2 posts tagged “will ferrell”
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
The commercials make this out to be much funnier than I actually found the film. Like a lot of comedies the funniest bits are all in the commercials. And there are funny bits. Pretty much any time they are screwing around and not actually doing the plot stuff the film is entertaining. Then they do the storyline crap and it is trite and predicable and a by the numbers romantic comedy. Man meets woman. Man gets woman. Man loses woman. Man gets woman back. yawnsville man.
Ferrell plays a tv newsman in the 70s and his is the highest rated news in town. He's living the wild life of the 70s until the day when a female reporter (Christina Applegate) is hired. The problem is there's really not much reason to like Burgundy. Sure he's nice to his dog but other than that, he's full of himself and not really that likable.
Apparently there was a whole other plot to the film about Ferrell and Applegate foiling a terrorist plot but it was totally cut out because it tested poorly at test screenings. It shows. There's a special edition out there that has a whole other film put together out of that subplot and alternate takes. My copy from Netflix didn't have it so I haven't seen it. Perhaps it would be more interesting.
two thumbs up
Local news is bad
Almost like this movie is
Just watch the trailers.
