CLOCKWISE (1984) ** John Cleese picks out some enormous targets-punctuality, businessmen, schools with uniforms, senile old ladies-and then hits them very lightly in selective spots. A certain subtlety has always been his forte, but engaged in a heady mix including absurdity and outrage on the better occasions. I mean, it's all quite amusing, ever watching him mimic the ambitiously lukewarm proper gentleman, but a film can travel only so far on facial gestures and isolated unlikely situations. To make matters worse the rest of the cast joins in the gentility of wickedness, rendering them less than ineffective. There is plenty to laugh at and make fun of here, but Mr. Cleese is good enough to leave most of it to your imagination, for an unpleasant change.
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