Cinema Cycle - Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 02/29/2016

TITLE: Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, (or How I Flew From London to Paris in 25 hours and 11 minutes)

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 2 hours 20 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 32.6 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 4274.7 miles

SYNOPSIS: Early aviation pioneers gather in England for an air race from London to Paris.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER:   Slapstick and farce on a grand scale with over the top stunts and production value

PROS AND CONS:  This project has given me some interesting perspectives on films that I have seen long ago.  This is one of them.  As a small child this type of over the top comedy / adventure film thrilled me in a ‘Saturday Cartoon’ sort of way.

When I watched it here 30 years later, the slapstick is a bit dated and long-winded.  However, the cinematography and soundtrack were much better than I recall, especially with the upgraded sound system I have.  

This is one of the blockbuster roadshow films that Hollywood churned out in the early 1960s to compete with the spread of television.  Other films such as “The Great Race”, “Around The World in 80 Days” and “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” also fall into this category.  A category where large film studios churned out large films, with large casts and huge budgets.  Those must have been heady times.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.