funkyfry This film is truly a sight to see. I've seen a lot of really odd films but never anything exactly like this movie. It has exploitation content, but not enough to play in the grind-house circuit. It has a lot of really great actors -- including Burgess Meredith (who also directed and contributed to the screenplay), Broderick Crawford, James Mason, and Jeff Bridges ("introducing Jeffrey Bridges"). It has a lot of action and plot twists, so it doesn't get dull -- but it also ultimately doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It has sci-fi elements -- a so-called "side-winder laser beam" which could neutralize all nuclear weapons -- but it is mostly a confused attempt at a James Bond-ish international suspense film, with a dash of Fu Manchu thrown in.The plot is so bizarre that I had to write this review today, the day after seeing it, or I would not remember it. But I don't think there were that many "holes" in the plot, it's just very complicated and intricate. The film moves very fast. Fast enough that if there are any holes we don't really have time to worry about them.James Mason plays Mr. Go, a ruthless international blackmailer who is interested in obtaining the laser beam for his own purposes. Meredith plays The Dolphin, an acupuncturist with underworld ties. In order to get the plans for the laser, Mr. Go hires a young American deserter who's hard up for cash, Finnighan (Bridges), to lure the American CIA agent, Professor Bannister (Peter Lind Hayes) into a gay sex encounter that is captured on film and used for blackmail. OK, hang on it's even stranger.... Finnighan believes himself to be a descendant of James Joyce and fancies himself a great up and coming writer, so the CIA sends in an agent who happens to be a self-described "James Joyce scholar", Zimmerman (Jack MacGowran). Zimmerman, posing as a literary agent, takes Finnighan out on the town, where they visit a whorehouse on a boat and get extremely drunk. Back in Finnighan's apartment, Zimmerman attempts to extract information about Mr. Go's identity from the drunken would-be writer. Upon learning that Finnighan is being investigated by the CIA, Mr. Go decides to have him and his girlfriend Tah Ling (Irene Tsu) kidnapped. However, after taking Finnighan into a helicopter and telling him he is about to be executed, Buddha decides to intervene on behalf of humanity, as he claims he can do in the 5th month of every 50th year. A beam of light comes out of Buddha's belly and illuminates Mr. Go, making him into a good man and causing him to abandon his plans of killing Finnighan and selling the weapon. For the rest of the film, Mr. Go and Finnighan rescue the girl and set about faking Go's death and releasing the information about the sidewinder laser beam to the public so that all the nations in the world will be safe from nuclear attack.On the whole, the directing is exceptionally poor. Some of the confusing passages had to be explained with the dubious device of Buddha-as-narrator. The actors are all overplaying their roles, across the board. The action scenes are just ridiculously slow and awkward. The Asian makeup for Meredith and Mason are extremely unconvincing -- at one point early in the film Mr. Go has to say something like "I came here many years ago as a young Mexican-Chinese boy...." just so that the audience will know what race he's supposed to be. He speaks with his normal rather stately British accent throughout, perhaps seeking to salvage some dignity.However I think there was a germ of a good movie in the screenplay -- from the very first scene with Mr. Go and the Dolphin discussing how Mr. Go might be assassinated, to the bizarre scene where Finnighan and Zimmerman are hanging out with naked prostitutes in his apartment while he angrily vents about the fact that his (kidnapped) girlfriend isn't there cooking for him and cleaning the house. Another example would be near the film's conclusion when Mr. Go tells Tah Ling that he wants to consider she and Finnighan as his children, but she interrupts and tells him that she's been thinking about him a lot and "a lot of it is very sexy". So just like that Mr. Go drops the father act and starts getting hot and heavy with Tah Ling from their hiding place inside the Buddha's belly.I think they either needed a bigger budget and another director to turn it into more of a fun espionage film, or they could have played it just a bit less seriously and it would have been camp fun. Instead there is the sense that the film is trying to be much more than it really is. Still, it's never boring, and that's not something you can say about every movie.

mendoflatpicker This might be the worst film ever made; it's worth seeing for that reason, but no other. It's a bit like "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", but the tongue is not in cheek for "Mr. Go." Although there are some great actors, Burgess Meredith, James Mason, Broderick Crawford and Jeff Bridges, the script and direction are atrocious.The music is worth hearing, just to make a boomer like myself remember that there was a time in the country when this sort of thing seemed refreshing - hard to believe!Don't torture people at Abu Graib, play this sound track. They will talk!

alansmithee04 In his autobiography Meredith claims his first solo directing effort was hijacked by the producers, re-edited with additional footage of Broderick Crawford and an animated Buddha, and released in Europe without his permission. But even if you ignore the added footage and voice over, this is still an awful movie.Notable for a freshman effort by Jeff Bridges (my copy of the movie gives him an intro credit) and an inexplicable appearance in a small role by Hong Kong director King Hu, "Mr. Go" plays out like a demented episode of "Batman." Much of the dialogue makes no sense, you could drive a Hummer through the plot holes, and the musical score sounds like something The Cowsills might have done on a particularly bad day. Unless you're a die-hard fan of truly abominable movies, stay away from this one.

dumanthpie I remember the first time I saw that movie...my jaw was stretch and was probably touching the floor. I didn't know then and I'm still wondering if this was a masterpiece from an unknown director or a huge waste of celluloid. Honest to god I found that film to be one of the funniest I have ever seen. Problem I don't know whether it was meant to be that way !!! Watch it, enjoy it... P.A.D.