Customer Reviews

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

`Everything you always wanted to know about sex* (*But were afraid to ask)', written and directed by Woody Allen is Allen's third `triple credit' movie after `Take the Money and Run' and `Bananas', and his first with a large, `Big Name' cast. But unlike later movies such as `Interiors', `Hannah and her Sisters', and `Crimes and `Misdemeanors', this cast is probably less likely to have been assembled for the honor of working with Allen than for the very typical Hollywood casting strategy of filling a large number of roles which appear on the screen for a short time with recognizable faces, so you instantly know that Lou Jacobi, for example, is playing a very bourgeois, very middle class Jewish burgher who, we quickly discover, has a yen to dress up as a woman. We make the similar connection with Tito Vandis as a middle eastern shepherd, John Carradine as a mad Dr. Frankenstein-like scientist, Gene Wilder as a quirky and up-tight doctor and Tony Randall as a prim and very button down control room supervisor.

Allen's stock character is so well known by this time that among the four characters he plays, at least one is totally against type, where he has a part in a `La Dolce Vita' parody, in Italian with subtitles and all, as a character very similar to that of Marcello Mastroianni, in situations stolen directly from Fellini's junk drawer.

Here, Allen comes closer to Mel Brooks' style than in any other of his movies, going so far as to share Gene Wilder (a frequent Mel Brooks star) and a Mel Brooks parody subject (Frankenstein). Like Brooks, there are many patently improbable or impossible situations cooked up merely for the laughs. Later in their careers, Brooks and Allen diverge primarily with Allen's concentrating on literally deathly serious subjects with jokes while Allen stays with plots and situations which are light and humorous through and through.

Since both parody and visual humor are Allen strong points, he has a field day with not one but six different situations where the objects of parody are:

Aphrodisiacs and Fools in Medieval Castle
Sheep and Sodomy
Cross Dressing
TV Game Shows, Homosexuality, and Bondage
Monster Movies
Science Fiction / Antacid Commercials

While I think this movie does not hold up as well as almost all of this other early movies, it's great fun to see personalities and actors such as Regis Philbin (as himself), Robert Walden, and Anthony Quayle. Lynn Redgrave and Burt Reynolds in small roles. The parodies may not work that well with audiences under 30 who have no memory of TV shows such as `What's My Line' or of Italian movies from Fellini or Antonioni.

What is amazing is how totally unerotic the whole movie is. For the life of me, I don't see how it deserved an R rating except that young viewers may simply not see past the very unexplicit scenes involving sexual subjects to the total absurdity of the situations. This rating is probably a demonstration of the fact that the mere mention of sodomy/bestiality, homosexuality, bondage, and infidelity are seen as more dangerous to discuss than explicit sex. The bottom line is that while there is virtually nothing in the movie that is erotic to an adult, there is much which may be dangerous for an unprepared subteen to see.

The hard part of evaluating the movie in the long run is how well Allen's typically clever humor outweighs the thin and cheaply filmed parodies, where there is no attempt at all to hide the tongue in cheek (see Mel Brooks) attitude of the movie. In the end, this film is probably better (funnier) than `Love and Death' but not quite as totally inventive or funny as `Take the Money and Run'.

Don't listen to Adi's review, calling the film "juvenile"
Adi should watch some of today's teen exploits to find a true juvenile movie.
This film was far beyond its time, and is a SPOOF, like many comedies. If you don't believe most of the reviews, just rent it first........have a few drinks, and you'll laugh hard......

this is the one movie that made me "discover" the talent of Woody Allen, and I'm glad I did.

I found this to be a very hit-or-miss affair. The scenes which Woody doesn't appear in ("Are transvestites homosexual?", "What's my perversion?", and "What is sodomy?") miss his comic touch. Granted, Gene Wilder is deliriously funny as a man in love with a sheep (shouldn't the segment have been called "What is bestiality?"), but the other scenes never rise above bad Saturday Night Live-style parody. The cross-dressing scene goes for cheap and easy laughs, while the tired cliché of a game show turned upside down has only one funny moment (the rabbi's wife grimly feasting on a plate of pork).

When Woody does appear in a scene, the film comes alive. The 'Woody' character works perfectly in an anthology about the confusing nature of sex, because that for me is the essence of his character. His sexual confusion and manic personality kicks every situation into a higher gear. The Fool he plays in the first scene - a hapless borscht-belt style comic transported to a medieval court - delivers great line after great line in ridiculous old English ("TB or not TB, that is congestion"). His Fellini-esque Fabrizio (in "Why do some women have trouble achieving orgasm?"), confused about the frigidity of his newlywed wife, plays it cool in his Mastroianni sunglasses and world-weary Italian. But you know this guy is a hapless shnook anyway, when his wife can only get turned on for sex when it's in a public place. His Victor Shakapopoulous (sp?) saves the world from - yes it's true - a giant "tit" (size 4000X for those of you scoring at home).

But the most wonderful scene is the last one, "What happens during ejaculation?" Taking a cue from "Fantastic Voyage", we see the bureaucratic inner workings of one man's body, including the control tower (conducted by Tony Randall and Burt Reynolds), the stomach (trying to process an unexpected order of fettuccini), the tongue (lubricated and rolled-out just in time to receive a kiss), and the penis (powered by sweaty men in workman's overalls). Woody shows up as a sperm, having second thoughts about ever volunteering for duty ("I hear some guys smash their heads on a hard, rubber wall!"). It is a great piece of satire, towering over the lukewarm parody of the rest of the pieces. Something tells me this last scene would have made a great feature-length movie itself.

This message applies to ONLY the DVD version of the movie "Everything You've Always Wanted To Know About Sex".

This Woody Allen movie is a classic. It's from a time that was far less politically correct than these times so the humor will definitely seem crude. It consists of 4 or 5 vignettes each proceeded by a title. The vignette about transvestites is not very funny whereas the final vignette with Tony Randall & Burt Reynolds is a classic!!

NOW THEN--> There is one vignette about Woody & a girl who can only achieve orgasm in public. It's very funny.

BUT

The vignette is in Italian and is a parody of a Fellini movie. THE ONLY WAY THE PIECE MAKES SENSE IS IF YOU READ THE SUBTITLES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FILM..BUT...

THE DVD VERSION DOES NOT CONTAIN THE SUBTITLES!!!!!!!!!

I don't know how this happened, but on my DVD, it was all spoken in Italian with NO subtitles!!! And there was no way to access English subtitles in the DVD menu! It makes absolutely no sense and the humor is totally missed without the subtitles! This inexcusable error destroys the enjoyability of the entire DVD!!

If you have the VHS version, stick with it.

DON'T BUY THIS DVD!!!!!!!!!!!! And write to United Artists or whoever put out this flawed DVD and tell them to fix it.

Every bit of Woody Allen's film is funny, but Lou Jacobi's performance in "What Is A Transvestite?" has to be one of the most hilarious performances in cinema history! For that alone, you must buy this DVD for your collection.

This irreverent and almost surrealistic film finds Woody in plenitude of humor and ingenious; he truly played hard with this free comedy which worked out as a magnificent exorcism exercise about the hidden dragons around this subject; every one of the vignettes is built around the sex and its implications but narrated in such caustic and bitter approach that it will be hard for you to avoid laugh and smile; because this is far to be a common place; it 's a true hitherto in what intelligence, refinement and good spirits you can imagine.

Watch for Gene Wilder and his weird passion: it 's an unforgettable classic that has not aged just a bit. On the contrary, It tends to improve through the years.

One of the five gems of Woody!

Totally insane film, loved the vignettes about everything once held taboo about sex... and the best scene is Wilder and his sheep! The look on Elaine Giftos' face when she catches Gene in bed with his black lingerie-d lamb, and he says, "It's not what you think it is..." is totally priceless. Okay, some people don't think bestiality is funny, but if you're from the Midwest, or hell, just rural America, where men are men, and sheep are sheep, well... it rocks your funny bone.

This movie is just as funny now as it was when it was made

My old friend Woody is as good as he can get. The striking feature of the film is the personality that is being developed and actually disclosed in "fleshly" forms. The film is the natural study guide for any would-be masochists or Pfizer addictives. Beware!!! the more you watch it, the more you need it. Once you pop it you can't stop it. So enjoy!

The film is entirely about sexual perversions, even though it is not technically erotic... Allen has taken some of the most popular clinical treatments of sexual fetishes and has placed them into very unusual situations...

Gene Wilder, for example, falls in love with a sheep; Woody Allen plays a medieval court jester who gets his lance stuck in his lady's chastity belt while the king is off fighting in the Crusades; a giant breast is released upon the countryside; an Italian couple can only find happiness in public sex; and we are taken into the inner labors of a male human body as it tries to seduce a woman in a car...

Each individual scene is quite well done... The tales are rapid filled with irony about the overly exaggerated importance of sex in our culture...