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Crappy film

Beautiful, moving film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

One of my all time favorites and I'm a Daughter of the Republic of Texas! The views inside the Alamo and those on the streets of San Antonio are accurate and evocative. The actual history of the Alamo is one that should not be overlooked and this lighthearted tribute is among the most congenial.

Sophisticated cosmopolite Peter Ustinov blots his copybook here with a caricature of a performance "browned up" as the eponymous "Max",a Mexican army officer unbelicose by nature who recaptures The Alamo to impress his girlfriend.Now clearly this episode of American history is a sensitive area to many,but is rather too domestic for us Europeans to understand the subtle nuances involved.Pride on both sides of the border is easily ruffled so General Max may well have had at least the tacit support of many of his fellow Mexicans.Where I feel they may have not been so happy is with the performances of Mr Ustinov and his comic book accent and Mr John Astin as his Sancho Panza. The Texans are only slightly better served,the exception being the great Mr Harry Morgan - saviour of many a picture - who,along with Mr Keenan Wynn,drags "Viva Max" up from the vaudeville level of entertainment it had reached before their appearance. Mr Ustinov,bon - viveur,writer,actor,chat show guest non - pareil and wit,was a wizard with accents as he proves here,but,to me,there is something distasteful,even patronising in his performance. It may have seemed a wacky idea in the summer of love when most of the movers and shakers in Hollywood were presumably stoned out of their gourds,but "Viva Max" has not travelled well I'm afraid.

Viva Max is a mildly diverting but inconsequential piece of fluff whose main idea – the retaking of the Alamo by the Mexicans 130 years after they famously failed to oust Davy Crockett and his mates – just doesn't have strong enough legs to carry it much beyond a 20-minute skit. Peter Ustinov – an undoubted talent, but not one that was probably not best-suited to film – just about avoids slipping into broad caricature. His character is inspired by wounded personal pride rather than national fervour, which effectively shuts off a possibly richer vein of humour, but Ustinov does at least manage to make him kind of believable within the context of the film. There is even an element of pathos toward the climax in the relationship between him and his loyal sergeant (John Astin – probably the best thing about this). Jonathan Winters, Harry Morgan and Keenan Wynn clearly don't have Ustinov's keen eye for emphasising the few interesting aspects in their broadly drawn characters and therefore resort to broad farce which weakens things considerably. This one's unlikely to appeal to any casual viewer born after 1970.

In an attempt to win the respect of his girlfriend and father, General Maximilian Rodrigues de Santos takes a group of 100 Mexican soldiers and heads north. Despite the fact that his men are poorly organised and view the General as being unfit to lead a dog, they manage to bluff their way past the bemused border guard. They go through Texas and make for San Antonio, home of the Alamo. They easily manage to capture the tourist attraction and are easily holed up inside, claiming it back on behalf of Mexico. Meanwhile, outside, the Texan authorities scratch their heads and wonder what they are supposed to make of all this.The idea sounds simple and indeed it is – it all depends what you do with it whether or not it is as simple as all that or better. What could you do with it? Perhaps a wacky zany Carry On style jape? Or perhaps an absurd satire with relevant digs at the political systems? Or perhaps a cross between the two? Well, I'm not sure what the makers of this film tried to do with it but to my mind they didn't actually manage to make anything come off that well. At times it has some nice digs and ironies within it but these are very liberally scattered throughout the film rather than being the core of it. For the majority of the film it is surprisingly light on laughs or good comedy; it is roundly amusing but I did want more belly laughs. Funnily enough the best material happens outside the Alamo with some funny portrayals of the Texan response.This leaves Ustinov just trying to mug his way to laughs and, to his credit he makes a good fist of it considering. However, like I said, the better material goes to people like Morgan, Winter, Wynn and a few others who are amusing and benefit from not having the title role on their shoulders to carry. The direction makes reasonable use of the Alamo but somehow still manages to make some parts of it look like it is on a set somewhere.Overall this is a distraction at best; it is pretty amusing and has some nice touches but mainly it doesn't do anything consistent of note. Ustinov tries hard to carry the film but the best material is saved for the support cast playing the American response, meaning that I found myself in the funny situation of not wanting the lead actor/title character to be on the screen. Amusing and distracting at best, certainly no more than that.