What is it with Christmas and New Year? Terrestial channels seem desperate to get out any well-remembered 80's film with a view to getting people in their late 20's and early 30's stuck in front of the telly finishing off the Minstrels purchased by a grandmother, unable to move due to laziness and a fortnight of gluttony. And this is how I came to be watching Three Men and a Baby on 3rd Jan, desperately trying to prolong my last full day off before going back to work.
I watched this thinking to myself that the modern day equivalent would be a film starring Will Ferrell, Sacha Baron Cohen and Adam Sandler, comedy heavyweights (now I must qualify that Sandler hasn't done anything good in a long while and he is not really to my taste, I include his name just because he is a big name and has box office pull) brought together in one blockbuster film. Then I did a spot of internet research and it became clear that it wasn't the juggernaught I thought it might be, Ted Danson and Tom Selleck (has he aged at all since?) were TV actors (Cheers and Magnum PI respetively - both pleasures for me growing up), all be it very popular ones, and Guttenberg was fresh from Police Academy 1 & 2 and Cocoon. Not exactly the dream team on paper.
Having said that, just because they didn't have a bundle of huge films under their belt, doesn't mean that they weren't any good, and this film certainly proves that the trio had something about them. The story of three bachelors living in a New York penthouse together, being left to look after a baby is a simple comedy set-up getting characters out of their depth and seeing the consequences unfold. The expected set-pieces and foul ups are made funny by Danson, Selleck and Guttenberg with great timing, visual gags and some nice one liners as the three exchange banter between them.
The problem with the film is that the makers (the one and only Leonard 'Spock' Nimoy behind the camera after a couple of Trek films) didn't have the confidence in the central idea to last a whole film. Instead they shoehorn in a stupid sub-plot about a drug deal that creates a botched action (ish) scene in the middle of the film, completley out of place with the rest of the piece. Then once that is resolved, we are back to the baby plot, with a well played-out and touching finale as they have to give the baby back to it's mother. It's like a spam sandwich made with exquisite focaccia bread, the vile meat stuffed between to lovely chunks of suculent bread.
It's a real pity that there wasn't enough conviction to concentrate solely on the three characters and the child, because when it's just about that, it's a lovely film, the three stars really shining, both comically and dramtically, with some genuinely funny moments. There is a real desire for everything 80's at the moment and the more I revisit cinematic nuggets from this decade, the more I believe that the films are flawed.....
Now if they're going to remake this one....Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander please.
Oh and one more thing, there was an urban legend about this film - was there a ghost behind the curtain....?
About Me
- Ollie Miney
- Lover of all things film, ready to tell you what to avoid, and more importantly, what to seek out.
Showing posts with label Comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comedy. Show all posts
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
FOUR CHRISTMASES (2008)
Right, so it's Sunday evening. I've been away for the weekend to Bury St Edmunds. Done some Christmas shopping. Feel a bit groggy from the night before. Get back to the sofa, use my two pizzas for 10 quid voucher at Pizza Express. What next? Well, the girlfriend fancies something 'Christmassy'. She doesn't fancy Black Christmas, I don't really want to go down the Miracle on 34th Street route. That leaves the movie channels, which leaves us at a crossroads. Home Alone 2 or Four Christmases? One I have seen, the other I have not. One I have fond memories of from growing up, the other I have only heard bad things. Classic family comedy v ropey romantic comedy.
Perhaps it was the hangover. It may have been my hurt at being let down by the recent re-watching of National Lampoon's vacation. It may have even been sub-conscious pressure from the better half. Or a narcissistic desire to review something I don't think I will like. Whatever it was, I chose Four Christmases as we tucked into a Sloppy Guiseppe and a Pollo Ad Astra.
Vince Vaughn (new rom-com regular) and Reese Witherspoon play a couple, a couple who are happy as they are. They don't fancy marriage, they don't fancy kids. They are a 21st century pairing, happy with what they have and don't want to go down the ruinous route that their parents undertook, which has consequently left them both with two separate families each. Two families per character, 4 in total, Christmas day, 4 different Christmas celebrations. And that is essentially the set-up. Once their usual selfish holiday plans are put to the sword due to fog, they have to each visit the different factions of one another's families.
You have his bad tempered, red neck dad, her flirtatious, evangelical Christian, cougar mum, she also has a kind caring father, but he must visit his mother who now has a sexual relationship with his old best friend.
And that is it really. Not much else.
I sensed that the film makers saw 'Meet The Parents' and thought to themselves, 'that's a good idea - let's do four mini versions of that in one movie'. And that is all we have here. There is physical comedy (which is, I must admit, comical and, at times, well done) and then gross out, cringey gags that are predictable and far from laugh out loud.
It isn't particularly funny, but then it isn't exactly devoid of humour altogether. I chuckled twice (the girlfriend counted), nothing more, nothing less. Is that what constitutes a comedy these days? I should certainly hope not. Spaceballs and Airplane! managed the same amount in the credits sequence. Have standards slipped that much?
What is most upsetting is the great actors that appear. Jon Voigt, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek. Has it really come to this? You should all know better than this. Please do not be tempted by De Niro's turn in Meet The Parents. He is better than that, and so are you.
Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn share screen time, and they have to resort to wrestling moves and kicks in the balls. These sequences are some of the only amusing moments, but these two bounced off one another in Swingers with dialogue that few people have emulated since. You two are 'money'. Please take me back to those times.
The film also tries to have a message. Please stop this. Don't do it, You can't have a gross out, inappropriate comedy for an hour and then decide that you want the main characters to fall in love all over again as they realise the error of their ways. I despised them at the beginning, what makes you think that I give a toss as to whether they live happily ever after and overcome the badly portrayed commitment phobias that they both have?
It could have been an interesting comedy, an insight into the modern family and how fractured Christmas has become. A study of the 21st century nuclear family or it dissolution. Instead it is an example of how fractured comedies have become, with little thought put into, and time spent on character and narrative. I criticised National Lampoons for it's broken and incomplete structure, and here we have the same problem, 20 years later. Has nothing changed?
Plus it doesn't feel remotely Christmassy. Four Christmases, not one but four, and not once does you ever make you long for Turkey, sprouts and bad telly. If it can't deliver on this, and it can't give you the laughs, what on earth is the point?
If this is what we have to resort to at this time every year, then Bah Humbug.
Perhaps it was the hangover. It may have been my hurt at being let down by the recent re-watching of National Lampoon's vacation. It may have even been sub-conscious pressure from the better half. Or a narcissistic desire to review something I don't think I will like. Whatever it was, I chose Four Christmases as we tucked into a Sloppy Guiseppe and a Pollo Ad Astra.
Vince Vaughn (new rom-com regular) and Reese Witherspoon play a couple, a couple who are happy as they are. They don't fancy marriage, they don't fancy kids. They are a 21st century pairing, happy with what they have and don't want to go down the ruinous route that their parents undertook, which has consequently left them both with two separate families each. Two families per character, 4 in total, Christmas day, 4 different Christmas celebrations. And that is essentially the set-up. Once their usual selfish holiday plans are put to the sword due to fog, they have to each visit the different factions of one another's families.
You have his bad tempered, red neck dad, her flirtatious, evangelical Christian, cougar mum, she also has a kind caring father, but he must visit his mother who now has a sexual relationship with his old best friend.
And that is it really. Not much else.
I sensed that the film makers saw 'Meet The Parents' and thought to themselves, 'that's a good idea - let's do four mini versions of that in one movie'. And that is all we have here. There is physical comedy (which is, I must admit, comical and, at times, well done) and then gross out, cringey gags that are predictable and far from laugh out loud.
It isn't particularly funny, but then it isn't exactly devoid of humour altogether. I chuckled twice (the girlfriend counted), nothing more, nothing less. Is that what constitutes a comedy these days? I should certainly hope not. Spaceballs and Airplane! managed the same amount in the credits sequence. Have standards slipped that much?
What is most upsetting is the great actors that appear. Jon Voigt, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek. Has it really come to this? You should all know better than this. Please do not be tempted by De Niro's turn in Meet The Parents. He is better than that, and so are you.
Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn share screen time, and they have to resort to wrestling moves and kicks in the balls. These sequences are some of the only amusing moments, but these two bounced off one another in Swingers with dialogue that few people have emulated since. You two are 'money'. Please take me back to those times.
The film also tries to have a message. Please stop this. Don't do it, You can't have a gross out, inappropriate comedy for an hour and then decide that you want the main characters to fall in love all over again as they realise the error of their ways. I despised them at the beginning, what makes you think that I give a toss as to whether they live happily ever after and overcome the badly portrayed commitment phobias that they both have?
It could have been an interesting comedy, an insight into the modern family and how fractured Christmas has become. A study of the 21st century nuclear family or it dissolution. Instead it is an example of how fractured comedies have become, with little thought put into, and time spent on character and narrative. I criticised National Lampoons for it's broken and incomplete structure, and here we have the same problem, 20 years later. Has nothing changed?
Plus it doesn't feel remotely Christmassy. Four Christmases, not one but four, and not once does you ever make you long for Turkey, sprouts and bad telly. If it can't deliver on this, and it can't give you the laughs, what on earth is the point?
If this is what we have to resort to at this time every year, then Bah Humbug.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION (1983)
Monday off work, freezing cold, spent the morning Christmas shopping and the afternoon traipsing round Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, occasionally stopping to drink mulled wine and spiced cider. One more sneaky pint of ale en route back and then on to the sofa to chill out before the long weekend comes to an end. What we need during these moments is something warm, something familiar, something safe. And so it was that I put on National Lampoon's Vacation.
It's a film that I remember very fondly from my childhood, my mum and dad loving it. I recall them cackling away as I sat there not getting the majority of the jokes and stirring uneasily during the 'love' scenes. However, despite the film being in my DVD cabinet for as long as I can recall, this was the first time I had watched it quite a while. So how does it stand up after all this time?
It stars Chevy Chase, Saturday Night Live regular, at a time when he was at the peak of his powers. Fresh from the success of Caddy Shack, he was everywhere and would go on to star in successful vehicles such as Fletch, Fletch lives, Funny Farm, Spies Like Us and another that I loved as a child, The Three Amigos. It's written by the late, and great, John Hughes who of course penned a whole host of classics, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, The Great Outdoors and the wonderful Planes, Trains and Automobiles. He also directed Uncle Buck and Weird Science.
Behind the camera you have Harold Ramis, also riding the rave of Caddy Shack, and before he would hit the heights of Groundhog Day and also helping to pen Ghostbusters with Dan Ackroyd.
All the ingredients are there.....
But it misses the mark.
On this viewing I must admit I barely laughed. There were one or two chortles, but nothing more than that. And before you say it, it's not because I've seen the film before and know all the gags. Put me in front of Airplane! and I'll laugh from start to finish, despite knowing every last joke inside out. The story is a nice premise and should work well, family setting off on a 2 week vacation to Wally World (basically Disney Land) but instead of flying there, they decide that a trip by road will be a great opportunity to all bond. Anyone who has ever journeyed anywhere by car as a family, on a trip further than the local supermarket, knows that this is a recipe for disaster, and this film is no exception. If something can go wrong, it inevitably does. Car crashes, deaths, nudity, toilet humour, financial woe, it's all there as the vacation hits a steadily downward trajectory.
The problem with the film is that it lacks any real cohesion. It feels like a collection of sketches, like you might find in Saturday Night Live. Can you imagine a film based on all the gags in the Armstrong and Miller show, but with all the characters the same throughout? That's what you have here. None of it seems to fit. Disaster, comic pay off, back on the road, next disaster, punchline, better back on the freeway. The punchlines themselves didn't feel quite as they should have either, as though they were too soon or too late. The secret to comedy, someone once said, is timing. They all missed a beat or two here.
It's a credit to Chase and some of the other cast, notably Beverly D'Angelo (Chase's on screen wife), Imogene Coca (bitter and grumpy Aunt Edna) and good old reliable Randy Quaid doing what he does best as cousin Eddie, that the film stands up at all. They do their best with what they have. Chase is naturally funny in a straight kind of way, and putting him in these increasingly nightmarish situations, is a good formula.
However, it's not until you get to the final 20 minutes that the film really settles, with Chase turning a little darker and John Candy turning up for a fun finale that ends on a happy note.
It all feels a little rushed as a whole though. It seems as though everyone involved thought that the most important thing was to get the film out there, regardless of what state it was in. It's not just the comic timing that is off here, this film seemed to happen too soon. All those involved, that I referred to above, went on to make and be involved in some fantastic films that are still talked about today. National Lampoon's Vacation came before they all knew exactly what they were doing, it's rough around the edges. But Ramis and Hughes were able to learn from this and not make the same mistakes on other projects.
Without this film, I doubt we would have Planes, Trains and Automobiles in the state that it is. For that film, which really is a classic, owes a lot to National Lampoon's Vacation, is essentially the same story but with tighter writing, better actors, funnier gags and a heart. If Hughes needed to make this film in order to make Planes, that's fine by me. And for that we should be eternally grateful.
It's a film that I remember very fondly from my childhood, my mum and dad loving it. I recall them cackling away as I sat there not getting the majority of the jokes and stirring uneasily during the 'love' scenes. However, despite the film being in my DVD cabinet for as long as I can recall, this was the first time I had watched it quite a while. So how does it stand up after all this time?
It stars Chevy Chase, Saturday Night Live regular, at a time when he was at the peak of his powers. Fresh from the success of Caddy Shack, he was everywhere and would go on to star in successful vehicles such as Fletch, Fletch lives, Funny Farm, Spies Like Us and another that I loved as a child, The Three Amigos. It's written by the late, and great, John Hughes who of course penned a whole host of classics, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, The Great Outdoors and the wonderful Planes, Trains and Automobiles. He also directed Uncle Buck and Weird Science.
Behind the camera you have Harold Ramis, also riding the rave of Caddy Shack, and before he would hit the heights of Groundhog Day and also helping to pen Ghostbusters with Dan Ackroyd.
All the ingredients are there.....
But it misses the mark.
On this viewing I must admit I barely laughed. There were one or two chortles, but nothing more than that. And before you say it, it's not because I've seen the film before and know all the gags. Put me in front of Airplane! and I'll laugh from start to finish, despite knowing every last joke inside out. The story is a nice premise and should work well, family setting off on a 2 week vacation to Wally World (basically Disney Land) but instead of flying there, they decide that a trip by road will be a great opportunity to all bond. Anyone who has ever journeyed anywhere by car as a family, on a trip further than the local supermarket, knows that this is a recipe for disaster, and this film is no exception. If something can go wrong, it inevitably does. Car crashes, deaths, nudity, toilet humour, financial woe, it's all there as the vacation hits a steadily downward trajectory.
The problem with the film is that it lacks any real cohesion. It feels like a collection of sketches, like you might find in Saturday Night Live. Can you imagine a film based on all the gags in the Armstrong and Miller show, but with all the characters the same throughout? That's what you have here. None of it seems to fit. Disaster, comic pay off, back on the road, next disaster, punchline, better back on the freeway. The punchlines themselves didn't feel quite as they should have either, as though they were too soon or too late. The secret to comedy, someone once said, is timing. They all missed a beat or two here.
It's a credit to Chase and some of the other cast, notably Beverly D'Angelo (Chase's on screen wife), Imogene Coca (bitter and grumpy Aunt Edna) and good old reliable Randy Quaid doing what he does best as cousin Eddie, that the film stands up at all. They do their best with what they have. Chase is naturally funny in a straight kind of way, and putting him in these increasingly nightmarish situations, is a good formula.
However, it's not until you get to the final 20 minutes that the film really settles, with Chase turning a little darker and John Candy turning up for a fun finale that ends on a happy note.
It all feels a little rushed as a whole though. It seems as though everyone involved thought that the most important thing was to get the film out there, regardless of what state it was in. It's not just the comic timing that is off here, this film seemed to happen too soon. All those involved, that I referred to above, went on to make and be involved in some fantastic films that are still talked about today. National Lampoon's Vacation came before they all knew exactly what they were doing, it's rough around the edges. But Ramis and Hughes were able to learn from this and not make the same mistakes on other projects.
Without this film, I doubt we would have Planes, Trains and Automobiles in the state that it is. For that film, which really is a classic, owes a lot to National Lampoon's Vacation, is essentially the same story but with tighter writing, better actors, funnier gags and a heart. If Hughes needed to make this film in order to make Planes, that's fine by me. And for that we should be eternally grateful.
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