It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World: Wh-wh-wh-whooooaaaah!!!!!

Sort of the 60's equivalent of today's Ocean's 11 and 12--get every big name you possibly can and then try and see what kind of "plot" can string them all together. It was a lot of fun, to be sure, even if I couldn't appreciate who everyone was. The Three Stooges stood out... even if they looked like someone had opened the Arc of the Covenant nearby...

I enjoyed the cutting back and forth between each group, and it was only marginally confusing (since each character was pretty similar--again, coming from my "Born in '82" mind) keeping them seperated. The many tactics and forms of transportation kept it fun and wacky. Which, really, is about all you can say about this film.

As soon as Spencer Tracey got involved in the chase it got a little... scattered. Why was this calm, intelligent man acting as goofy as all the buffoons out and about California? It broke the setup of the film, and while that's a good thing to do during the last act of a story (everything is turned on it's head!), this film was too broad to pull a twist.

Still, it's well worth watching, if only for it's place in our culture. I had seen the Simpson's spoof of it about a thousand times, so it was deeply satisfying to understand where all that had come from, even if it was a little dumb.

Extra points for Jimmy Durante actually kicking the bucket.