Sleeper (Wide Screen)

Advantages: Very funny
Disadvantages: Bit dated in places

Sleeper is a 1973 comedy by Woody Allen and one of the last of his free-wheeling 'early funny ones'. In the early seventies Allen came up with an idea for a three hour film. The first half would be a New York comedy set in the present day. After an intermission, Allen's character would be frozen and wake in the future. The idea was rejected by the Studio but they asked him instead to make the second half of his proposed project, a comedy with a futuristic ...
...still goes to Macdonalds. Sleeper doesn't have a huge budget and the future is depicted by bubble cars and isolated pieces of strange architecture that Allen and his crew found in the Californian countryside. It isn't exactly Bladerunner but Allen, growing in confidence behind the camera, is inventive in giving the film an interesting look. After being unwrapped, Monroe staggers around and then takes control of a motorized wheelchair. Sleeper is ... Read review

Advantages: Consistently funny
Disadvantages: The directors reluctance towards extras

"It's hard to believe that you haven't had sex for 200 years" "204, if you count my marriage." Woody Allen films may as well be hardcore Dutch pornography as far as my social circle goes. A subject I shouldn't mention, or be seen to be buying, and if I do insist on watching his stuff, it had better be behind closed doors. Girlfriend after girlfriend was completely mystified by the man and his movies, and while I thought that 'Broadway Danny Rose' ...
...fidgeting and sighing suggested otherwise. So here I am, admitting it publicly, hell, I've already admitted to liking Dr Who on Ciao, how much worse can it get? 'Sleeper' is as good a movie as any to try and introduce people to his work. Made in 1973 while Allen was still in his slapstick phase, it is the story of Miles Monroe, mild mannered health food store owner, who awakes after routine surgery to discover he is 200 years into the future. Far ... Read review

Advantages: Great film
Disadvantages: Where are the extras??

...masses (any more, at least). Sleeper is one of his early comedies, and one of his very best. It keeps on the right side of cynical (which is something you can't say about some of his later works, especially post Mia Farrow films like Deconstructing Harry and Celebrity). Woody's only full blown sci-fi movie, it focuses on Miles, an owner of a health food store in Greenwich Village, who is woken up 200 years after he officially died (after complications ...
...the moment. Maybe Woody will come around someday, Sleeper ranks as one of Woody's best, which in a career where he has been involved with over forty movies, is quite an achievement. If you liked this, I recommend Bananas and Love and Death, both for classic early Woody laugh-a-thons. ... Read review

Advantages: Funny, funny, funny, funny...
Disadvantages: Getting on a bit

...hour and a half. However Sleeper did just that and I have to say - I felt the worst for wear after that! I know that slapstick comedy doesn't appeal to everyone, but I've watched this film with people who look down on slapstick humour, but they found it hilarious and to their liking. The tagline says it all: "A love story about two people who hate each other". This is Woody Allen at his best. I find it baffling how he manages to come up with all ...
...good entertaining hour and a half. Miles Monroe (Allen) has a been in a coma since the 1970s, and is revived some 200 years later. In this futuristic world much has changed. For example scientists have found that everything which was once considered to be bad for you, like tobacco, sugar, butter etc is now very good for your health. He is immediately urged by anti-government radicals to opress the government and help fight in the resistance movements. ... Read review

Advantages: Classic film, adds to the collection
Disadvantages: makes no use of DVD's potential

Like all of Woody Allen's comedies from the 1970s, "Sleeper" is a must-buy, simply because you know you'll watch it over and over. Like most of the DVD releases of his films, however, it makes very little use of the format's possibilities. The storyline is rich in satire and accurately apes a genre of social message sci-fi films from the period (Planet of The Apes, The Omega Man, Silent Runnings etc.)A health food store owner from the 70s is defrosted ...
...to be good for you and where America is under totalitarian rule. That's about as serious as it gets - the scenes best remembered (the orgasmatron, the inflatable suit, Allen as a robot) are more Harold Lloyd than H.G. Wells. It's typical Woody - well shot, great music, high and low humour, with his best co-star, Diane Keaton playing an almost uncannily similar character to Patty Hearst. The DVD, though seems to be done purely as a catalogue filler ... Read review