Wow! Such a good movie.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is a reasonable movie for the gendre - a 'comedy' western. Just the thing for a casual evening viewing.

Outlaw Joe Baker (Dean Martin) wants to do something momentous in his life. To further this end, he agrees to acquire a Gatling gun from a fellow outlaw, Johnny Cobb (Albert Salmi), in exchange for any woman Joe can find. (Johnny is starved for female companionship.) Johnny starts "holding up" stagecoaches, looking for women, and one day he snatches Mary Anna Morgan (Honor "Pussy Galore" Blackman). The catch is that she turns out to be the never before seen wife of Joes' longtime nemesis, Cavalry colonel Morgan (Brian Keith).Amiable Western comedy never really does deliver "something big" itself, but it's easy enough to take for an hour and 49 minutes. The script by James Lee Barrett isn't really that funny, or that witty, but it does have its moments. Director Andrew V. McLaglen has some fun with the material, as does the well chosen cast, who provide the main reason to watch this romp. Critics have excoriated it over the years, but in truth it's not all that tasteless. By and large, the people who perish are lowlife bad guys, and the violence is never particularly gory. Everything is gorgeously photographed by Harry Stradling Jr. The music score by Marvin Hamlish is so ridiculously peppy that it's quite amusing.Dino is good in the lead, and Keith is a solid straight man in the face of some real buffoonery from the people around him. Lovely ladies Blackman, and Carol White as Joes' would-be fiancée Dover, add to the attractiveness of the scenery. Lots of familiar faces fill out the supporting cast: Ben Johnson, Don Knight, Joyce Van Patten, Denver Pyle, football star Merlin Olsen, Robert Donner, Harry Carey Jr., Judi Meredith, Edward Faulkner, Paul Fix, David Huddleston, and Bob Steele. There's also an endearing canine co-star for Dino who rides in a pouch strapped to his horse."Something Big" offers nothing special, but it's reasonably entertaining for the duration.Six out of 10.

Something Big is directed by Andrew V. McLagen and written by James Lee Barrett. It stars Dean Martin, Brian Keith, Carol White, Honor Blackman, Albert Salmi and Ben Johnson. Music is by Marvin Hamlisch (title song by Burt Bacharach) and cinematography by Harry Stradling Junior. Dull as dishwater, Something Big is the very definition of a star vehicle where the star sleepwalks for the paycheck. The plot for what it's worth has Martin as Joe Baker, an ageing bandit wanting to do something big before retirement. He strikes a deal with Jonny Cobb (Salmi), to exchange a Gatling Gun for a woman, you see Cobb just wants to get laid, apparently. With Joe's fiancée on her way to the Territory to make an honest man of him, and Colonel Morgan (Keith) determined to stop Joe achieving his criminal ambition before he himself retires, Joe has it all to do to do that something big. What follows in the one hour and forty five minute run time is, well, nothing of any note. There are a whole raft of characters in the mix, and a dog, but they never serve any purpose other than being dressage or to deliver some unfunny dialogue. The intention is to make Martin's lovable scallywag the axis for some mature daft shenanigans, building to the "big" finale before everyone settles down in the sun and shouts hooray! But Martin isn't interested, and McLaglen isn't clever enough to knit all the loose ends together. While the "big" finale consists of a five minute boring shoot-out that is essentially just Martin going around in a circle firing the Gatling Gun at bad guys we have not met, seen or had time to be intrigued about. Some nice costumes, cleavage and Technicolor photography stop it from total damnation, but this is only recommended to easy going Western fans who simply have no other genre choices to pick from in their nuclear fall out shelter. 3/10

This is the kind of movie that has you smiling the whole way through & you just know it must have been fun to make.What is it about? To give any details of the movie would spoil the ride for those who haven't seen it before. It's a true classic western but it has a sense of humour. It's not a revenge movie or a violent snapshot of how the west really was but the plot is masterfully woven around Dean Martin's likable character.He's a hapless anti hero that trouble is drawn to like a magnet.Something Big is kind of like the contents of the suitcase in Pulp Fiction....everybody wants in but no one knows what their getting into.A great cast,a great story & a lot of laughs. It's just criminal that this movie isn't available to buy anywhere.