Title of movie
iThree Amigos!
(Movie Logo concept by me)
font: Taco Modern
Movie classification ratings
PG (US, UK & Aus)
Notes: contains mild fantasy violence through comedy context
Estimate feature run-time: approximately 1 hour, 55 mins
Year of Production & Release
Production: 1994
Theatrical release: 1995
Tag lines
'The Three Amigos are back! Well Kind Of'
What type of movie is it?
A Western comedy film; is a remake to The iThree Amigos! starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short, which was released in 1986.
Originally, Steven Spielberg was slated to direct iThree Amigos! with the casting of Bill Murray, Robin Williams and Steve Martin in mind. In the end, he decided to make E.T instead.
Full cast:
Robin Williams as Malcolm Conway/Lucky Day (pictured: Daniel Hillard in Mrs Doubtfire, 1993)
Jim Carrey as Erick Holmes/ Ned Nederlander
Eddie Murphy as Wesley Brooks/ Dusty Bottoms (pictured: Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop 3, 1994)
Plot: a trio of struggling actors arrive in Mexico, only to be told that they have been dropped by their agents, so when they receive an offer to star in a Western movie, they are forced to accept, in exchange for their plane tickets back home. However, the locals mistake them as actual amigos and things are further complicated when they have to protect them from the bad guys.
Will the Amigos save the day, or is it a challenge too difficult for them to uphold?
Contains examples of:
South of the Border >> movie set in Mexico
Becoming the Mask >> 3 washed-up actors must decide whether to live their lives in obscurity or become their characters for real - character/s fake their own identity in order to gain something
Butt Monkey >> Lucky who gets shot twice - character who is always the butt of a demeaning joke or put them through hell scene
Affectionate Parody >> the film is a send-up of Western movies - functions as a send-up of a genre, there is an underlying plot, a twisted version of a stock tale
Token Minority >> Dusty in the form of Eddie Murphy - character designed to get more minority groups into the plot, allows producers to make race jokes related to minority without any shame
Why this particular casting:
I would have loved to have seen Robin Williams and Jim Carrey in a movie together, and thus, it is a real shame that this idea has never been and will never be realised.
They have somewhat similar styles of comedy, which leans more towards observational, improvisational and physical, although arguably Jim Carrey's is a bit more eccentric, wacky and off-the-wall than Robin's when it comes to their delivery. But for Jim who got his big break on In Living Color, both Robin and Eddie hail from the SNL generation of stand-up comedians and seeing all three funnymen together would have been a dream come true. Their high-energy comedic styles would work well together.
Even though Steven Spielberg did have Robin in mind along with Steve Martin and Bill Murray, he would be the odd one out as his zany, off-the-wall, slapstick and energetic approach wouldn't compliment those two. But with Jim Carrey and Eddie Murphy in place of Steve Martin and Bill Murray alongside Robin, now for me, that particular casting sounds a lot more credible. & like I said, the movie would have worked. Movies are not just about having a good plot and narrative: it is also about casting the right actors and actresses for the roles. Some actors would fit in well with the others, some will not. But even with those who do not fit the bill, you need to find and think of other performers that will work well with that particular actor, as well as with each other.
Just because Bill Murray and Steve Martin's styles of comedy are more relatable to each other, if not for Robin Williams comedic style, then if we were to cast him, as in Robin in say an ensemble comedy movie, there has to be a place for him, just as long as there are other comedic actors that he can easily play off and generate laughs from.
I also went with different character names for the protagonists/main characters, but still retaining the nicknames/aliases of Lucky Day, Ned Nederlander and Dusty Bottoms. In !Three Amigos, we never knew Lucky, Ned and Dusty's real names; in the sequel, the real names of those nicknames are revealed and mentioned.
Another twist with this cast was to make it a little more diverse when it comes to the casting: having a token minority character, but one that didn't play to racial stereotypes of Blacks. I had Eddie Murphy in mind as he was the more established African- American comedian, and as he was one of the big stars of the '80s via Saturday Night Live. Jim Carrey is cast in the Ned role; Ned was somewhat the younger/youngish member of the group and I wanted to have a younger comedian who would be ideal for that role. Ok, Jim Carrey is like in his late 40s as of now, but I could definitely have seen him as Ned, especially during the 1990s. Plus, like Martin Short, he is a fellow Canadian.
In re-watching the original film, I saw to it that the jokes and the humour didn't always work so well and that the combination of Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short didn't make me laugh as much as this film should've done. Having Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams and Jim Carrey in this film would work better and their humour, in my view, would easily catch on and make more of an impact than the casting of Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short.
Why 1994?
Because this was during the time when Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams were hitting their strides during their Hollywood movie careers, whereas for Jim Carrey this would have been off the back of In Living Color, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb & Dumber.
What's changed from the original movie, apart from the casting?
The plot and storyline; in the original movie from 1986, the three protagonists are silent movie actors who have been dropped by their studio. In this remaking, the three characters are spoken word comedic movie actors, who are dropped by their casting agents, in favour of their much younger counterparts.
Though the comedy is still there I'd include more slapstick, physical comedy, better jokes and punchlines, there is an emotional range to the movie that wasn't too apparent in the first film. It also touches on things like cultural understandings, misunderstandings, and that no matter their cultural differences, the important thing is that we treat each other with respect and love. Especially as The iThree Amigos! 2 takes place in Mexico and the 3 characters are all Americans. Yet it still retains the spirit and comedic feel and essence of the original, which supposedly takes place in the early 19th Century- I just wanted to make it more 90s-ish and make it slightly more contemporary and up-to-date for the 90s'/then current generation.
Even though it is a remake of all sorts, this movie is also a movie of its own making, and so I wanted to shake a few things up.
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