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Reviews
Scary Movie (2000)
Onother one on the list of terrible parodies
To start with a summary, I hated it. To give a balance, I generally like parodies, going back to Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, up to Airplane, plus 'college' comedies like Aminal House, so possibly I've been spoilt by the best, by I also know and understand offensive, toilet humour. This film mainly tries to parody 'Scream' which was a parody in itself. How do you parody a parody? Other films included are generally the likes of 'I know what you did last summer' and also 'The Matrix', 'The Usual Suspects and 'The Sixth Sense'. However some, if not most of the parodies of those films fall extremely flat, or simply replay a certain type of scene without any real parody or joke.
As said, Airplane is one of my favourite ever parodies, and it would be hard for any movie to match that, and many have tried and failed, but this movie seems like an attempt by a junior class of 12 year-olds. The 'funny bits' are bashed together generally, almost as if the different writers did all of their stuff separately, and didn't bother to a) make it gel and b) check if it was funny or not.
The only way I can describe it is, a sub-sub-sub standard of other fairly okay parody movies. Zero out of ten from me.
The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
A disappointment
Each and every one of the TV episodes made me laugh frequently, so much that I watched the series over again. So I was very much looking forward to the film. What happened? It seemed to go the way of many successful TV sitcoms before it, when transferred to the big screen. Something gets lost in the longer format. Certainly here, the charm of the shorter better-plot TV episodes has gone. There is not so much humour and quite a lot is very much predictable. I'm quite surprised that the writers, after penning so many brilliant TV episodes, didn't spot the flaws. Maybe I was expecting too much from it and others may consider it brilliant, but if anyone hasn't seen the TV series, I doubt the movie is a good advert to make them tune in.
National Treasure (2004)
Bargain bin DVD purchase
But at £5, it wasn't a bargain. The film obviously tries to take from Indiana Jones, but fails miserably. Whereas the Indy films had great characters, plot and action, this film has none of those. A decent cast struggle with such awful dialogue and plot, it made me wonder why they had agreed to it in the first place. A sub DaVinci Code clues/puzzles line is so insipid, and wrapped up in the mediocre, done-so-many-times-before hero gets girl, has a sidekick who provides silly lines, villain (not a very good one) gets comeuppance and (quite ridiculous ending) heroes all get very rich. If you are expecting anything like Raiders, you will be sadly disappointed. If you are pre-teen, you might get a little fun out of it, but otherwise, this is a poorly made, badly constructed and lazily delivered film.
Little Miss Jocelyn (2006)
I have never seen such rubbish
This program is the worst I have ever seen, and believe me, I've seen Tittybangbang and Peter Serofinawicz. I'm amazed that there are people commenting here who say they love it. I suppose the explanations about recognising characters from the black community may go somewhere to explain it, but even so in that sphere, all she does is shout in a particular accent. If I was an ex-pat in eg Nigeria and a white woman came on TV shouting in cockney, that in itself might amuse for 30 seconds, but when I realise there are actually no jokes and no wit, surely the amusement wears thin? Goofy teeth, strange accents and shouting does not make comedy. Take out the rude bits and this is sub-standard children's TV.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
Entertaining, but 'could do better'
I've been familiar with the Borat character from Cohen's Ali G shows in the UK, so knew what to expect. He's at his very best with unsuspecting members of authority, from small gun clubs through to government figures, where he can cajole them into saying things they'd rather not, or certainly wouldn't say on national TV. There are some Borat clips available from his time in the US which were not included in the film and I wondered why, because some of these were much funnier than what was included. However, the confrontations with the unsuspecting were still good and worth watching. Maybe not enough of them for me.
There are pieces which are obviously set up, and this is where it falls flat because you know the 'unsuspecting' are actually in on it. OK, it needs a rolling story, and the hotel naked fight with his adviser was funny/ridiculous and parts of this made me wonder why on earth he'd put his naked frame up against the anger of a big hotel security guard who may not have had the opportunity to bash someone in a while. He does suffer for his art in places here.
In one of early encounters with a genuine 'unsuspector' it's funny that he gets the guy to state that he wants homosexuals hanged! This is the art of making ordinary people be free with their outrageous prejudices, and his TV show was centered completely around this. Here, we don't get enough.
Overall, there are some laughs, certainly a lot of laughs if you love him to bits, or have never seen him. I for one, am glad to see such non-PC outrage back on the screen, and it would only be a fool to take him seriously.
Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001)
A micky-take of all that is English Football
Filmed as a 'docu-soap' this raises many laughs. I must admit that I'm an avid football fan and saw the jokes relating to famous players, which might have been otherwise vague for people not so clued-up on the subject.
However, there are enough comic situations relating to anyone who is disorganised, trying organise something. Non-footy fans will get these jokes.
The manager of the England team, Mike Bassett, is thrown into a situation that he really cannot handle, and most Brits will recognise this, but the feeling is probably universal for all sports.
Quite reminiscent of 'This is Spinal Tap'.
Putting the actual football jokes aside, there's enough here for anyone to enjoy about incompetence, be it in business, or any other industry.
Scary Movie 2 (2001)
The weakest parody I've ever seen
This movie is terrible.
I struggle to understand how this got commissioned at all. The 'movie parody' parts are hardly parodies at all, and the scenes outside of this are weak, weak, weak on comedy.
The very first movie parody is of The Exorcist and I'd love the writers to explain to me how they have expanded the original to make it funny.
Whereas movies like Airplane or Naked Gun used killer humour, this goes for a simple 'pie in the face' or 'fart' scenes, some of which are unintelligible to anyone outside of American sub culture.
The Wayan brothers certainly have a charmed life in Hollywood.
'Airplane' started all of this - but at least that was funny, witty and had some sort of plot.
Green Street (2005)
Convaluted. A trite opening, which slips in an OK story later.
Elijah Wood must have needed the cash. I must admit, when I first heard he was making a film like this, I thought it was bad casting. I thought that on actually seeing the film, but I don't think it was a self-fulling prophecy. He just doesn't look right, feel right or seem right in the role.
The first thirty minutes move Wood's character into hooliganism too quickly and unrealistically. He's mentored by a thug who forces the cockney accent so much that it's a parody and at times he (the thug) falls into what can only be described as some sort of West country accent. It is quite unrealistic why Wood's character becomes so fiercely friendly with the thug.
Wood's first visit to a game, shows nothing in his apparent instant interest. Compare this to 'Fever Pitch' where the young boy enters the stadium for the first time and sees the crowd, hears the roar and sees the expanse of green pitch. Then we see his expression. It's obvious the boy has been turned to the sport. In Hooligans (Green Street in UK), there is a similar scene which is wasted for such an opportunity.
To be fair, the next part introduces some conflict in characters and a twist (of sorts), to make the film vaguely watchable.
Signs (2002)
A cheap alternative to sleeping pills
As a sci-fi fan, I looked forward to this film, although being slightly uneasy about the director's previous project 'Unbreakable'.
Signs is overall a thinking film, but to get through it, you will need lots of caffine. The dialogue is so slowly whispered throughout and the scenes played even slower. If I had a penny for saying 'get on with it' throughout the film, I'd have £1.68.
Mel Gibson hardly moves and basically keeps the same dour expression throughout. The kids are robotically weird and the minor characters lifeless.
Not once did I see these characters as believeable.
As with Unbreakable, the director, M Night Shyamalan, has given a thoroughly boring movie experience.