If Wishes Were Horses (1976)

<em>'If Wishes Were Horses'</em> is a strange one. For a 1976 release out of Guyana, it is relatively impressive. However, judging it solely as a movie, it's not so good. The musical elements are actually quite good, even charming at points; the titular song is pleasant. The humour is hit-and-miss, I did chuckle once or twice but that was mainly early on. The film is spearheaded by Habeeb Khan, a - so I read - famous comedian in the South American country. He is, in fairness, a solid lead. You can tell it's a vehicle of sorts for the comic. The plot is a bit all over the place, the core premise is alright but regularly takes a back seat as Khan struts his stuff onscreen through comedy. The movie bizarrely takes a literal detour through <em>'The Three Musketeers'</em> and <em>'Romeo & Juliet'</em> for dream sequences. Somehow, it works (?). However, any positives that this film has are short and sweet as they are surrounded by lethargic pacing. I kept losing interest, it would hook me back in partially before letting me go again. For a two hour movie, that's a big problem; it almost felt like a three hour flick, to be honest. I may have enjoyed this if it had a tighter run time and was fully a musical, the deviations through the aforementioned works - as minorly amusing as they are - do make it feel bloated.