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It’s nothing but comedies (and nothing very good) this week - with one limited release exception. For 20 June, here are the films in focus:
The Foot Fist Way [rating: 7]
Built out of the ‘asshole as hero’ mode of amusement, and anchored by a frightening portrayal by lead actor Danny McBride, The Foot Fist Way is a collection of contradictory ideals gelling effortlessly into a smart, savvy whole.
Comedy can come out of a number of circumstances. Sometimes, all you need is a goofy premise, and audiences will laugh without realizing it. At other instances, carefully drawn characters are required to gain the guffaws. There is parody and satire, high minded intellectualism and low brow slapstick. It takes skill to circumnavigate any one of these tenuous elements, while some filmmakers can manage all of them within a single cinematic setting. Such is the case with The Foot Fist Way, a $70,000 independent offering hijacked by Will Ferrell and Andy McKay for their Gary Sanchez Productions. This fudged up little gem may get lost among all the mainstream merriment, but it far surpasses what your sloppy Cineplex car wrecks have to offer. read full review…
Get Smart [rating: 4]
In a current comedy climate where such scant superficiality just won’t cut it, Get Smart is nothing but shallow.
By its very definition, something that’s “generic” is seen as “having no particularly distinctive quality or application”. This doesn’t make the object in question bad, just bland, as (un)exciting as anything else of its kind or type, nothing more or less. When it was announced that the classic Mel Brooks/Buck Henry sitcom from the ‘60s, Get Smart, was getting a post-millennial makeover, fans were skeptical. The hiring of The Office‘s Steve Carrel seemed to smooth things over, and the adding of Alan Arkin and Anne Hathaway were an equally pleasant surprise. Frankly, the filmmakers shouldn’t have bothered. While the casting is keen, the script - and the rest of the film - arrives deader than a double agent during the Cold War. read full review…
Other Releases—In Brief
The Love Guru [rating: 2]
There’s a time, usually between puberty and post-graduate work, where humor revolving around the male genitalia becomes a guaranteed laugh getter. From novel nomenclature (‘wiener’, ‘wang’) to outright male organ riffs, adolescents can’t get enough of the comic crotch shot. This is clearly Mike Myers’ hope as he hurls, trained ape like, his horrendous filmic feces - known as The Love Guru - on unsuspecting summer audiences. As the gamey American Pitka, a self-help hack desperate to beat Deepak Chopra at his own New Age spiel, the former SNL superstar has finally found the proper cement sandals to wear in order to completely sink his career. As our unfunny hero hobbles around Toronto, trying to help star hockey player Darren Roanoke get his scoring groove - and wife - back, we are subjected to an onslaught of penis jokes unseen outside a day camp setting. Toss in bland cameos, Ben Kingsley as a hate crime, obligatory Vern Troyer, and a love interest (Jessica Alba) who’s all stale eye candy, and you’ve got one of the worst movies of the year. Even the most baffling Bollywood extravaganza makes more sense than this meandering mess - and at least it’s trying to entertain its audience. All Myers is doing here is stroking his own ego. The result is nothing short of nauseating.
