Miles Monroe, a clarinet-playing health food store proprietor, is revived out of cryostasis 200 years into a future world in order to help rebels fight an oppressive government regime.
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Such a frustrating disappointment
Sadly Over-hyped
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Who would have thought that science would eventually tell us that the best things for "ya" are smoking cigarettes, chocolate and barbecued steaks? Who would believe a totalitarian world where everyone just goes along with, nobody caring about, anything? People have sex with orbs and chambers. Robots serve all. Dystopia!Your prophets beware...this movie is funny. Our only hope is i in a small minded health food clerk placed in suspended animation two centuries earlier.Woody Allen is at his Best.
It's easy to forget that there was a time in which Woody Allen was strictly silly. For years, he made effortlessly funny screwball comedies that combined his standup skills and witty writing. His comedy never necessarily died, he just slowly got more mature as he aged, beginning with 1977's Annie Hall. Sleeper was made in 1973 and is one of his earliest and finest films. Allen's only foray into the sci-fi genre, Sleeper is ingeniously funny while also creating a razor-sharp satire of other science fiction films of the era.The film opens in 2173. The colors of the architecture are strictly metallic grays and whites. The cars are pod-like and look straight out of a pulp fiction novel. The people are ignorant and dependent on technology. Imagine the shock Miles Monroe (Allen) feels when he wakes up. An owner of an unsuccessful health food store, Miles was cryogenically frozen in 1973. His awakening is illegal in the eyes of the Big Brother-like leader of the world, and in response, the scientists who thawed him are killed. In just a short time, Miles becomes the most wanted man in the nation, dubbed "The Alien" by the citizens. He goes on the run, kidnapping a buffoon named Luna (Diane Keaton) on the way, and so begins a series of antics that rival the physical comedy mania of Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton.Sleeper works so well because it is so self-aware and confident in its delivery. Many of the jokes are broad — in one sequence, Miles makes fun of the future's ignorance by telling curious scientists that Bela Lugosi was the mayor of New York and that Charles de Gaulle was a famous chef — but all are done so with a straight face and sure-fire timing.Allen's writing is impeccable. Excellent comedy scenes come right after the other, never losing their focus and never losing their punch. There isn't a moment where we even get the opportunity to stop laughing, albeit stop smiling. Allen's films have endured so long because they tie- together modern self-deprecation with vintage appreciation. Miles Monroe feels like an autobiographical character as his neuroses are so distinctly Allen's; the loud jazz music, which plays with a frenzied buzz throughout every screwball sequence, is obviously a throwback to the days of Carole Lombard and Bob Hope.The pairing of Allen and Keaton is, of course, a delight: no other woman has ever matched Allen's nutty personality so perfectly. Keaton as Luna is simply gold: she is forced to say some ridiculous lines, but she possesses the kind of timing that Lucille Ball and Katharine Hepburn portrayed with such manic clarity.I've seen Sleeper about five times now, and each time it's even more enjoyable. As the computer age thickens and we become more reliable on Google, it's more relevant than ever, even funnier because it seems to mirror Generation Y's cultural ignorance. And while critics may have not been smitten with Allen's Magic in the Moonlight this year, Sleeper is a reminder he's at his most fun when he's at his least self-serious.Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com
Few Filmmakers have such a Distinct and Separate Period Style as Woody Allen. His Early Movies were Mostly Slapstick and One Liners, a sort of Classic Comedians Repertoire. In this One the Nods to the Silent Comics are Prevalent, a lot of Sleeper Plays Out Without Dialog and is Physical Mayhem. There are also Many Verbal Stabs at Society with Stinging Slaps at Pop Culture, Religion, and Politics.This, it could be Said, is Woody before He became a Self-Absorbed Manhattanite Obsessed with Interpersonal Philosophical Paradoxes. It was Allens "Funny" Period and this is Outstanding Stuff. The Film Looks Incredible, even Today, as a Vision of the Future with its Believable Futuristic Cars, Buildings, and Robots. With a Distinct Division between Early Woody and Later Woody the Beginning of the Writer/Director's Output will most likely have a Broader Appeal with its Timeless Slapstick and Goofiness. All of His Early Films are worth a Watch but this may be the Best of them all. It is a Playground for a Fertile Imagination and a Certain Immaturity that has as its Appeal the Kid in all of Us. But Woody would Mature and so would His Films. It is these Early Efforts that have that Universal Appeal that He Lost Somewhat when Things got more Serious.
I knew that film was written by, directed by and starred Woody Allen, I didn't know anything about the concept or the reason for the title, but was definitely interested because of it featuring in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Basically Miles Monroe (Allen) is a health food store owner and jazz musician who has woken up in the year 2173, he was cryogenically frozen in 1973 unintentionally during a minor surgery, scientists Dr. Melik (Mary Gregory) and Dr. Orva (Bartlett Robinson) who revived him are part of a rebellion. Miles is eventually fully recovered, and because his history and records being destroyed he is an unknown, and therefore the rebels want his help in infiltrating and uncovering a 22nd Century police state plot called the "Aires Project", but before they can make plans the authorities arrest the scientists, with only Miles escaping. He manages to get away undetected disguising himself as one of the many servant robots in a small storage space, to be sent off to a home where one is required, he ends up as a "robot" butler in the house of socialite Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton), and he only reveals his true identity when she wants to have his head changed. She initially wants to turn Miles over to the authorities, so he kidnaps her and take her on the run with him as they make their way to the location of the Aires Project, slowly they fall in love with each other, but then he is captured and brainwashed to become a happy member of society, while Lunsa joins the rebellion. The rebellion manage to get Miles back and reverse his brainwashing, he remembers all of his past and joins them, but he becomes jealous seeing Luna kissing rebellion member Erno Windt (John Beck), she believes in free love, and in the world sex is done with machines, but they do reconcile. They reach the place where the Aires Project, they find out the dictator that rules the police state was actually killed in a bomb blast ten months ago, all that remains of his body is his nose, the plan is to clone a new body for the leader using the DNA of this nose. Miles and Luna disguise themselves as doctors and manage to sneak unnoticed into the operating and cloning facility where the nose is being held, they steal it and Miles "assassinates" the dictator throwing the nose under a steamroller, and in the end the couple question their future together, Luna thinks people cannot have relationships due to chemical incompatibilities, but he dismisses this, he believes in sex and death, the two embrace. Also starring Marya Small as Dr. Nero, Chris Forbes as Rainer Krebs and Douglas Rain as Evil Computer. Allen gives both a goofy and as usual neurotic performance as the man from the past trying to fit and change the future, Keaton four years before her Oscar winning role in Annie Hall is a great relatively eccentric love interest. There are terrific homages to Sir Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, with fantastic slapstick, and the script is witty as well, it is silly, but in a hilarious way, the highlight is absolutely Allen disguised as a robot with the silver head and his glasses contrasting brilliantly, a wonderfully funny science-fiction comedy. Very good!