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The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Prison convict Jackie Gleason on acid, guided by cell-mate Austin Pendleton, sees mob boss God (Groucho Marx). Prison Guard Fred Clark on acid sees prisoners in the yard as Green Bay Packers, naked. Carol Channing, sober, wears mod Rudy Gernreich, gets sexy with Frankie Avalon, sings inane Nilsson refrain through your skull. All that and Micky Rooney! And Frank Gorshin! And Richard 'Jaws' Kiel! Hippy king John Phillip Law and his real-life brother Tom (whose hair is real) walk about shirtless and sincere. Director Otto Preminger seeks 'new reality' through humiliation and forced awkwardness of cultural icons.See this on a double-bill with 'Myra Breckenridge'.

Yes, it's a must for bad film fans and fans of the truly odd, but even with the amazing cast it's basically a chore to sit through. Harry Nilsson singing the end credits is perhaps the movies one moment of real charm, but by then everyone had gone home. Groucho is touching at 78, trying harder than he did in "Love Happy," and for a fleeting moment lifts the car out of the ditch. Everyone seems to note how "weird" this was, but in context, I would say not so much. It's an attempt to imitate Terry Southern's hipster humor, which only worked when applied by directors like Kubrick and Richardson with a light, even handed touch. Then again, the jokes are far more obvious than Southern, and the basic situation too absurd. Sad to see so many great stars near the end, but the real question is, how did Harry Nilsson survive this ?

One reviewer noted that 'some people reported that Preminger experimented with acid while making this movie.' That's historically imprecise: it was Preminger himself who said, in a number of interviews, that he was ON acid while making this film (meaning he took it through-out the production. At first he said this rather proudly, apparently hoping it would sell the film to the 'youth' market, but by the early '70s he was using this as an excuse for the films evident failure, artistic and financial. (His career never fully recovered.) In fact, the film did damage to the careers of almost everyone involved - Gleason, Marx, Lawford, Burgess, Channing - all suffered from the fiasco.I had the unpleasant experience seeing this when it first came out - my Mother wanted to see 'a Jackie Gleason movie,' and was too stubborn to walk out after she had paid for the tickets. Even in my immaturity I could see this was a MESS. The characters were unlikeable, the images were flat, the story meandering about unbelievably, and the jokes - the only way you could tell it was a comedy is because the actors were laughing. I hope I never see it again.Yet I do admit one thing, which is why I write this review so many years later. For some reason the design of the film is unforgettable, as is the casual hipsters' party attitude that permeates the script and the acting. And that's NOT a good thing.So, unless you want acid-flashbacks without ever dropping any cubes, avoid this movie like the plague, or it will infect your mind with horrible memories of bad cinema.

Skidoo (1968) ** (out of 4) Extremely bizarre comedy has gangster battling hippies in the lovin' 60's. A retired gangster (Jackie Gleason) is asked by the top gangster, God (Groucho Marx) to break into prison and kill a rat (Mickey Rooney). On the outside Gleason's daughter has started dating a hippie and its up to them to try and save her dad. This was a notorious flop when originally released but it has gained a cult following over the years and in the end the film really isn't all that bad. I think the biggest problem is that Preminger simply wasn't the right guy to direct the material. He's got some great comic actors yet he gets very little from them. Most of the comedy comes from politically incorrect stuff or things that weren't meant to be funny but they come off that way. The highlight of the film is when Gleason is in prison and accidentally takes some LSD and has a wild trip afterwards. Marx also smokes some pot, which is somewhat funny but Rooney comes off rather lame. The supporting cast includes Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, George Raft and Cesar Romero. The film eventually runs out of steam in the final act, which again deals with an LSD trip but the jokes plays itself out way before the end.