Dr Strangelove is a film that is sitting high up in the IMDb Top 250 films (it's currently sitting at number 49 on the list) and therefore it's clearly a film that is generally loved by the public - the critics also have a strong liking for this film. I personally found this film a little uneven if I'm honest....
I think where this film is at its strongest is once we get to The War Room; the scenes within the War Room are easily the funniest and best examples of satire. The phone calls between the US President and the Russian President did have me really laughing and I also liked the interplay between President Muffley and the militant Buck Turgidson and thought their various exchanges were absolute gold. Peter Sellers was fantastic in his three different roles although I must admit he was definitely at his best as the German Weapons Researcher. Sellers clearly had a lot of fun here and his performance(s) in this film do almost make up for some of the more tedious aspects. Likewise, Scott was great in his respective role and Hayden was good as the insane general and gave a real scenery chewing performance - did that cigar ever leave his mouth? I think the funniest part of the film was the scene where Mandrake is trying to get through to the President, but runs out of money and asks a soldier to shoot the Coca Cola machine so that he can get some more money in order to get through to the President. The soldier then utters the line "If you don't get through to the President, you'll end up in trouble with Coca-Cola". A very funny exchange and quite unexpected if I'm honest.
Where the film falters slightly is in most of the scenes outside the War Room. There were far too many scenes from within the war planes that were quite dull if I'm honest. I can understand the opening plane scene and the closing plane scenes, but the constant cuts from the War Room to the planes just seemed pointless. If there was any humour to be found in the 'plane' scenes then it was clearly lost on me. Unfortunately these dull scenes did drag the film down slightly for me despite the fact that the majority of The War Room scenes were very funny.
Dr Strangelove isn't a bad film, but it's a very uneven film that was both very funny and very tedious. Unfortunately the good and the bad pretty much cancel each other out hence the score of 5 out of 10.
I think where this film is at its strongest is once we get to The War Room; the scenes within the War Room are easily the funniest and best examples of satire. The phone calls between the US President and the Russian President did have me really laughing and I also liked the interplay between President Muffley and the militant Buck Turgidson and thought their various exchanges were absolute gold. Peter Sellers was fantastic in his three different roles although I must admit he was definitely at his best as the German Weapons Researcher. Sellers clearly had a lot of fun here and his performance(s) in this film do almost make up for some of the more tedious aspects. Likewise, Scott was great in his respective role and Hayden was good as the insane general and gave a real scenery chewing performance - did that cigar ever leave his mouth? I think the funniest part of the film was the scene where Mandrake is trying to get through to the President, but runs out of money and asks a soldier to shoot the Coca Cola machine so that he can get some more money in order to get through to the President. The soldier then utters the line "If you don't get through to the President, you'll end up in trouble with Coca-Cola". A very funny exchange and quite unexpected if I'm honest.
Where the film falters slightly is in most of the scenes outside the War Room. There were far too many scenes from within the war planes that were quite dull if I'm honest. I can understand the opening plane scene and the closing plane scenes, but the constant cuts from the War Room to the planes just seemed pointless. If there was any humour to be found in the 'plane' scenes then it was clearly lost on me. Unfortunately these dull scenes did drag the film down slightly for me despite the fact that the majority of The War Room scenes were very funny.
Dr Strangelove isn't a bad film, but it's a very uneven film that was both very funny and very tedious. Unfortunately the good and the bad pretty much cancel each other out hence the score of 5 out of 10.