As Good As It Gets

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

You'll either love it or hate it. There's no in between. It's so outrageous, I have to love it. Never mind that the real Venus is a hellhole, with a sizzling 462 degrees C surface, and a suffocating 96% CO2 atmosphere. Never mind that A&C mistake participants in the New Orleans mardi gras as Martians. A&C rocket off to Venus after tiring of the 'Martians'.Abbott(Lester) is a maintenance worker at the spaceship research station near NYC. Costello(Orville) accidentally gains entrance to the facility when he hides in the back of a delivery truck, and is later mistaken for a Dr. Orvilla who is due to show up. The two have a mutual slapping session, with the Dr. the winner in the who's who decision. It's decided to let Lou stay and help Abbott. The 2 bring some things inside the spaceship. Lou plays with some switches and buttons, and it's lift off! First they buzz some skyscrapers, fly under some bridges, and even fly through the Lincoln Tunnel! They land at New Orleans, thinking it Mars(mighty fast trip!). They don their space suits and go out. Soon, they see some strange-looking people-like creatures and other creatures. It's the N.O. mardi gras. They fit right in with their space suits. Meanwhile, 2 escaped convicts enter the spacecraft and find a 'ray gun'. They use this to 'freeze' the employees at a bank they rob, then return to the spaceship, along with A&C. The boys decide to point the spaceship toward Venus. Upon landing, they discover that Venus hosts only beautiful young women(played by Miss Universe contestants). Seems they eliminated men 400 years ago, after it was discovered how to achieve physical immortality and eternal youth. Thus, these beauties are about 400 years old.Queen Allura(Mari Blanchard) is very bossy and jealous, if exceptionally beautiful. She has the 2 convicts incarcerated. Reluctantly, she goes along with Lou's request to be crowned King of Venus. But, it's only provisional if he doesn't think about the other women(Allura is very jealous and very much a feminist!). To see if he can pass this test, she gives him 3 balloons. If he thinks of another woman, one will pop. Bang! Now, he must pass the lie detector test. A metal chair is wired to produce a current sufficient to cause sparks to fly if Lou tells a lie. He flunks this test also. Thus, Allura says the men have to leave Venus, even if many of the girls want them to stay, at least for a while. Allura also orders that any girl who kisses a man will immediately lose the gift of immortality and eternal youth. One girl violates this decree, and immediately changes into a 400y.o. woman(well, 120y.o., anyway) At first, the spaceship wouldn't take off for Earth. It was concluded the reason was excess weight. Abbott discovered that Lou had smuggled a bevy of girls into some closets. After they are ushered out, the spaceship takes off fine, and eventually lands near NYC, but not before buzzing some skyscrapers, flying under a bridge, flying through the Lincoln Tunnel, and causing The Statue of Liberty to duck! A big parade is held for A&C, while the 2 convicts are sent to jail. The amazons watch the parade on their video, and Allura sends a congratulatory gift for Costello, but I won't say what it is.

Abbott and Costello were a a comedy duo whose comedy reputation outside of the USA declined rather rapidly over the years. Frankly a lot of their movies were not good enough and more importantly funny enough. I always reckoned the Marx Brothers would had joined them in the hall of shame for the unfunny but for Groucho.Bud and Lou are hapless maintenance men messing around in a rocket ship, pressing random buttons as you do and blast off. As the rocket is in New York we see them go through Lincoln Tunnel and go pass the Statue of Liberty before it lands in New Orleans during the Mardi Gras.Bud and Lou think they really are in Mars because of the weird costumes. Two escaped criminals get on to the rocket and this time the ship again blasts off and they all end up in Venus, a planet run by beautiful women. I think the science here was a bit off, even in them days it would had been known the planet was full of carbon dioxide and a dense atmosphere.The production values in the film are quiet good, the film is not as bad as feared then again it is not really that funny with some of the jokes just being a riff on their who's on third shtick.I doubt the film will gain any new Abbot and Costello fans and is unlikely to restore the duo's reputation as funny-men.

Abbott & Costello play Lester & Orville, who somehow are on a top secret rocket-ship project. They accidentally launch it and wind up not going to Mars, but to Mardi Gras here on Earth(which they think is Mars). Two equally bumbling bank robbers named Mugsy & Harry force their way on board the ship, which does take off for outer space, though Venus, not Mars, which is inhabited by beautiful women who have banished the men, making these four guys both feared but welcome. Utterly inept and entirely unfunny farce is the team's worst; they look bored and indifferent the whole time, and there is no energy or point to this farrago at all. Just dreadful.

Not Abbott and Costello's very best but a funny enough one any way. Of course I don't see how the whole premise of two buffoons accidentally could happen in real life but this is not real life. When the two land near New Orleans during Mardi Gras they start seeing the people in the strange costumes that are typical for the time. They then belief they are on Mars. When two cons on the run show up and make them take off again they end up on Venus. Of course Venus has only women since all men were exiled. How they reproduced is not really covered, cloning? The men then show some of the Venusian girls what they have been missing. Not graphically but just some romantic by play.