Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

gridoon2018 The opening sequence of "Go West" ranks, in my opinion, right up there with the Marx Brothers' best: it's a perfectly timed and executed routine where all three brothers contribute equally. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie does not quite live up to that promising start. Of course there are moments of inspiration here and there (Groucho's finish of the song "You Can't Argue With Love", Harpo's "discussion" with the Indian chief, the scene where people keep entering a room and drawing a gun on the person in front of them, etc.), and the climactic train chase, although overextended, features lots of good stuntwork and special effects. But considering how popular and well-defined the Western is as a genre, this spoof has to count as a largely missed opportunity - the Marxes surely were capably of doing more with the concept. ** out of 4.

hausrathman Like so many comedians before them, and so many who would follow, The Marx Brothers spoof western clichés in this enjoyable late MGM feature. Not a classic Marx Brothers film along the lines of "Duck Soup" or "A Night At The Opera," but it is a definite improvement over their weak previous film "At The Circus." The film starts very well with con man Groucho getting conned by Chico and Harpo instead. Sadly, despite many good moments, the film soon descends into sentimental MGM malarkey. Discarding the zany, anarchic spirit of their Paramount features, MGM worked to tame the brothers by focusing their activities on laudable goals, like, in this case, helping a nice couple from being cheated out of valuable land. Fortunately, the final reel of this film, featuring the train chase, is hilarious. A nice effort. Well worth a look.

Harold It was with fairly low expectations that I popped "Go West" into my DVD player this evening. After all, as Marx Bros. purists repeat ad nauseam, the Brothers' later pictures generally failed to live up to the high standards set by their earlier Paramount-era films. That may be so, but I found "Go West" to be hilarious all the same. Which is hardly surprising since nobody does mayhem like the Marx Bros.! As always, Groucho has lots of great one-liners, Chico plays a charming con-man, and Harpo gets up to all kinds of anarchic antics. Encountering Groucho for the first time in the train station, Chico asks where the train is. Groucho replies, "It's out on the tracks; it seldom comes in here." In previous films, the Brothers' made fun of the circus and the opera; in this film, they play havoc with the conventions of the Old West. On observing a fatal shooting outside a saloon, Chico tells Harpo: "I don't like-a the West: all the people do is kill each other. I'd like-a the West better if it was in the East."In contrast to some of their other films, especially "At the Circus," the musical numbers are delightful and catchy. That goes not only for the solos by Chico and Harpo, but also for the duets sung by the star-crossed lovers. This latter feature of the MGM films was often tedious and forgettable; happily, that is not the case in "Go West." I thoroughly enjoyed this film and would recommend it to anyone who appreciates the madcap humour of the Marx Bros. The climactic train sequence alone makes the film a must-see.

MartinHafer The sad fact about the Marx Brothers is that after the movie A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, their career was all downhill. While A DAY AT THE RACES and ROOM SERVICE were still very good, their subsequent efforts were painfully ordinary and generally unfunny compared to their early zany work. It was like they were playing lethargic caricatures of themselves. And, from what I gathered, the Marxes WERE very content to just collect a paycheck at this point in their lives. This film is a little better than THE BIG STORE and AT THE CIRCUS--two surprisingly bland efforts from the same time period by the comedy team.Some of the blame for the static nature of this film also must be given to MGM--a studio that had a history of ruining good comedians when they came under DIRECT MGM control (Laurel and Hardy's films were distributed by MGM but were created by the independent-minded Hal Roach Studios). If you don't believe me, look at all the Marxes films from the late 30s on as well as Buster Keaton's films of the 30s--they rely on an MGM formula and lack all the frenetic intensity of the comedians' earlier non-MGM efforts. The film is a by-the-book effort where the Marx Brothers travel west in search of fun and adventure. Soon, the three get pulled into a land deal and they get cheated by the saloon owner, Baxter (Robert Barrat). So, much of the rest of the film is spent trying to get back the deed for this property. In addition, there is a needless romance John Carroll and Diana Lewis. Useless because folks who go to see Marx Brothers films really don't want romance--unless it involves Groucho or Harpo chasing women. Overall, not an unpleasant film but as for the comedy, it was amazingly muted. Among the best moments were when Groucho and his brothers kept trying to cheat each other as well as the climactic train ride. And, among the worst was the American Indian portion--which was long, unfunny and irrelevant to the film. By the way, what happened to grandpa (Tully Marshall)? He just disappeared from the film and at one point someone asked where he was...but this character who was important to the plot just vanished.