. 

And for good measure save Santa Poco from El Guapo forever.

OK, let's just say that ¡Three Amigos! is an incredibly stupid movie.  

But it is an incredibly stupid movie with a sweet, innocent charm about it. The premise is too thin really to sustain an whole movie which may explain why it takes a weird turn towards the surreal in the middle with talking animals and a singing bush.  

Lucky, Dusty and Ned are supposed to be vacuous actor types who can't conceive of life beyond their own needs and expectations as actors. But the movie gives us little insight to who they are beyond that conceit. 

With the village ravaged and Carmen abducted, of course the Three Amigos realize they need to their shtick for realsies. Would've helped to have had some character building moments that lead to the realization. 

Despite being vacuous actor types, Lucky, Dusty and Ned are surprisingly skilled at doing things like jumping on to horses, riding, shooting and doing cool things with lariats and the like. I suppose if the Three Amgios were totally dependent on their stunt doubles and film trickery, they would just wind up dead which would not make for a very funny movie.

The "It's That  Person Who Was In That Thing" Dept.

•  Joe Mantegna is  Harry Flugleman who also voices the recurring role of mob boss Fat Tony on the animated series The Simpsons (and Flugleman sounds a lot like Fat Tony) and had a main role in Criminal Minds. 
• Phil Hartman as Sam andJon Lovitz as Morty are  Flugleman's assistants. Hartman and Lovitz were mainstays of late 19880's Saturday Night Live. Hartman later was featured in the role of news anchor Bill McNeill in NewsRadio before his untimely murder and Lovitz was the voice of film reviewer Jay Sherman in the animated series The Critic, both of which were favorites series of mine back in the day.   

The three leads of ¡Three Amigos! make the best of their thinly drawn roles with Steve Martin as Lucky Day moving effortlessly from easy going charm to goofy intensity while Martin Short's Ned Needlander occasionally lapses into Short's patented nervous routine but is the one who provides a surprising sense of moral direction for the Three Amigos. Chevy Chase as Dusty Bottoms is the most blank slate of the three. Chevy gets some stand out moments such as the scene in the desert when he's the one with the cantene with unlimited water as his companions are parched with thirst and the bit where Dusty is in disguise and pretending to be El Guapo's longtime buddy. 

The movie ends like for the Three Amigos as it does for the silent film counter parts with refusing to accept a financial reward from the grateful villagers of Santa Poco.

"Our reward is that justice has been done." They then ride off into the sunset.

And thus ends ¡Three Amigos! ,a pleasant enough diversion for 90 minutes with a few good laughs along the way. 

Next week, Cinema Sunday sticks around the 1980's. Since it's the day before Valentine's Day, we're going to look at a romantic comedy which ponders the question of can a Jewish girl find love with a pickle maker.