Just perfect...

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Blistering performances.

A really pleasant surprise this. I can't even remember if I saw it theatrically, I certainly hadn't seen it since although I remember the earlier Candy very well. Peter sellers is understated and brilliant throughout and he seems very protective of Ringo who does well, certainly better than I remember he was in Candy. Loads of great turns here and the director holds the film together well. It is episodic with some scenes better than others but it keeps moving and there is always going to be something of interest the next minute anyway. Two standout scenes for me, an hilarious scene with Sellers and Starr with Spike Milligan as a traffic warden and the sensational Mad About The Boy rendition aboard ship. The song is sung for Roman Polanski, who thinks his luck is in but the 'lady' singing is Yul Brynner in drag, although, to top it all, is really the voice of Peter Sellers. There is also a cracking scene with Raquel Welch with whip and bevy of half naked galley slaves, Laurence Harvey as a stripping Hamlet (at Stratford East theatre) and Christopher Lee doing what he does best. On top of all this there is much location shooting and we get excellent river views of London, street scenes of Putney, the National Theatre on the South Bank seeming near completion and much, much more - wonderful.

Limited "cult following" status to the contrary, I'm not surprised at the 5.9 rating by the 1,500 odd voters accustomed to the current marginal (and copy cat) plots, limbic manipulations, clichéd special effects and derivative nature of post-millennial film-making. This, after all, is a Monty Pythonesque rendition of a Terry Southern novel (see "Candy," "Barbarella," "Easy Rider," "The Loved One" and "Dr. Strangelove…"). (Would those who beat their brains senseless by pounding on their PDAs and X Boxes know the truth if it bit them in the nose? Please.)Southern saw the culture for what it is… and has been since the Old Kingdom on the Nile five thousand years ago. "Money talks." Most of us want to believe we care about AIDS in Central Africa, the starving in Dafur, the oppressed in Lybia, the fate of the Tibetans, the fate of the over-populated, under-educated, over-heated, radiation-poisoned =planet=. But what we really care about is comfort, and what it takes to purchase however much of it we believe to be our due. Born in Alvarado, Texas, and strained through the sifter of military experience in World War II, Southern was no "hippie." He was far more down with Marquand, Richler, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Sartre and Camus than the histrionic, wanna-be-hip, but discipline-bereft and chemically crop-sprayed pseudo-intellectuals of the late '60s and early '70s. If you're into psychology, think Bateson, Baumrind, Berne, Ellis, Fairbairn, Henry, Jackson, Karpman, Klein, Laing, Miller, Schaef and Sullivan rather than Bradshaw, Dyer, Forward, Harris, McGraw and Schlesinger, for example. If you're into music lyrics, think Lennon, Morissette, Olazabal and Townshend rather than Hayward, Jagger, Lynne and Tyler. That there are people in the world who can buy the behavior of virtually anyone, including those who =appear= to be "powerful," may continue to make many folks squirm. We'd like to believe in truth, justice, freedom and the Easter Bunny. That Vegas doesn't fix major sports events, that doctors know best, and the Supreme Court doesn't steal elections. But… money talks. In "TMC," that particular message is packaged a bit heavy-handedly at moments, but the piece can be as beguiling – and actually meaningful – as the similarly rompy "Rocky Horror Picture Show," "The Meaning of Life," "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles," and "Network," if one knows how to pry their mind open for 92 minutes in some (ahem) appropriate way.

First off all, I'm a big fan of Peter Sellers, his acting and nearly all the films he have been in, because he isn't that kind of actor who have been in a billion of good movies, like Robert De Niro or Dustin Hoffman, but if we talk about all of his performances in the movies he have been in, good or bad, he have always done it in such a intelligent and funny way, you could say that he is better known for his characters, than the actual movie he have starred in.'The Magic Christian' is in many ways a very forgotten and misunderstood film, not many can understand its humor, because its very dark at times, but that is just what makes it so much more interesting, than other movies can ever get, in this kind of psychedelic movie genre. So if you ever plan to see this, only do it if you either are a fan of Sellers, or just if you have a good understanding in dark comedy. In many Sellers movies, it's always him that stands out the most, but this movie just have so much more to give, like good chemistry between the lead actors (Sellers and Ringo), a funky 60's rock soundtrack, interesting camera angles, totally weirdness all around (especially in the end scenes) and a great message, "That every human on earth, will do everything for a good amount of money" ... I think the message is partly true, because every human have a stretch for what they will do for money - like, I don't want to cut my own arm off, if I got $1000000 dollars, but if I got $100000000 dollars, I would probably think a little bit about it... and its just that, this movie makes you think, and thats one of the many reasons that this 60's flick is so enjoyable... and outrageously weird!

Subconsciously I have avoided this movie for about 20 years. One reason being, that I grew up with the Peter Sellers comedies, having watched most of them with my parents and having eventually discovered, that a lot of them don't age terribly well. The second reason was that, although Sellers has produced much, much quality work, he's at time delivered horrible performances.However, the other day I had a DVD copy from a friend-of-a-friend fall into my hands and around that same time I felt like watching something with Sir Christopher Lee – something I hadn't yet seen, mind you. The nearest and only thing in reach was that 'Magic Christian' DVD, so into the player it went.The first ten odd minutes made me sure that once again my suspicions were correct and that I was watching a Sellers movie that was both outdated and definitely in the weaker category. Inflated nonsense, pointless slapstick and random attempts at squeezing laughs out of a more innocent 1970's watcher, thought I while my index finger was nervously tapping the 'stop'-key.However, I kept on watching. And suddenly something made 'click' inside my head. I had found a gem, a diamond of a comedy and before Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr made it unto the Magic Christian, I was a believer and convinced that this film belongs right up there with Sellers greatest works.If you haven't seen Peter Sellers take his adventurous 5 course diner at a French restaurant, haven't experienced Yul Brunner singing "About the Boy" in drag to an inebriated Roman Polanski or a crowd of essential British citizens wading through a tank of urine and manure for paper money, then you haven't seen it all. And by the way: if you're a Christopher Lee and Dracula fan, you haven't seen it all either if you haven't seen Sir Christopher on board the Magic Christian.To those among the readers who have been put off from watching this by certain critiques of the time who gave the movie a finger or those who believe that the film is a random sequence of anarchic and even more random gags and sketches, please reconsider. Believe an old movie buff who says: this movie is a forgotten gem!