So the list of recommendations that accompanied my screening of Manhattan continues with the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book.

This time, Allen skewers sex with this collection of stories, reflecting the chapter titles of the famous book of the same name.

Some of them are a lot of fun, there is a brilliant segment with comedy legend, Gene Wilder as Doctor Doug Ross, who sees a patient who has fallen in love with a sheep. When Ross meets the animal, love blooms anew, and the two begin a sordid affair, that his wife begins to suspect when he realizes that he always smells like lamb chops.

Another segment resembles a panel show, featuring a very young Regis Philbin , called What’s My Peversion? Shot in black and white, with a bit of shake and roll, and a grainy image, it looks like a 1960s era show, and is rather goofy fun.

There are other segments, seven in all, one paying homage to the monster movies of yesteryear, featuring a Doctor Bernardo (Jon Carradine), a mad scientist conducting bizarre scientific experiments,  and a giant breast on the rampage.

The final installment is a mission control inside a man’s brain, overseen by Tony Randall, and assisted by Burt Reynolds as the body prepares for sex, and Allen, himself, plays a sperm.

Allen has four different roles through the course of the film, and, if you’re like me, not a big fan of his acting, then four may be too many, but once again, the zaniness rather works this time around, and I had a good time watching this one.

Much like Bananas, I don’t see myself watching this on a regular basis, but I didn’t detest it as much as I thought I would. It pokes fun at many things, the cross-dressing segment is rather hilarious, but sadly, it seems not a single one of the stories ends happily, except for maybe the last one…

This one ended up being a fun little romp, and each story fits perfectly into the genres that they are having fun with, and as always, most of the other actors around Allen are really enjoyable, watching Randall and Reynolds in the mission control segment is a lot of fun, and Gene Wilder is simply priceless. I don’t think anyone else could have pulled off that bit quite as well as he did.

Not all of it works, but a large portion of it does fire on all cylinders and provides for a lot of laughter. It is perhaps not the best Woody Allen film to start with, but from the ones I’ve seen to date, you could do worse (I still really don’t like Sleeper… much like the King in the first segment of, I just don’t think he’s funny..)

What do you think of it?