Solemplex
To me, this movie is perfection.
Colibel
Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.
Tedfoldol
everything you have heard about this movie is true.
SnoopyStyle
In Venice, gangster Scarpa is expecting an assassination attempt but he doesn't know that it's hit-man Mike Lawton (Bryan Brown). Melvyn Orton (Dudley Moore) is in town to check out properties for his boss. Real estate agent Caroline Wright (Patsy Kensit) is looking unload a dud quickly for triple the commission. Maurice Horton (Richard Griffiths) is looking to find an arranged date with Patricia Fulford. Major screw-ups by the bumbling bellboy (Bronson Pinchot) send the wrong messages to the various hotel clients. Horton is sent to Caroline Wright expecting a date. Orton is sent to Scarpa expecting to buy the property. Lawton is sent to Fulford expecting to kill her.Writer/director Mark Herman misses the mark on this one. Bronson Pinchot's broad comedic performance is very distracting. The three misunderstandings come with a few chuckles. Patsy Kensit and Richard Griffiths are probably the closest to being funny. They are a little bit of sitcom and is almost comical. The other two stories are nowhere near funny. They turn into a lot of running around. After Patsy and Richard have done the deed, even that falls flat. It's a lot of misunderstanding without the comedy.
morrison-dylan-fan
With having enjoyed watching the Santa Cluse Movie with my family for quite a few Christmases,and having also heard lots about his "troubled" double act,with the great Peter Cook,I,was keen on seeing things that Dudley Moore had made.When I heard on some sites that this film had been used as the "insperation" for a Bollywood film that a friend of mine enjoys and,that Moore also stars in the film.I felt that due to this,that it was worth picking up the film.The plot:Three very different men (one is an estate buyer,the others a hit-man,and the last one is a cheating husband!),with very similar sounding last names each book themselves into the same Venice hotel.The only problem for all three of them is that the bellboy cant remember whose name is whose.So when some gangsters come to the hotel wanting to kill the hit-man,the estate buyer-and the cheating husband are both mistaken for him..View on the film:One of the things that surprised me about what writer/director Mark Herman did with the film,was to not turn it into a Zucker-style comedy,but to actually make the story pretty solid,and to keep the film at a very lean 75 minute running time (though the ending is similar to Its a Mad,Mad,Mad,Mad World-that Zucker would later remake into Rat Race.).With the cast,I feel that all three leading men gave good performances,and were each given some strong set-pieces for each of them to shine in (Moore getting tortured!,the surprising hit-man romance,and Richard Griffiths mistaking a mansion seller,for a prostitute.)Final view on the film:An entertaining short-and-sweet comedy,with an enjoyable screenplay and good performances from the three leads.
Bjorn (ODDBear)
Three men; Orton, Horton and Lawton find themselves in unorthodox situations due to the misunderstanding of a bellboy.This farcical comedy is right on the mark. Clever misunderstandings arise and they're all well played out, with a willing cast who aim to please. Dudley Moore is especially appealing here in one of his last screen roles. Bronson Pinchot is also a riot as the world's worst bellboy.The script is tight, I felt it could have been even longer, some plot holes but who cares? It's very funny all the way. Using beautiful scenery from lovely Venice, the film gets even more of an appeal. I can't see how one can dislike a film like this.
Robert D. Ruplenas
Take 3 Englishmen -1. Michael Horton (a philanderer indulging in a surreptitious tryst) 2. Mike Lawton (a hit man assigned to rub out an Italian mob boss) 3. Melvin Orton (a mousey junior manager on a property-buying assignment for his overbearing boss)and put them all in the same Venetian hotel with a bellhop who has great difficulty with the English language, and you have what promises to be a raucously funny good time, and 'Blame it on the Bellboy' delivers on the promise. This rousing comedy of confused identities comes right out of the tradition of the great British Ealing Studios film comedies of the late 50's and 60's (the same tradition 'A Fish Called Wanda' purported to come from; I found this movie a LOT funnier).My only complaint is that some of the grim scenes of mob violence would be more at home in the 'Lethal Weapon' series; in a farce like this they seem jarringly out of place. However, beautiful Patsy Kensit's presence more than compensates for this minor complaint (she was the blonde secretary in Lethal Weapon 2, remember?).On the whole, an A++ recommendation
