Search - Brothers O'Toole on DVD

Rainy Day Fun For Western Lovers/Also Included in Great Amer

L. Shirley | fountain valley, ca United States | 11/23/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

""The Brothers O'Toole"(1973/R)...This was a slapstick kind of comedy/western, and it garnered more then a few chuckles from me.
John Astin and Steve Carlson are the brothers who can usually con their way into or out of any situation. Astin is the brains(and plays a double role), and Carlsen the ladies man. But when Astin is mistaken for a really bad hombre, and captured and held prisoner by the quirky towns folk while awaiting a hanging, they must figure their way out. A fabulous funny cast includes Pat Carroll,Jesse White, Lee Merriwether(in quite a different role for her)and Hans Conried provides some laughs as well.

For a really good deal you can get this funny western along with 7 other westerns onThe Great American Western 2/DVD The Gun and the Pulpit/Boot Hill/Gunfighters/Little Moon & Jud McGraw/The Jackals/My Outlaw Brother/Jory/The Brothers O'TooleThe volume is a mix of comedy and drama. For film details click on the product link I included above and see my review.

So if you are looking for a John Ford quality western, pass this one by, but for some rainy day fun with some fabulously funny actors, check it out. And by the way, although rated R the rating is no where near what an R film is today. I would probably consider it more along a PG-13 lines, but parents should probbly check it out first anyway.

Happy Trails...Laurie

recommended for more western fun:The Over the Hill Gang - AND - The Over the Hill Gang Rides Again
The Great American Western: Yuma, Wackiest Wagon Train in the West, Sunset Carson Rides Again, the Gunfighters"

Don't get your hopes up

K. Swanson | Austin, TX United States | 04/21/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"A generous 3 stars.

I've seen so many films after four decades of viewing that I'm trolling around trying to find unknown classics.
Caught a minnow this time.

Astin can be very funny and is the only real highlight here, but the script is so ham-handed it doesn't give him much to work with. The occasional funny line shines here and there, but the trope of satirizing westerns has been done so well elsewhere that it needs to be great to really carry one's interest, and Brothers O'Toole is almost never great. Good-hearted, yes, but that's about it.

It's the kind of film you were delighted to find at 3 am on your local tv channel in 1977, but it's now 2010 and we have literally tens of thousands of movies to choose from on tv, online, and at the vid store. In that light, it's hard to recommend watching this until one has seen maybe 500 other westerns. It's too slapstick and not quite as smart as it wants to be; one gets the feeling that half the cast and crew were in some way inebriated during the production, and it all feels like a sort of hippie-made western that never really comes off.

By the way, my tv analogy is no fluke: this print is from a tv airing! The print is fair, the transfer likewise...but get this: at various moments throughout, there's a TCM logo on the bottom right (Turner Classic Movies, probably). Yes, they made this dvd from a tv copy. I don't think I've ever seen that before. Yet somehow it's perfect, as that's what this feels like: a barely decent tv movie. Still, how did this get pressed for public consumption?! And also btw, the dvd is the barest bones ever, with one option: PLAY.

We got quite bored before it was halfway through, and laudable brevity is one of the best things about this movie. But unless you love Astin, and even then have seen most of his other films, I'd put this one near the bottom of your list.

Many and maybe most forgotten films were forgotten for a reason. Brothers O'Toole is certainly one of them. Not terrible, but neither is it very good. It's kinda like the Scooby-Doo of westerns: vaguely funny for the irony but after 30 minutes it's time to go mow the lawn.

Or at least change the channel."

Not "Blazing Saddles" but still very funny

R. Oberuc | Randolph, NJ USA | 12/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The talking is fast. And plenty of camp. It is not "Blazing Saddles" (which is funny in a whole other direction) - there is hardly much swearing (except for just about all the characters saying "Molly-B-Damn" because they are too stupid to say "Molybdenum"). And much of the movie (I think) exists just to set up the 40 second monologue that John Astin gives toward the end. May be too slow or intellectual (???) by today's standards but I think this movie is a hoot!"