Tag Archives: comedy
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
You don’t have to have watched any porn to enjoy Zack and Miri, but it certainly helps. If you needed evidence that Kevin Smith can make just about anything in life both funny and heart-warming at the same time, then this movie is it. Zack and Miri are best friends and have been since school. They share an appartment because neither of them can afford it on their own, and they complement each other. It’s clear to everyone viewing that they should be in love, married and enjoying life together but because they’ve been friends for so long, they don’t see anything other than that when they look at each other.
A trip to a high school re-union where Zack meets a male porn star, a few missed bills and having their power and water cut off force Zack and Miri to a rather weird solution to raise cash – they should film a porno and distribute it to their ex-high school companions. They gather a few friends and employ a few more colourful individuals and set about making their movie. Needless to say, it doesn’t go to plan, but eventually they get under way and the moment arrives where Zack and Miri have to do it. I’ll leave the content there, you’ll have to watch and find out what happens.
If you’d seen any Kevin Smith films and then saw Zack and Miri without knowing Kevin wrote it, you’d probably be able to spot it anyway. His trademark dialog is strewn throughout although it’s slightly more refined than it was in say, Clerks II. This is probably because it’s not two guys mouthing off to each other for a change, however it doesn’t detract from the humour in that dialog and there’s plenty to laugh about. The situations are funny without being too twee, all the characters are amusing if a little flat and the story isn’t quite as straightforward as I’d expected. There’s one laugh-out-loud and cry-for-days moment which made us both laugh so hard it hurt, and plenty of good relaxed funny moments. While the ending certainly won’t come as a surprise, the journey is worthwhile and interesting.
Zack and Miri do indeed make a porno, and learn an awful lot about themselves, each other and the business in the process.
Bulletproof Monk
I bought this movie an age ago, and then I read a review saying it was pure tripe. So it sat on the shelf for a long old while in the ‘to watch’ section. However, the universe works in karmic ways and while a friend was visiting, we asked her what she wanted to watch and she picked this. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It’s a pretty straight forward buddy movie, an Asian monk protecting an ancient scroll, a young American martial arts movie loving kid and the love interest. The monk takes the kid under his wing (even if the kid doesn’t know it), prophecies are fulfilled and the world is saved.
There are some above-average action sequences, some sassy dialog, some tin-pot wisdom and a couple of scenes which make you glad you watched. There are some frustrations as well, the villain introduces some over complex technology near the end to explain away one minor plot issue that could have been countered in more simple and pleasing ways and bits of the final battle leave a sour taste in the mouth for their paint-by-numbers feel. Overall though it satisfies the comedy action glands and presses some of the right buttons. Certainly no more than 5/10 but it’s a solid 5.
Hancock
I saw Hancock listed recently, in a collection of Superhero Spoof movies. Let’s get this straight from the start, this is not a spoof. This is a superhero movie and if you go in expecting a spoof you’ll be disappointed. Yes, it’s a comedic superhero movie, but the comedy is an inherent part of the action and the story, this is a superhero movie with heart, depth and an excellent twist.
I was in fact, totally surprised at how much I enjoyed this, certainly, the most surprising movie experience in quite a while. I was expecting a steady Will Smith comedy vehicle but Hancock is much more than that. Our hero (Hancock) is a drunk, asshole superhero who saves people from crime and causes more damage in the process than the criminals ever would. His reputation stinks, most people hate him and the city has hundreds of warrants out for his arrest, which he ignores. It’s clear who really needs saving in this town, and when Hancock saves the life of a publicity specialist the resulting relationship nearly kills them all.
I won’t tell you anything else about the story because the real enjoyment of this story comes from the twists and to give them away would destroy half the film. Suffice to say the performances are great, I really thought Will gave a great performance, big when it needed to be big and understated when it needed that. Charlize Theron is a little hit and miss, but when she hits the character it’s really great. There’s one really emotional scene, but it’s quietly sad and Charlize pulls a blinder. I loved the humour, the subtle touches and the excellent action sequences. Hancock really is a fully rounded and enjoyable movie.
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Simon Pegg is a funny man. He’s a comic. He conveys humour with his face, his stance, his voice, his very presence and it’s a good job because without him, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People would have been a very average movie. With him, it’s on the better than average side of funny. Pegg plays an entertainment journalist given the chance to move to America and join a world famous magazine, there he meets the stars, forges a career, screws plenty of things up and falls in love. It’s a straight by the book romantic comedy with a few decently amusing scenes that Pegg carries pretty much throughout.
I didn’t find Kirsten very comfortable in her role at all, and the rest of the cast has hardly enough screen time to make any kind of impression.
No where near the quality of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz or even Run Fatboy, Run, but still worth a giggle.
Kung Fu Panda
A lowly noodle chef dreams of being a mighty Kung Fu champion, turns up during the selection of the Dragon Warrior and ends up joining the Five Kung Fu heroes he has idolised for his entire life. It’s a common enough story (down and out turns good and saves the world) and it needs a strong cast and some solid writing to really give it any life these days. Kung Fu Panda comes close to nailing it but falls short at the final bout. Everything is flawless, the animation, the voice acting, the humour is excellent, the story is interesting enough.
But there’s something missing. Some heart, some soul and a huge act from the second half. Where is the scene with Panda and the Five taking on the enemy together? Where is the scene of them training together and finally coming to accept each other? Where is the team work? Instead we are left with the Five setting out on their own to defeat the enemy and Panda training in their absence, becoming the Dragon Warrior while they are away.
It feels like something was left out. Which is a true shame. I really enjoyed watching it, I laughed, and it was suitably touching, but it was too short, and subsequently too hollow to be a classic.
Pineapple Express (Extended, Blu-Ray)
I really had to make myself sit through the first half of Pineapple Express. While in theory the material is just the kind of comedy I should find amusing the pace was very slow and perhaps I would have been better off watching the theatrical release? The characters were a little interesting, and the initial plot seemed sound, but I just didn’t find it hilarious or outrageously funny. I smirked a few times early on, but the first real out loud laugh moment didn’t arrive until the police car chase scene when Saul sticks his foot through the windscreen (must be around half way, felt like three hours in). The movie did actually pick up after that point, the pace improved and we finally started making some progress. I was engaged finally, and after almost getting up and wandering off earlier on, I found myself interested enough to stay until the end (which was decent).
The movie revolves around a dope-smoking loser who witnesses a murder, and the ‘hilarious’ escapade which ensues while he tries to set things right with his drug dealer, girlfriend and various other people. If you’re going to rely on a plot like that you really have to make the characters, situations and dialog funny and it just wasn’t that funny. I have to wonder if Seth, Evan and Judd write this stuff while they’re totally stoned, find themselves laughing outrageously and decide to film it. Perhaps it is much funnier to watch it stoned or drunk.
I’ve no idea how it scores 7.4 on IMDB unless all 46 thousand voters were stoned or drunk though.
A weak movie with some amusing moments and one or two cracking lines, but nothing to write home about.
Burn After Reading (Blu-Ray)
I tend to watch a lot of action movies, sue me. It’s always a surprise to me when I watch something else and enjoy it, and Burn After Reading is very enjoyable indeed. Watching it straight after Death Race adds some amusement factor as well because Burn After Reading is full of acting and plot and a lot of talking (it’s a Cohen movie, after all). All the folks were great, Clooney, Pitt, Malkovich, Swinton, McDormand, everyone. The movie tells (kind of) the story (a little bit) of a bunch of folk who (eventually) interact in a bizarre (mostly) blackmail scheme. Maybe. The dialogue is excellent, the characters are engaging and amusing, and although I wasn’t sure which of them I should be empathising with the most, I enjoyed them all on one level or another. It goes without saying it’s a black comedy, some of the comedy is side splitting, while a lot of it is far more subtle. It turns out that everyone’s screwing everyone else either literally or figuratively, and the CIA is watching. Everyone. Always.
Burn After Reading is a funny, black, engaging comic story which doesn’t try to say anything, and succeeds. If it teaches us anything it’s that we shouldn’t do it again – whatever it is we did. There are some very amusing OMGWTF moments as well. I recommend it.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Normally I avoid romantic comedies, not because they’re stupid or dumb or only for girls, but because I find too many of them predicated on confusion and misunderstanding. I really don’t enjoy those as the basis for a story, sure they’re present in most stories, just about all comedies and plenty of life experiences, but when they are the sole basis for a story about relationships I get annoyed.
I think it’s lazy film making to write a story of boy and girl meet, boy makes assumptions about girl, relationship develops, truth emerges, boy and girl split up for stupid reasons, comedy ensues, boy and girl work it out and get back together. Because I find the parts of movies where two people are mistaken about some basic truth and that confusion causes conflict between them annoying, I really don’t cope well when the entire movie is built around it, and I’ve seen too many romantic comedies built on that exact foundation. Yeh sure it’s a generalisation, sometimes I laugh at comedies built on confusion and I can deal with it, but when there are so many movies to watch I don’t usually take the risk.
Then a friend of ours said I had to watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall because it was just awesome and amazing. I’d already been pondering how unfair my movie watching preferences were for Grete – do we want action with guns or action with swords tonight (or teen comedies from 1985). On top of that, I caught the last third of Knocked Up a while back and laughed pretty hard, so I promised Grete I’d watch more comedy with her. Forgetting Sarah Marshall seemed like a good place to start.
First and foremost, this is not a romantic comedy based on confusion or misunderstanding, there’s one tiny moment where we thought it was about to descend into that and then gloriously it didn’t (it turned into a bit of a blow job joke instead). Sure, we have the standard ‘thing goes wrong and we have to stop being together’ moment and then the ‘we realise we’re being stupid and get back together’ section, but they feel natural and organic and amusing.
At the outset our main man is dumped by his long term and famous TV star girl friend (one Sarah Marshall) and the film centres on his attempts to pick himself up and forget her. It’s a small cast and I’m a huge fan of small casts, and the dialogue is sharp and interesting. While the overall story arc is actually pretty obvious the twists and turns are interesting and there’s a couple of sweet moments I wasn’t expecting.
Despite my reservations, I quite liked Russel Brand. The rest of the cast was pretty good and I especially liked Mila Kunis. Kristen Bell was the weakest of the crew I felt (Sarah Marshall), but it may be because of the role and how Sarah has to be portrayed.
I have to say it wasn’t as outrageously funny as I’d been led to believe, and while I certainly laughed out loud a few times, it was more of a general smirk and chuckle kind of film for me.
Despite that minor quibble, it was an enjoyable film, with some truly touching moments next to some truly funny scenes, and I was left feeling pretty happy by the end. Note, there are a couple of scenes of full frontal male nudity, so make sure you’re not eating or drinking anything you might not be able to get out of the carpet if you’re easily surprised.
Weird Science
Imagine the year is 1985, Ronald Reagan is starting his second term of office in the US, Coca Cola release New Coke, Live Aid raises £150 million, the Amiga personal computer is launched by Commodore, the NES is released in America, Calvin and Hobbes debuts in 35 news papers and Windows 1.0 is released by Microsoft.
In that year, two nerds steal enough computing power to turn a toy doll into Lisa, spawn a generation of ever hopeful adolescent teens and give a generation of young men a set of images they’ll never forget.
Weird Science is a nerds-come-good comedy written and directed by John Hughes and released in 1985. Clearly I’ve seen it before, many times, but it’s been a little while since I last saw it and I really wanted to own copy. We bought it on DVD recently and watched it last night and I thought I’d let you know how it stood up. The answer surprisingly is pretty well. It’s funny, entertaining and charming in its own way. It’s a teen movie with teen themes and teen quality over-acting. It’s oddly innocent compared to similar movies of the last five years, but despite that it still manages to be reasonably current (nerds being bullied is a perennial theme I guess). Watching it these days it’s entirely clear it was filmed in the 80’s, because the hair and shoulder pads probably needed trailers of their own. It didn’t have the long periods of belly laughing that maybe current comedies can evoke, but it’s entirely possible that’s because I’ve seen it so often. We certainly did laugh and it certainly entertained us for the entire running time.
At the time it was probably considered terribly risqué, these days next to American Pie and Road Trip it’s totally tame, but the comedy is still there, the story interesting, the pace good and there are some truly funny moments. Well worth watching again if you’ve not seen it for a long time, and I would encourage anyone who’s never seen it before to give it a go.