¡THREE AMIGOS! Blu-ray Review
Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short travel a dusty road to adventure in this zany mix of sharp one-liners and clever sight gags. The "Three Amigos" are a silent screen comedy act who have seen better days. So has a remote Mexican hamlet which is being terrorized by a fierce bandit gang. In desperation a naïve villager sends the actors a telegram asking for their help. Thinking they're being offered a fortune for a personal appearance, the hapless trio arrives in Mexico, only to discover this time they're dodging real bullets. Directed by John Landis (Animal House, Trading Places), here is a comedy about three loveable bumblers who are in way over their heads but come what may, they'll always remain the THREE AMIGOS!¡Three Amigos! is a film that speaks for itself. Everything from the film within a film featuring the Three Amigos, to the standard village in peril plot are vintage Hollywood. Steve Martin's script is the kind of insane that made him famous, but that he rarely achieves in his films today. In terms of a director, you could not have chosen a better leader than John Landis, who is a film scholar and understands how all of these tropes worked together and how best to parody them without going overboard. I'd hate to over-analyze the film though, so I'll leave it at that.
¡Three Amigos! is a work of mad genius. Steve Martin and Chevy Chase were at their peak and Martin Short was never this funny before or after. When you add in Joe Mantenga, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, and Alfonso Arau to the mix, you've got gold. I could watch this film over and over again, and I have.
The Disc:
HBO Home Entertainment Blu-ray presentation of ¡Three Amigos! is pretty impressive, though not perfect. The image is a bit of a mixed bag. The colors have never looked so good, they are bright and punchy and leap off the screen. I was taken aback by how colorful the film looks after all these years watching it on inferior formats. On the other hand, there does seem to be a strange lack of fine detail and grain. It isn't overly distracting, but it is there, I was looking for grain and textures and there weren't many to be found. I have a hypothesis that the film was probably shot on crappy '80s film stock which turned out to be pretty grainy and in order to correct for that, someone may have gone a tiny bit heavy on the DNR, but that is purely speculation. The film looks good and is in no way a disaster, but it could have looked a little better. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track highlights Randy Newman's original songs and the action well. This won't test your home theater, but it is a nice experience.
The most exciting part of reviewing this disc for me was the extra material. This 25th anniversary edition features about twenty minutes of deleted scenes. Most of the material focuses on a subplot that was dropped involving a rival starlet played by Fran Drescher, and a few other minor trims. This footage was all rendered in HD and looks pretty damned good as well. There is also a very brief cast interview with the Amigos that is funny, but you can tell that their minds are elsewhere. The final extra is a 16 page booklet featuring an interview with Chevy, Steve, and Martin from Empire Magazine. The interview is enlightening and helps to contextualize the film and give a little bit of background. It makes me wish there was a commentary, and I almost never wish that!
Overall, I'd say that ¡Three Amigos! is a success. There is the relatively minor video issue, but apart from that, I really enjoyed revisiting this one, and for the price, you can't beat it!
Do you feel this content is inappropriate or infringes upon your rights? Click here to report it, or see our DMCA policy.
