comedy – Page 3 – NZ Film Freak

Movie 43

Directed by: Peter Farrelly, Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Patrik Forsberg, James Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, Brett Ratner, Will Graham and Jonathan van Tulleken
Written by: Steve Baker, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda, Bill O’Malley, Matthew Alec, Portenoy, Greg Pritikin, Rocky Russo, Olle Sarri, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, Jeremy Sosenko, Jonathan van Tulleken, Jonas Wittenmark
Released: January 2013
Featuring: Dennis Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Seth MacFarlane, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz, Gerard Butler, Johnny Knoxville, Stephen Merchant, Halle Berry AND the rest of Hollywood.
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Short review: It sucks. Don’t bother seeing it.

So it’s pretty much a series of skits, all directed and written by different people. The story line is how a crazed writer blackmails a producer to get his movie comprised of a series of short skits made. The finished product is the movie that is in the cinemas now, Movie 43.

I mean, obviously this film was not going to be good, you could tell that from the trailer.

I can’t say I actually laughed at all in this movie… The funniest scene was the first short with Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman but even so, I only giggled a little.

The scene where Halle Berry is dared by Stephen Merchant to blow out a blind kid’s birthday candles before he does would have got a bit of a laugh too, if I hadn’t already seen the trailer and knew it was coming. Oh, and Merchant’s plastic surgery results were chuckle-worthy too.

If you want to be grossed out in a way where you also feel targeted and creeped out, skip the horror movie and watch Movie 43 by all means. But if you want to laugh at something… See an actual comedy.

I would like to take this moment to ask Kate Winslet and Emma Stone: “WHY!?”

There were many things that made me cringe, like in the homeschooling scene where the parents want to give their son every high school experience including his “first kiss”, or the entire “iBabe” sketch, or the superhero speed dating sketch. It’s not that I was necessarily offended, it just… Wasn’t funny.

Like, I understood where I was supposed to laugh and why it should be funny… But it just really wasn’t. Like when you watch an episode of Dora the Explorer and she makes a joke, you know why it is technically ‘funny’ but you don’t laugh because the jokes are simple and lame. Obviously the lame jokes in Movie 43 are R-rated humour though.

If you want to see a TON of famous people making fools of themselves, I’m sure you will enjoy this movie.

But it is rude, crude with lots of nude.

Jodie’s rating: 1.5/10 (.5 per time I chuckled)

Big Fish

Director: Tim Burton
Writer: John August (Screenplay), Daniel Wallace (Novel – Big Fish: A Novel of Mythical Proportions)
Released: 2003
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Helena Bonham-Carter, Billy Crudup, Albert Finney and Ewen McGregor
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I have mentioned this movie in quite a few other posts, relating it to Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button because of their similar stories about an average man on his adventure through life.

Big Fish is directed by Tim Burton, so already you have probably got an idea of what the feel of this film is. A little bit quirky with gothic undertones, but don’t be fooled, this is not a cookie-cutter Burton film (although it does include the incredible Helena Bonham-Carter), this is an amazing tale about Edward Bloom’s (Albert Finney/Ewan McGregor) life.

circus The protagonist is a storyteller although he is known to exaggerate and embellish the story of his life with fantastical metaphors and unbelievable occurrences. Just like Forrest Gump, Edward is a Southern man who finds himself on a road of various adventures, finds love and goes to war.

But Big Fish is a more light hearted and fantastical version where you’re not quite sure what to believe to be true. Edward Bloom’s stories take up most of the film, but it also tells the story of his son, William Bloom (Billy Crudup).

spectre1

He goes on a journey of his own, retracing his father’s footsteps to find out the real story behind all of Edward’s fabricated tales. The contrast between reality and fantasy makes the story more believable. The facts would have made uninteresting tales, whereas the elaborate stories are entertaining and unbelievable.

I love this piece of dialogue where William’s fiancé Josephine (Marion Cotillard) speaks to William Bloom about how he met is wife, Sandra (Jessica Lange/Alison Lohman). I love Bloom’s way of speaking!

Edward Bloom: Your mother-in-law was never supposed to marry me. She was engaged to somebody else.
Josephine: I never knew.
Edward Bloom: Will never told you? Probably just as well. He would have told it wrong, anyway. All the facts, none of the flavor.
Josephine: Oh. So this is a tall tale.
Edward Bloom: Well, it’s not a short one.

This clip should give you a good idea of the feel of the movie:

The music is fantastic in Big Fish. There is Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Pearl Jam as well as the compositions by the infamous Danny Elfman (who incidentally cannot read music!)

witch Fate, destiny, time, love and death. From real life giants and lion tamers to mermaids and witches, Big Fish is a fantasy/adventure/drama movie, but with a make-believe glaze over it.

It is a story of great imagination which you will want to watch over and over again and read further into the details. It’s entertaining but also pulls on the heart-strings.

Jodie’s rating: 9/10

Just noticed they have used the same piece of music from Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands… and another piece of music I recognise from Black Beauty in this trailer! All of these movies have the same composer though; Danny Elfman.

The Hangover

hangover2

Directed: Todd Phillips
Written: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore
Released: 2009
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ken Jeong
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I haven’t kept up with The Hangover movies at all – in fact last night was the first time I had watched the first of the two (soon to be three) of The Hangover films (with the aid of peer pressure). I suppose I always assumed that I wouldn’t like the humour.

However, it wasn’t that bad! I wouldn’t say that I’m a huge fan of The Hangover, or that I am compelled to see the sequels. But I did find it pretty entertaining! There were some pretty hilarious moments, all involving the incredible comedy actor Zach Galifianakis. He was rather humourous in The Hangover playing Alan – the “not all there, but secret gambling genius” sort of character. Galifianakis is equally hilarious in the movie Due Date.

There were some really crazy, random, unbelievable occurrences that were all a part of the weird circumstances that these four guys found themselves in during their stag party in Las Vegas. The night that was happily forgotten by morning, became a night that they were fighting to remember as the conclusions of the night’s events became shocking in the harsh light of day.

It is certainly a very entertaining movie, even if it wasn’t really my cup of tea humour-wise, I still enjoyed it.

Jodie’s rating: 6/10

Hit & Run

Directors: David Palmer and Dax Shepard
Writers: Dax Shepard with David Palmer
Released: August 2012
Starring: Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Kristin Chenoweth, Tom Arnold, Bradley Cooper
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Well. It wasn’t bad. I mean, I wasn’t exactly expecting a lot after seeing the trailer, but it wasn’t as terrible as it made it out to be.

There were are few funny parts, but they were few and far between. The actors were good though, and the car chase scenes were pretty good. But, I swear the producers had a check list:

Good-looking people: check!

HitandRun-shepard&bell — Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell. (I thought these two had great chemistry – turns out they’re dating in real life)

Fast cars: check!

Guns: check!

Storyline: n/a

At the end of the film, we wondered where the conflict actually was, since it seemed like the ‘absolute low’ was not that much below the climax. It was just a series of unfortunate events that led to a pleasant resolution.

But the parts that were funny made up for some of the lame scenes/humour as well as the unbelievable gun fights… But this was a comedy so realism isn’t exactly on the top of the list anyway, I guess.

An easy-to-watch and entertaining movie. Probably not worth seeing twice or buying the dvd since it would take me 10 seconds to recite the storyline after one viewing (including the five minutes I missed when I fell asleep).

But, you know. It was okay.

Jodie’s rating: 5/10

Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead Poster

Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Released: April 2004
Starring: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton
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The best black comedy of all time.

I have a weakness for zombie apocalypse movies anyway. However, this film has taken every zombie cliche` in the book and ends up pointing fun at themselves, which is hilarious!

The creators called it a “Rom Zom Com” aka a “Romantic Zombie Comedy” and the “perfect date film” because it has a heart line of a romantic comedy that happens to be set in a time where zombies are attacking the world.

It starts out with Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Shaun’s girlfriend Lizz (Kate Ashfield) at a bar on yet another date at the Winchester Pub, as Lizz bickers about how they never do anything different. The shot slowly widens to show, Lizz’s friends David and Di (Dylan Moran and Lucy Davis) and Shaun’s foul-mouthed best friend, Ed (Nick Frost). Of course, what better to change the monotonous situation than have their lives bombarded with the living dead!?

That’s what I like about the Wright-Pegg-Frost trio. Their ideas are crazy!
Yet they always work.

These zombies are the classic, lazy walker-types where unless you got trapped or are a really slow walker, you would probably not get caught, unlike the kind that is on the TV series The Walking Dead where they run when they are desperate. But these zombies imitate the world we live in – we wake up, go to work, come home again, miserable. So it does have a bit of a wake-up call feeling to it.

Edgar Wright’s signature fast pans, quick cuts and cut always were present which definitely suited the shocking humour and gruesome occurrences.

Another of my favourite things about this film is the parallels between the start and the ending. Such as the trolley boy collecting stray trolleys in the car park of a shopping centre with little enthusiasm. By the end, the remaining zombies are trained and take over the chore in an equally unenthusiastic way… I don’t know. I just find it amusing…

This is the best black comedy because, unlike some others I’ve seen of the same genre *cough* Zombieland *cough*, the comedy element runs through the entire film, not just random crucial parts. Shaun of the Dead make fun of the terrifying situation at every turn.

This is a must-have item in every film-watcher’s collection.

Jodie’s rating: 8/10

The Actors

Director: Conor McPherson
Writer: Neil Jordan
Released: 2003
Starring: Michael Caine, Dylan Moran, Lena Headey, Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Michael McElhatton, Abigail Iversen, Aisling O’Sullivan, Ben Miller, Simon Delaney, Alvaro Lucchesi
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The funniest movie I have seen in a very long time.

It’s intelligent-funny… Not happy-clappy, seen it before, recycled Hollywood shizz. With Dylan Moran playing the protagonist and the supporting act being Michael Caine, this concoction of pure awesome is sure to be a pleaser.

Surprisingly, this film is not well-known. But it is a film everybody would enjoy with its ironic plot line and an under-lying love story, which I am happy to say doesn’t take centre-stage regularly. Dylan Moran’s character, Thomas Quirk, is indeed a quirky guy who loosely calls himself an actor working in play with a fellow actor, Anthony O’Malley (Caine).

Dylan Moran undercover

O’Malley soon hears about a scheme going down in the local bar where
“a certain somebody owes money to another certain somebody, but they have never met”. He decides that Quirk does need to practice his acting skills and convinces Thomas to be the collecter whom the debtor has never met. Of course, how could something like that ever be as straight forward as it sounds!?

Dylan Moran’s disguises throughout this scheme are hilarious and you will be sure to be repeating and imitating the characters after! This script is so funny and its catch-phrases remind me of the film Juno.

The Actors Caine

Despite being an up-beat comedy, the camera work (particularly lighting) in many scenes are spot-on and very well done, so is the music. Now I really want to buy the soundtrack! The songs and compositions by Michael Nyman are spectacularly emotional and support the visuals very well.

It’s a film that merges the stage actors and improvisation actors which I thought was really clever and it gave the film a really unique twist.

I can’t believe the negative reviews I have found on this film… How? o.O I thought it was HILARIOUS and I watch it regularly.

Jodie’s rating: 8/10

I can’t find a trailer, so here’s a pretty funny scene where Dylan Moran is playing Thomas Quirk who is undercover as “Barreller”. Barreller accidentally gave the money to Quirk earlier on. Now, Quirk is pretending to be Barreller, confronting “Jock” who the money was supposed to go to… Ugh, don’t worry, it makes more sense in the film.