Monkey Business

Possibly the funniest Marx Brothers.

The one on the boat. This was a lot better than the previous two Marx Brothers movies I'd watched. It actually starts with a strong joke rather than, you know, 10 minutes of singing. Which is good. Overall, a huge step up. I kind of feel like I have to address this one last thing. Harpo is a serial rapist. Can we all acknowledge this, and move on? Good. And, I'm not 100% sure, but I think we're meant to believe that he was fucking that baby cow at the end. Just so we're on the same page.

The humor just isn't all that funny to me, but I nonetheless get a lot of enjoyment out of watching these guys. There's something I just love about their characters, even if most of the gags and lines themselves don't do much for me (a few do, however). And damn, Harpo can play the harp!

I'm the real Maurice Chevalier.

I appreciate the humor. Sometimes it feels a little too staged, but I suppose that's part of the charm.

Not that many memorable scenes.

Not a big fan of the Marx brothers but this was pretty funny for the first 50 minutes until it ran out of steam.

The pace is really uneven, unlike the other 'good' Marx Bros films, but still one of the good ones and you can't miss it if you liked the others.

Is it just me, or is this markedly less funny once they leave the boat?

Utterly enjoyable, achingly funny, brilliantly executed and highly recommended.

"You're just wasting your breath, and that's no great loss either."

Really great fun. Just gets funnier and funnier as the film goes on.

Monkey Business was the first film to really capture the Marx Brothers' zany comic energy courtesy of McLeod, who had a far better understanding of how to translate their magnificently manic style to cinema, largely avoiding the play like limitations of his predecessors. His sense of timing was impeccable, and he knew how to stage gags to emphasise their impact while highlighting the brothers' unique chemistry. It loses steam in the final act, but until then it's a riotous laugh fest.

a highly unmemorable marx brothers movie, there was a joke here an there that i laughed at, but honestly it's been a couple days since i watched it and i've completely forgotten the plot. i still maintain that i could probably watch a full hour and a half of chico shooting the piano--that never gets old.

The Marx Brothers don't get any better than this. The dialogue is witty, the plot is serviceable, and--besides--you can never have too many Maurice Chevaliers!

The third Marx brothers film, and one of their funniest.

Most comedy ages badly. This however, is great.

The gags keep coming with very few lulls in the hilarity, even Zeppo is funny from time to time. The film really does suffer from lack of a decent foil though, the non-zeppo straight men and women just suck the life out of the movie and are really terrible to forgettable in every scene. But the brothers kill enough to make this the funniest Marx films even if it's not the best overall.

50

It's classic, it's corny, it's the Marx Brothers.

These guys just ain't funny no more

The third Marx Brothers feature, and the first not to adapt one of their Broadway productions. (Who pays attention to the "plot" or act structure in these things anyway? Not these four, that's for sure!) It's just one long succession of their typical patter and stage business without a pause for breath. Probably the most memorable for Harpo's part of the Maurice Chevalier impersonation bit.

More monkey business by the Marx Brothers. Either you like this sort of humor or you don't. Memorable? There's nothing to remember except Harpo's and Chico's performances on harp and piano.

Nobody can cram as many puns in one movie as Groucho Marx. But it's Harpo and Chico that I usually find funniest.

A fine Marx Brothers film, though by the end some of the jokes seem repetitive.

85.00

One of the best comedies out there! And it was made just 3 years after the first 'all talky'... truely amazing! This movie made me fall in love with the Marx Brothers! The 'chess scene' and 'the passport scene' are LEGENDARY. Thank god for Vaudeville. There is no real plot, it's all about gags, but that's no problem because skilled these are some crazy oversexed, dexterious performers! Go watch it!!!

It's hardly an original thought, but after revisiting MONKEY BUSINESS I finally understood that the Marxes are not comedians, but simply grown-up children at play. Which I think explains why I was tired of them for so long, and why Harpo has always been my favorite: he's the Purest, most Undistilled Marx. I think this is the picture where the boys finally hit their stride on film, though there was still room for improvement ahead.

marx bros never fail to make me smile :)

this rating is more or less my baseline for marx brothers movies

There's some good one-liners but a lot of it just doesn't work. It's very Groucho-heavy, without enough interaction between the Marxes. It could use some Margaret Dumont, too -- few of the "straight" characters here play off the brothers very well.

Finally, Groucho isn't in charge of anything, and they are all for each other as stowaways. Is that Harpo singing or is it a barbershop trio? Zeppo shows he's better than Allan Jones. OK, so that ain't much. Great stuff, even if you don't know Maurice Chevalier.

Even more wacky than most Marx Bros. features, this has Groucho on fine form.

Live action cartoon style crazy antics, just what you expect from the Marx Bros. Some amazing piano and harp action too!

Felt like forever, but forever with the Marx brothers is fine by me

Fast-paced comedy provides seemingly endless amount of gags, quips, and pratfalls, including the fab four imitating Maurice Chevalier at Immigration. This film, incidentally, was the group's first to be written--by noted humorist Perelman--directly for the screen.

The Marx Brothers 3rd film has them hiding as stowaways on an ocean liner. The crew tries to catch them ... they run away. There's also a couple of rival gangsters, each of whom accidentally hire 2 of the brothers each, and Zeppo falls in love with one of their daughters, but essentially this is a plotless film that gives the brothers maximum time to revel in absurd capery. I love this.

One of the funnest early talkies courtesy of the Marx brothers.

i guess i probably would have loved this if i watched it in 1931...or hadn't watched any other marx brothers films in several years before watching it. scrapes the bottom of the barrel for jokes, some of it works, most does not.

With scarcely a plot to speak of, Monkey Business is far less memorable than subsequent Marx Brothers efforts, but there's some great wordplay and slapstick scattered throughout and the musical interludes are as terrific as ever.

Marx Brothers craziness as you expect it, here as stowaways on a ship. Not really much going on except gag after gag. Oh, and there might have been some criminals doing something in between those gags, but I'm not sure. Monkey Business was funny, sometimes hilarious, but you couldn't help but feel something was missing to make it a Marx Brothers classic. But still, if you've seen a Marx Brothers movie before, you know what you'll be getting. Madness!

As a story this is incredibly stupid, complete nonsense. That is, in fact, the point of Marx Brothers comedy. The mayhem in this one does not get as tiresome as in other comedies.

Great comedy is never dated and even Groucho's Depression puns will still make you laugh.