5 posts tagged “comedy”
So like most films the trailer gives the storyline away. Tina Fey's character is a single business woman who wants to have a baby but is infertile. So she tries to adopt but doesn't want to wait the five years it can take to for a single woman to get a baby so she finds a surrogate mother. Of course, being a comedy the surrogate, Amy Poehler is white trash and clashes with Tina Fey's uptight personality. Hilarity ensues.
Although I'm not the target audience for this I still enjoyed it. I don't want any kids but I can certainly identify with her longing for love. She's smart, pretty, and funny. What's not to love?
The plot is more than a little predictable with misunderstandings and clashes between Fey and Poehler and an unrealistically happy ending but it is still fairly entertaining.
two thumbs up
Predictable film
I would make babies with her.
Maybe the sequel...
I suppose I should thank Will Ferrell. After all, even if I don't like his films he is helping me to understand what I do and don't like about comedy. Apparently there are people who like Will Ferrell movies. I am not one of them. See, for me, a funny premise is not enough I like there to be jokes in my comedy. Other than "it is two guys ice skating together!" the actual funny bits in this are few and far between. And that is all Will Ferrell's films seem to be: funny premises. I don't really care if the premise is funny or not. If I had to chose I would pick a funny film over a funny premise any day of the week. This is a funny premise.
So the plot? There are these two guys and they end up entering couples figure skating. That's it. Oh there's Jenna Fischer in it and she's awesome. And there's some evil skaters. But that's it.
two thumbs down
The strike is over
how 'bout getting a writer?
crazy talk I know
I only saw this because of my crush on Jenna Fischer. As I've said before I was crushed to hear that Jenna was dating David Spade. Luckily, she has since denied even knowing him let alone dating him. I'm back in the game, baby!
OK, maybe not...
As I said, I only saw this because of Jenna Fischer. Unfortunately she's only in one scene for about five minutes near the start of the film. I should have saved myself the trouble and turned it off then.
As much as I loved Arrested Development and the character of Gob, Will Arnett isn't enough to make this movie any good. This film just plain stinks. It is basically Dumb and Dumber Try To Have a Baby. Arnett and Forte are two morons. Their father falls into a coma and the doctor tells them that sometimes coma patients will hang on if they have something to live for and dear old dad always wanted grandkids. So they decide to father a child.
Wacky hijinx ensue as they try to find someone to father their children (Fischer is one of the women that one of them goes on a date with). None of them work and even though Arnett falls in love with the hot next door neighbor they decide to pay a woman to be artificially inseminated and carry their child. More hijinx ensue as the woman carrying the child, SNL's Kristin Wiig, and her boyfriend have adventures and the hot neighbor finally falls for Arnett.
The main problem with the film is that they evidently assumed that the hijinx were enough and they didn't need to include things like humor or jokes. Besides the fact that they are really really naive, there aren't any jokes. It just isn't funny.
three thumbs down
I ain't no expert
the film is lacking something
how about some jokes?
From Full Moon, the makers of the Puppet Master films and countless other bad movies comes this combination between a sex comedy and a scifi film.
Starring Morgan Fairchild as an evil woman who outlawed sex and Ian Abercrombie (best known for playing Mr. Pitt on Seinfeld) as a professor who opposes her, the film starts out in the future. Students are being taught about how evil sex is and how everything is run by a corporation. One of the male students begins to fantasize about the girl sitting in front of him and the prof makes both him and the girl as well as another boy stay after class allegedly because even thinking about sex is illegal in the future.
The rest of the class leaves and the prof promptly turns around and shoots out the camera monitoring the class. It turns out he is part of a resistance movement. Telling the students about an archive in the basement, he is taken away by the cops. The students flee to the archive. While exploring it they just happen to find a time machine. What luck! The guys go back in time to try to prevent the sex-hating woman from taking over. Shortly after the girl is chased by the cops so she hops into the time machine after the boys but she doesn't arrive until a few days after they do.
The guys arrive back in the past and find themselves in an all girl school! Sexy hijinx ensue with lost of sex and shower scenes as the boys have to dress as girls to try to prevent the sex-hating school headmistress from becoming the leader of the world and outlawing sex and the professor hitting on one of the boys in drag.
If this weren't enough, a cyborg from the future wearing black clothes and sunglasses and speaking in a German accent shows up trying to hunt them down. Of course he tells someone that he "will be back" and some asks if he is going to terminate our protagonists.
All in all it is fairly entertaining bit of t'n'a and rip offs of elements of other films. I would have sworn it was pure 80s schlock based on the horrible music and clothes but imdb says 94! I'm really betting this was on the shelf for a few years before they released it.
two thumbs up
travel back in time
wear a skirt and a bad wig?
be terminated
Following the lead of movies such as Animal House, Meatballs, Porky's and any number of late 70s/early 80s teen comedies this movies is about the teenagers fighting against the older generation who wants to close down the arcade.
Our heroes are a nerd who is the butt of a joke in the first scene of the film, the cool guy whose grandfather owns the arcade and not only helps the nerd get back at the girls who played a joke on the nerd, and John Belushi's Bluto wannabe, McDorfus who is the slovenly videogame wizard who ends up saving the day by using his farts to attract the wife of the villain. The villainous old man who is opposed to the arcade is played by none other than the man, the myth, the legend, Joe Don Baker. Man, if Joe Don Baker and Don "The Dragon" Wilson did a movie together it would be awesomeness personified. Joe Don's character also has a couple of bumbling henchmen who are the butt of the other kids jokes and
a daughter who is an over-the-top valley girl whose valley speak is so heavy it is almost unintelligible. She is played by Corinne Bohrer whose name probably isn't familiar (it wasn't to me) but whose face probably will be. She's the only cast member I've ever seen in anything else
Of course, as is the case in these movies, it isn't enough to save the arcade. The main character also has to overcome a personal problem and can you guess what it is? That's right, he can't play videogames any more. Ever since his girlfriend's dad took his girlfriend away he can't look at a videogame without getting dizzy and/or fainting. He eventually conquers his fear by beating the Old bad guy sponsored punk. It is interesting that the old man has a problem with an arcade but not with the punk. But they can't have the final confrontation just be at some ordinary arcade cabinet. No, they have this special screen set up and they play with joysticks that are waist high and have the buttons on the big ball at the top of the joystick. It looks like it would be hard as hell to play with them. I suppose that is just a testament to how good these players are, right?
Unlike the Wizard, which was the debut of Super Mario Brothers 3, Joysticks features some fairly obscure games like Satan's Hollow, Streaking, and Super Pac-Man among others. Half the fun of watching the movie is trying to figure out whatever weird game someone is playing.
four thumbs up
It has lots of boobs
and it has joe don baker
want to play a game?
