Why so much hype?

Memorable, crazy movie

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This movie is like a "make a wish" grant for a dying child. In this case, the producers of the Dick Van Dyke show must have felt sorry for Morey Amsterdam as they killed the last big job he'd ever have when then ended the Van Dyke series.Consider the relatively sophisticated humor coming on television at this time, much less the movie. Addams Family, Munsters, Batman, etc. All with loads of adult based double entendre humor that would make kids giggle, yet make adults think twice.And these shows used many celebrity cameos like this movie does, but the other shows understood the point of having the celebrities make fun of themselves. This movie just parades stars through like they all took numbers at the studio cafeteria and were waiting in line.I've never been a big fan of Amsterdam's version of vaudeville humor (consider the Marx brothers were from the same era and how much bawdy and funnier they were), so jamming it into a full length movie doesn't make it any better.I have a feeling that Amsterdam was a great ad-libber on the Dick Van Dyke show, and they kept him around to sweeten scripts, but he wasn't really much of a performer - Dick Van Dyke could have done the show by himself.This movie IS fun to run in the background just to see how many performers whored themselves out for a few seconds of screen time, but other than that, this movie has little entertainment value.

I've always been a fan of Morey Amsterdam. I mean, he was known as "the human joke machine" and I was a excited to see his writing credit on the movie. But, after this fine example of his work, I'm ready to blame him for the death of vaudeville. This movie was like a cross between "The Monkeys" & "The Three Stooges". It felt like someone made a movie out of a mad lib. A mid lib filled out by potheads. There was no real plot to the movie, but at the same time there were many confusing sub plots. Some kind of government conspiracy involving a Barbra Streisand impersonator. That's all I remember before the brain aneurysm, presumably caused by the movie, left me unconscious on the floor.

I went across this film on TV and watched it mainly because I had enjoyed a lot the first "The Dick van Dyke Show" and everybody but the main couple was there. In my opinion they didn't think of anything at all here, not just the title.The conclusion could be that the cast was comfortable on television but the big screen was too big for them. Director Harmon Jones started making some average or below average pictures but ended up filming episodes of different series of the little screen; this was probably his right place. Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam don't reach at all their funny performances with van Dyke and several cameo appearances by well known comedians don't help either.Can't recall a single smile with this one.

This movie is about a girl who inherits a bookstore, and the "wacky antics" of her employees. This movie definitely plays on the cold war mentality and fear of espionage of the time, but for laughs. It features some of 1960's television, and 1930's film's greatest stars (Supporting cast of the Dick Van Dyke show, Moe Howard of Three Stooges fame, Milton Berl, Steve Allen, etc...) Chock full of one liners (pretty much the whole movie is set ups for one liners), it takes what would make a 30 minute sitcom hilarious, and makes a 90 minute movie annoying. This movie is really quite goofy. HOWEVER, I really think a kid might find it quite funny...and by kid I mean under 10 yrs.Seeing all the cameos is a nice trip down nostalgia-lane for the over 40 folks, if you are not interested in a plot, a script, and acting talent.