A Disappointing Continuation

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Jonesy and Lou are in Algeria looking for a wrestler they are promoting. Sergeant Axmann tricks them into joining the Foreign Legion, after which they discover Axmann's collaboration with the nasty Sheik Hamud El Khalid.The plots of the various movies don't really matter one way or the other. What really matters are the gags. I felt like the gags in this one fell a bit short. The centerpiece is a scene concerning a mirage, which never really hit its peak. And the verbal banter that these two are best at is absent, and that is disappointing.The movie does work as sort of a cultural artifact about what Americans (or Hollywood) thought of the Middle East in 1950. While not outright offensive in any way, some of it seems surprisingly ignorant. But then again, I could probably argue that the situation has not improved in the last 60 years.

Slight Abbott and Costello comedy has them playing wrestling promoters whose star attraction has quit and gone home to Algiers. The duo follow after him and are tricked into joining the Foreign Legion. This is not one of the boys' better efforts but it's still a decent way to pass the time. Most of the gags are pretty stale but I did laugh here and there. Walter Slezak and Douglas Dumbrille are good heavies but the script doesn't give them a lot to do. Patricia Medina looks like a Hedy Lamarr clone. Wrestlers Wee Willie Davis and Tor Johnson are fun to see. The wrestling gags are some of the movie's best. Maybe Bud and Lou should have made a wrestling movie instead and forgotten all this Foreign Legion stuff. Like I said, not their funniest but enjoyable enough to pass the time.

You've see it before, because other movies copy a lot of its gags. From the comedy team lost in desert, one short & fat, and one skinny & at times mean, it's like seeing R2D2 and C3PO before they ever existed.Then there's the fight scene in which get chaotic and next thing you know everyone is fighting.And Costello, he's trying to make out with every girl he can. These scenes are very clean, yet suggest that he's up to no good in the best way.If you like watching old movies that get copied over and over then you'll like this one.

Not much going on in this film that is going to amuse anyone over the age of 8. The gags are very simple and it is obvious that most of the movie was shot in a studio, but still the film retains a silly juvenile charm. The best parts occur when A & C are lost in the desert and Lou is seeing mirages of a malt shop and of an oasis. A great gag occurs when he hallucinates that a newsboy is selling newspapers in the desert. When Lou asks him how he got there, the newsboy answers that he got stuck with a bad corner. The rest of the film has the usual slapstick nonsense and tired old gags about oil Sheiks and harems. On the whole only worth seeing if your brain is stuck in idle (or stupid).