comedy

Annie Hall

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Annie Hall. Rollins-Joffe Productions 1977.

Before watching the movie:

The more I learned about this movie, the less I expected to like it. Since it’s got work of art status and it’s about a romance, it sounds dull to me.

Then I learned that Woody Allen basically wrote the part for Diane Keaton and they had been a couple, which was a red flag since nepotism tends to make films worse (I read a book about awful films with potential, and one of the most recurring themes is that someone was dating someone else).

Finally, this movie is the B-plot salvaged from an awful mystery in the edit. How often does “fixing it in post” work out? Well, four Academy Awards say I’m wrong.

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2001: A Space Travesty

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2001: A Space Travesty. Cinevent/Helkon Media AG 2000.

Before watching the movie:

When I read the blurb, I realized I’d let the title trick me into thinking of it as a direct parody of “Space Odyssey”, which is a reasonable assumption but unusually late. It appears that it’s more a genre parody that got stuck with the title because everything got titles with “2000” in the late 90s.

I’m hoping this is more “enjoyably passable” like Spy Hard than “barely tolerable” like the Scary Movie series. Continue reading →

Dragnet

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Dragnet. Applied Action 1987.

Before watching the movie:

I was kind of expecting this to be funnier than the show (which I’ve never seen, but am familiar with through homage), but I didn’t know when I first selected Dragnet that it’s intended to be a parody. Maybe if I was a fan of the original show I’d be worried, but Dragnet plays to parody so well I see a lot of potential to be the definitive parody (displacing the Stan Freberg audio sketches).

This movie seems to afford an increasingly rare opportunity to see Tom Hanks do comedy.

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Duck Soup

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Duck Soup. Paramount Pictures 1933.

Before watching the movie:

This was a consideration for May’s classics theme, and probably would have been a better fit than one of them. I was actually planning to include it before I realized that May might have had five Thursdays (the day I write on), but only four Fridays (the day I publish).

Anyway, here’s the Marx brothers doing political satire. On what? I don’t recall, but I think it’s about contemporary US foreign policy.

I had fun keeping up a theme for a month. I’m thinking about doing another themed month soon, but it won’t be July.

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Breaking In

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Breaking In. Samuel Goldwyn Company 1989.

Before watching the movie:

This is a comedy about safe cracker mentoring. When I think of safe crackers, I think of No Deposit No Return, and there’s room for similar cracking hijinks, but beyond that, I have little to go on.

I don’t know what to expect in terms of performances because it’s Burt Reynolds playing an older man but not his reputation “self” and an actor I think I only know because he was part of a gang in one of the Back to the Future movies.

This movie was made in 1989, but doesn’t this poster look more late 70s/early 80s? Maybe I don’t have as good of a feel on poster styles as I thought.

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Sixteen Candles

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Sixteen Candles. Universal Pictures 1984.

Before watching the movie:

From what I’ve read about the plot… haven’t I seen this movie? Wait, no. It’s just that half of the teen angst movies in existence use similar plots. Molly Ringwald won’t be happy with anybody but the most popular boy in school, while there’s a dorky kid hovering over her who’s got a crush on her.

There’s also something about her family forgetting her birthday, so she’s extra keen to get noticed by said popular boy. I’d rather not be so sarcastic, but it’s such a stock story. It’s going to have a lot to make up for in the execution.

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The Best of Times

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The Best of Times. Kings Road Entertainment 1986.

Before watching the movie:

This is an interesting approach to a nostalgic high school sports movie. Normally, such a movie would either actually have high school characters through whom the writers and audience can wax nostalgic, and the main stories I’ve seen where adult characters want to recapture their youth, either they just reconnect with old friends or time travel is involved. Here, a bunch of adults stage a rematch of The Big Game as adults, around fifteen years later.

They’d be in their late 20s/early 30s by my reckoning, so they should still be young enough to do it decently, but not as well as they used to. Before I did the numbers, I was expecting late 40s, old enough to be firmly in middle age and midlife crises. Not that I was a star athlete in high school, but I’m now realizing the ages I can expect to see are basically what’s coming up next for me. That’s a chilling thought to go into a comedy with.

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Stir Crazy

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June is no longer Non-Alliterative Silver Screen Classic Movie Month!

Stir Crazy. Columbia Pictures Corporation 1980.

Before watching the movie:

Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor (whom I’ve only seen together in one other movie) get thrown in jail for a crime they didn’t commit. Comedy ensues. Escaping? Surviving? I’m expecting both. Other than that, I’m not sure what’s going to happen, because the last time I saw them together, they were playing blind and deaf, which seems like it would make a big difference.

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The Flying Deuces

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May is Non-Alliterative Silver Screen Classic Movie Month!

The Flying Deuces. Boris Morros Productions 1939.

Before watching the movie:

This is the only film I hadn’t heard of when planning this series, but I wanted a Laurel and Hardy. Well, I wanted a Buster Keaton and a Harold Lloyd, but suitable Keaton and Lloyd films weren’t available to me. Anyway, I wanted something fun to follow last week. I’ll close the month on a serious film.

So, Laurel and Hardy in the Foreign Legion. Comedy ensues, of course. Having so little go go on, I have a hard time conveying how much I’m looking forward to it. I expect a lot of schemes to getout of the Foreign Legion.

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The Great Dictator

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The Great Dictator. Charles Chaplin Productions 1940.

May is Non-Alliterative Silver Screen Classic Movie Month!

Before watching the movie:

This came close to being my first Charlie Chaplin picture ever, but it was beaten out by Modern Times. I get the sense this will be largely different, since he’s playing someone other than the Tramp and this is entirely talking.

This holds particular interest to me since it’s a satire of Nazi Germany contemporary to Nazi Germany, as opposed to The Producers or Hogan’s Heroes.

I assume a lot of prior knowledge for this film since film buffs love to gush about it, but I only really know the dance with the globe and the speech that’s recently become popular.

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