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Brüno (2009)
Comedy/Cultural Parody; USA
81 minutes
It took me awhile to finally get around to seeing this movie - mostly because I'd already seen "Da Ali G Show" years ago, been underwhelmed by "Borat" and unimpressed by the trailers. "Brüno" was a lot better than I expected though.
Of course, it wasn't all laughs. There were jokes that fell flat or felt played out, but there were also parts that were just too LOL-worthy to pass up. And best of all, it's only an hour and twenty minutes, so it doesn't get the chance to ever get too tedious.
I heard through the grapevine that a lot of gays were offended by this movie because it portrays gay stereotypes. The only conclusion I can come to on that is that they never bothered to watch the movie or any of Sacha Baron Cohen's other projects. Or maybe they're just as ignorant as the people he parodies in this film. Either way, they totally missed the point. What's funny about Cohen's comedy isn't the stereotypes he employs, but the reactions those stereotypes elicit from people. You're supposed to laugh at how uncomfortable these people become when someone they think is a flaming queer is gyrating his crotch in hotpants mere inches from their faces - it's like Hitler himself is holding their first-born child's freshly skinned corpse over a tub of acid. They're stupid and that's funny.
It's also funny that people who deem themselves qualified to run for president, who presume to represent the people of America and their interests are so easily hoodwinked by a man who has been famous all over the world for over a decade now. I'm sorry, but if you don't know who Ali G is in the year 2009 then you simply aren't relevant. What if Ahmadinejad throws you some "rezpekt" (*snap)? You're not even gonna know what he's talking about and you'll make a fool out of us in front of the whole world. Maybe Ron Paul has been too busy worrying about the Gold Standard to bother realizing what year it is, but surely someone in his entourage has flipped on a TV in the last 10 years and seen enough to go "oh hey, I recognize that dude!" But no...
Give this some time if you're into: All things S.B.C. (not the phone company), laughing at ignorance, close ups of penises flopping in every direction -
The Hangover (2009)
Comedy; USA
100 minutes
If you're going to do a movie where the running gag is how fucked up you got in Vegas and how many crazy antics you got into because of your extreme inebriation it'd probably be a good idea to like...show some of those hilarious antics, right? But, no, that would be the obvious choice. "The Hangover" is all about shattering your expectations.
This movie could have been funny, but they decided to show the least humorous aspects of the story and then simply allude to all the funny stuff. It was an hour and a half long cock-tease, basically. "OMG, we've found ourselves in an incredibly awkward situation - I wonder how we got here? I don't know, but I bet it was funny..." That shtick gets pretty old after the 5th or 6th time it happens and by the time the credits role it's just plain annoying. There are certainly funny moments, but for the most part I just felt jipped. The funniest part of the movie was the ending credits where they finally showed pictures of the inebriated madness, which was indeed far more entertaining than the actual movie, as expected.
Give this some time if you're into: doing shit halfassed. -
Idiocracy (2006)
Comedy/Sci-Fi; USA
84 mins
Whenever I watch sci-fi flicks that depict futuristic dystopias I feel a little bit like I'm missing the point. They're supposed to be shitty worlds where everything is dirty, corrupt and just plain fucked up, but I can't help but want to live there. Like "Blade Runner", for instance. I know in my head that I'm supposed to think the future Los Angeles is a bad scene, but to me it looks fuckin' awesome. Seedy underbelly? Synthetic snakes? Hottie humanoid robots? Always night time and raining? Asian street food on every block? Sign me the fuck up, I'm so there!
There is one film, however, that gets the dystopia right and that's Mike Judge's "Idiocracy". Now this, my friends, is a terrifying prospect for our future. There are no alien invaders or rebelious killer robots bent on destroying humanity, just plain old American stupidity taken to it's logical extreme. This is a world where Costcos are the size of cities, people are plastered head to toe with product placement, the president of the US is a former WWF wrestler (pictured above) and water has been completely replaced with sports drinks.
The humor in this movie is strange. It's packed full of jokes to the point that they'll walk right by you and you might not even realize it until 2 or 3 viewings later, but only about 5% of the humor is laugh out loud funny. Mostly it's just fun to find all the little silly details that will make you chuckle or say "Oh shit, dude - did you see that?!"
Give this some time if you're into: Futurama, Office Space, stoner comedy, making fun of stupid people -
Land of the Lost (2009)
Comedy/Sci-Fi; USA
101 mins
I'll say right off the bat that I'm not a Will Ferrell fan. I've got nothing against the guy, but his humor never really strikes a chord with me. That said, I didn't hate "Land of the Lost" at all. It wasn't funny - I probably laughed about 2 or 3 times throughout the whole movie, but I still had an alright time watching it. Don't know if I'd ever bother watching it again because obviously there's not a whole lot of substance to it, but I was really surprised by the overall look of the film. Lots of cool looking surrealistic landscapes and fantastic set designs, the monsters were all cool in that campy costumey kind of way (which worked for me). I went in expecting this movie to be really stupid and it was to an extent, but if I had to rate it on the stoner comedy scale - "White Chicks" being the absolute lowest and "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" being instant classic caliber - "Land of the Lost" would fall somewhere in the middle...let's say it's a "Knocked Up" or "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay".
Give this some time if you're into: Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow's supporting casts, set design, classic sci-fi -
big trouble in little china
its all in the reflexes.
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it's a dark and stormy night here in san francisco (well, technically it's the middle of the afternoon, but that's just semantics at this point). it's been raining heavily over the last week, streets flooding, power dying, cars crashing left and right. to put it plainly, it's a madhouse out there and it got me thinking - what would ol' jack burton do at a time like this? when the earth quakes, the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of heaven shake...what would he say?
john carpenter has unleashed many brilliant creations on the world, from his masterful reinvisioning of the thing to the gritty, futuristic dystopian escape from new york to the ever-so-slept on, but amazingly strange prince of darkness. few, however, can hold a candle to the profoundly hilarious and ingeniously zany big trouble in little china. let's just establish this right now before we go any further - kurt russell is a fuckin' genius. no ifs, ands or buts about it - just. plain. genius. if you don't agree, you're either a total poser that's never seen any of his movies or some stupid whore that's probably obsessed with matthew mcconaughey or something. regardless, your opinion means nothing.
i often find myself watching movies and thinking "this would have worked so much better if kurt russell was playing that guy". for instance, we all remember that flaming heap transformers, right? now, there really wasn't anything short of a global outbreak of alzheimer's that was going to save that rag, but just imagine if the part played so awkwardly by john turturro was instead played by kurt russell. eeeeehhhh? see what i'm sayin'? not good, but still much better, right? i don't know what it is about him, but his mere presence can elevate a movie above mediocrity. i don't know where he learned those acting chops, but my hunch is that it must have been from jesus himself. i know i'm hamming it up a bit, but i'm not being sarcastic. watch 'big trouble' again and try to imagine anyone else being able to pull that role off. imagine if dolf lundgren played jack burton. or bruce willis. sly stallone. arnold. these hot shots think they're holywood royalty, but are they worthy to even lick the ground kurt russell walks on? imagine tom cruise's sissy ass saying "son of a bitch must pay". you can't because it's just totally wrong. he'd say it all ratty-like, as if someone had just befouled the holy name of xenu. not only that, he probably would have looked like an idiot in those acid washed jeans.
anyway, i'm getting a little off track here. i'm supposed to be talking about one of my favorite movies of all time, so i should get to it. a lot of people just don't quite get 'big trouble in little china'. i can't blame them - it's weird and goofy and you're never quite sure if what you're watching is real or if you fell asleep halfway through the movie and your imagination concocted some outrageous, totally implausable dream world where every word out of every character's lips endlessly tickles your funny bone for no clear reason and the alleys of chinatown are magically big enough to drive semi trucks through. it's a damn weird movie and i get the feeling that the average joe just has no idea how he's supposed to process it. "wait a second...is this for real?", "is this movie really racist?", "why is he talking like that?", "did they really wear boots like that in the 80s?".
not me though, i get it. i get every single line, every single subtle detail to the point where i probably laugh at things that aren't even jokes just because i get this damn movie so much. it's one of those films that gets it right in every way possible. the performances are just over-the-top enough to make the gags work, but not so much that it becomes a spoof. obviously it's a parody of those old charlie chan type movies, but carpenter handles it in such an interesting and comical way that it's not offensive or racially insensitive. jack burton is the perfect clueless action movie oaf that simultaneously thinks the world of himself and is delightfully surprised whenever he's actually able to back up all his big talk. not to mention kim cattrall's criminally overlooked performance as gracie law, a young, conscientious civil rights lawyer that has a serious problem with her face.
the thing i love most about 'big trouble in little china' is the way it comments on how american society is still incredibly racist, ignorant and biased toward other cultures, whether they know it or not. anything more than a passing glance at the film reveals that while kurt russell's name is first and foremost on the credits, jack burton is far from the hero of the story. in fact, the film flips the tables in a really interesting way. wang chi, played to hilarious effect by dennis dun is the true hero in 'big trouble' and jack is his witless sidekick who is just tagging along to cash in on a bet. jack, who is a big man in his own little pool of truck-drivin' CV radio personalities, is of little or no consequence to the inhabitants of san francisco's chinatown. the "weirdness" of their culture persists and amplifies only because of his ignorance toward it. carpenter derives comedy from the sheer ridiculousness of the film's portrayal of chinese-american life and how little the average american actually knows about the culture. but, in pointing out this dilemma, 'big trouble' is also bittersweet, for it calls into focus the bias' of hollywood as a whole. dennis dun, donald li and victor wong all gave great performances in this film as well as carpenter's 'prince of darkness' and should by all accounts have gone on to at least have decent careers on the c-list, but what became of them? not a whole lot. it's painful to me to see the great things that can happen when hollywood isn't culturally backwards, only to be pulled violently back to the reality of the situation - these great actors are going to forever be relegated to playing nameless henchmen in the background of movies that have something vaguely to do with asians. the world may yet remember the immortal advice of jack burton on matters of importance such as how to conduct yourself when accosted by a grabby thug or how to respond when your old lady is on your case about driving too fast, but will they remember even a line of what egg shen said?
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
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