1981 comedy adventure
Rating: 15/20
Plot: A guy tries to rescue his betrothed, an opera singer named Salsa Verde, from an evil bearded guy in a technologically-advanced castle.
It's sad that I'm eventually going to run out of movies by Oldrich Lipsky, my new favorite director, to watch. Not only is this directed by Oldrich Lipsky, my new favorite director--it's also co-written with Jiri Brdecka, who wrote some of Karel Zeman's movies, and features some "special props" from Jan Svankmajer. If this isn't right up my alley, I don't know what is! Holy smoke and gun powder!
It's a lot of fun, sort of in a Python-esque way. There's a lot of absurdist visual comedy here--blowing kisses over the phone, a ridiculous-looking surveillance device, the contraption the villain's henchman rides around in, the awakening of a storyteller who sleeps in this cloud of hair, the random singing of the protagonist that kind of serves as his superpower as he's capable of breaking things with his voice, the reversing of a rocket launch, a painting that sings when it's stabbed, guns that pop out of the henchman's chest when he bops himself on the head, a winking villain breaking the 4th wall, the marching of the comical and likely inept police, some cool animatronics ("All she is good for now is to polish silver with.), the Svankmajer "special prop" that is the professor's gadget hand, an "Up the trees!" escape from a cascade of boulders, how amused the characters are with self-opening doors, death by cello. There's just so much humor packed into this very slight story. It's a blast!
Maybe the best compliment I can give it is that it's very Czechoslovakian.
Whimsical anachronisms, a castle design that is very elaborate with all of its working parts and eccentric details, and a story peppered with unexpected moment after unexpected moment all make this about as much fun as a comedic adventure story can be.
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