Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

GASBAGS is a film outing for The Crazy Gang, a bunch of middle aged men who delighted British audiences with their silly, slapstick humour during the 1940s. This one also manages to be a propaganda effort that spends the whole time having a laugh at the Nazis. The preposterous plotting involves a fish and chip van which is accidentally transported to Nazi Germany, where our heroes must attempt to escape. Unfortunately I found this very difficult to sit through, let alone enjoy. The humour is of the most juvenile ever, the actors go way over the top in the line of duty, and only the occasional decent song and bit-part actor (Wally Patch, Irene Handl) make it the least bit watchable.

The Crazy Gang were a British institution loved by everyone till their retirement in 1963,me included.I appreciate that their humour may not travel,but then you could say the same about Milton Berle who is unknown here.This may not be their best film but it is still pretty good.So far as taste is concerned what about To Be Or Not To Be making fun of the Gestapo,or That Nazty Nuisance making fun of Hitler.

I had heard of the Crazy Gang and that this movie was quite the morale booster for the British in the dark days of the war. I wanted to like this movie but just didn't. Perhaps in part it was the generally poor print quality of the tape I was watching. I have read that some disliked this movie because there is nothing funny about World War II or Hitler. For me, this wasn't the issue but rather that the plot was just too wacky, zany and frenetic. I couldn't keep track of all the characters and it all seem like a jumbled mess. A previous reviewer mentioned the Three Stooges. Each of the Stooges had a distinct personality unlike the Crazy Gang where it was hard for me to tell one from the other. As a youngster in the fifties, I grew up with the Stooges on Saturday morning television. I remember them very fondly – of course I was a kid. The Crazy Gang just didn't resonate with me. That said, I will still probably give them another look-see given how popular they were in their day.

The Crazy Gang followed THE FROZEN LIMITS (1939) with this, their take on Nazi Germany; it’s a fairly inspired comedy on a serious subject, though one couldn’t sensibly compare it to Chaplin’s THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940) – or, for that matter, Lubitsch’s TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942).The film starts with them as billeted soldiers who still manage a clandestine fish-and-chip business on the side; caught by their superior officer, the balloon advertising their activity flies off into the air in the ensuing frenzy, taking with it the entire stall – and the Gang itself! After climbing on top of the balloon, Naughton falls inside and inhales all of its air – causing them to land in a foreign country (one of the film’s brightest gags occurs here as four members of the Gang pump the physically inflated Naughton in order to take the air out of him, with which Flanagan is able to light a stove on which to cook their breakfast!) which they first take to be Ireland because of the greenery, then France when they meet a group of French soldiers. However, their rash decision to join the French army turns out to be unwise – because it transpires that the latter are, in fact, P.O.W.s (GASBAGS was certainly at the forefront in depicting a concentration camp)!Being one of the first films to poke fun at the Nazis, its attack is merciless: for instance, the Gang’s balloon lands in a field, and Allen says there must be some prime manure under their feet – just then, we pan down to the reveal the Nazi headquarters below the surface!; later on, during a dinner engagement – in which Knox (who sports a moustache) is made to pass off as Hitler, he can’t understand why nobody around him is eating – to which one of the others snaps, “They’re all waiting for you, you twerp!” Just as in THE FROZEN LIMITS, Moore Marriott lends invaluable support – even if the somewhat overbearing Naughton is, once again, often the center of attention; however, we do get a charming song here from Flanagan and Allen.Other great gags in the camp include: the way the Gang are continuously deposed from their bunks by the mass of other P.O.W.s; the side-splitting appearance of Hitler at their window – it then transpires that the Hitler impersonators of Germany have gone on strike in tandem, and they’ve been sent to the camp as punishment! Hence, when a plot is hatched to ‘assassinate’ the Fuhrer to deceive the Allies and a double is needed, the Gestapo settle on Knox (still, it was improbable to allow the entire Gang to take part in the ‘mission’, the others offering themselves up as bodyguards – plus Marriott, who has a map tattooed on his back indicating the site of a secret weapon that could win the war for the side which lays its hand on it). The various attempts on Hitler’s life, of course, all go hilariously awry – a booby-trap flower arrangement, cannon-fire, poison, acid, a platform gives out under him during a speech to the crowd (with Knox mimicking the words of the real Fuhrer, speaking safely from his headquarters).The last third of the film finds the Gang attempting to retrieve the secret weapon while dodging pursuit by the Gestapo (at one point, they even disguise themselves as forest trees!); when our heroes find the shuttle-like burrowing device, it takes them via earth and water to safety back home – where they emerge through the floor of their own barracks, much to the consternation of the Gang’s superior officer! While the quality of the audio throughout the film on the Network DVD is slightly better than was the case with THE FROZEN LIMITS, the print here is rather dark. GASBAGS, then, is a good vehicle for this wacky (and unfairly neglected) comedy team – though I tend to prefer its predecessor overall; incidentally, the only other major WWII British comedy made during this time was Basil Dearden’s THE GOOSE STEPS OUT (1942) – Will Hay’s penultimate film, which he also co-directed.