"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

I almost forgot to mention it, but we watched Borat last week. Sigh. I should have known. I should have known for two reasons -- 1. the HUMONGOUS box office; the spectacular reviews; the word "Borat" on the tips of the tongues of everyone who never heard of him before this film -- and 2. the Golden Rule of Comedy.

How's that?

1. If a film is THAT popular, it's probably got something for just about everyone on the bandwagon. And Borat does. Some of the outtakes from his HBO bits, something for those who get a big guffaw anytime there's poo-poo-pee-pee, and my least favorite schools of hahaha, some pratfalls. But overall, was it as hilarious as watching a 25-minute episode of Ali G? Ich don't think so. Why? Because of...

2. Comedy in feature length dollops is too difficult to sustain. On Da Ali G Show, it was divided into three concise perfectly modulated hysterical segments anchored by Ali G. It moved along quickly, made you laugh, and then moved on to another bit. Think about a regular half-hour episode of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm. Then think about those "special" comedy-killing double episodes that inevitably fall flat. The final "Producers" episode of Curb? How about Saturday Night Live? At its best, it was brilliant because they knew when they had milked all the humor out of any given routine. As the show began its tragic decline, the bits started going past that point. Painfully. Not funny.

The Golden Rule of Comedy may not be something written anywhwere and I'm sure there are exceptions. But if the funniest people in the world at any given time are unable to sustain a comedy thorughout 80-some minutes, I'd say the rule is pretty accurate. It's the nature of the beast.

But...

...take a film like Pulp Fiction. While technically NOT a comedy, I find it offers more consistent humor from beginning to end than any comedy I can think of. Or Clockwork Orange. Crimes and Misdemeanors. Even Blue Velvet!

Okay, then. Why wasn't Borat funny? Some of it was, mostly the clips you saw in the omnipresent trailers. Wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone who still hasn't seen it (even the Kazakhs DVDs are being delivered this month) so I'll just say key words. In the extras -- cheese-butter, elevator (though it was reminiscent of Peter Sellers in Being There), Kazakhstan scenes, comedy class and feminists. Not funny: where he took cruel advantage of the kindness of strangers -- Gypsy tears, chocolate face, unattractive woman, toilet training, antique shop, streaking and, in the extras -- puppy.

Bottom line = Borat, 3 out of a possible 5. That's being generous out of respect for the hilarity of the TV version. Sorry to say, as he was my favorite character. Now I'm not even looking forward to the Bruno film. Lucky for Sasha Baron Cohen, my finger is not on the pulsebeat of the mass movie-going public.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Susan - were you offended by some of the content in Borat?

I just can't disagree with you more regarding the humour - I thought it was a comedy masterpiece.  Sheer ballsy genius from start to finish - I was aching from laughing so much.  But I didn't ever expect it to go down as well in the USA itself...

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

No, it was because I'm a fan of his work that I loved the film.  I've watched Ali G and Borat for years.  I agree that it's hard to stretch a normally funny short segment out over the duration of a feature film.  Mr Bean leaps to mind as a good example - great short films, but the feature was too thin on laughs imho. 

That said, I thought Cohen did a great job of keeping the laughs coming.  I made a special effort to try not to see any of the promos, sneak-peeks etc, and I think that paid off when I finally got to see the film.  I'd heard a wave of good press about Borat - the reviewers were simply gushing - and sometimes to me that means getting ready for disappointment.  But no - for me it lived up to expectations and then some.

I was just trying to figure how someone could come out of Borat not aching with laughter.  My first guess is if the person was offended  - but you said you weren't.  Second would be that it's not your type of humour - but it is.  Thirdly I guess maybe you just had a bad day??  Don't know.  But it's good we all have our own perspectives I guess...

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

The Mission is on my top ten all time movie list, Smokey!  Perfect on every level.  John Williams could learn a thing or two about how to score a film from Morricone, but I suppose it's too late for that. 

Let's not overlook the late great Robert Bolt who gave all his films that "Robert Bolt feeling" and in spades too! 

It is an emissary from the Vatican who is sent to the mission to determine if it is a viable entity.  He is the character who narrates the film.  He knows full well what he's going to do before he even arrives in South America.  It is a political decision from the church hierarchy but he goes through the motions of reviewing the evidence from all sides = the conflict between the Spanish and the Portuguese and the ramifications on the home front back in Europe.  The former have officially outlawed capturing slaves while the latter are still legally protecting the capture of slaves. 

The story is based on actual events that took place at a Jesuit mission located where the borders of Paraquay, Argentina and Brazil meet.  Somewhere among my books, I have one detailing the history of this mission.  But what I love so much about this film is the ultimate decision forced upon two principled men -- the priests played by Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro.  I've watched this film many times, understand their respective choices but always find myself with DeNiro.  

Magnificent film!   Now I feel like watching it again. 

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

As usual, Booth, you are on the money.  Agreed!

So, if we follow this trend forward to the upcoming Bruno film -- with the added knowledge that Sasha Baron Cohen can no longer go underground with anonymity -- maybe it will be a little less worse than Borat. 

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

A History of Violence

I watched it, I know I did, but I can't say anything about it. It's like it was coated in teflon and left me with no impression whatsoever. I think a second viewing is necessary.

The only thing I clearly remember was a guy getting his nose punched into his brain.

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

Haven't seen The Mission for so many years I can hardly remember it - but as far as I do remember it was fabulous indeed.

I seem to remember three things:

1) the scenes when Deniro repents and keeps going up the waterfalls... wow, that I can remember well and that was just incredible.

2) the scene in which someone walks with the Holy Sacrament among.. hmm, there I'm not sure, people fighting? and this priest dies there? Is it Irons? Smokey, Susan, can you please help me with this one?

3) the overwhelming SOUNDS of the jungle, the birds, the trees and all - I remember it better than the music actually!

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

Ewwwweeeee, I loved this film which I saw for the first time in a double feature with The Devils in the summer of 1971.  

But I must correct you, Chris, it is not really a Nicholas Roeg film.  It's really a Donald Cammel-Nicholas Roeg film and it's scandalous that you would omit Cammel from your credits!  I'm shocked!  Donald Cammel would be shocked as well had he not commited suicide about a dozen years ago.  

Great film! 

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

I agree the Ali G movie was below average - that is a character that can only be watched in very small doses.

But Borat?  You just can't get enough!!

I quite enjoyed A History of Violence.  It was a little predictable, but had enough intrigue to keep it interesting.

On one of the old Ali G HBO DVDs, there's an extra that cracks me up. It's like the deleted "cheese-butter" scene on the Borat extras. This one is also with the character Borat, also my favorite. (Ali G in second place, Bruno third) He has gone to some dressage horse training facility, is interviewing a young woman and starts in with "In my country we say, man is like horse..." The woman is too polite to stop him. It goes on and on -- "If horse walks on grass, man walks on grass..." After each analogy, the nice woman nods or says um hum. You can see he's running out of analogies but keeps going on. A similar horse bit is on one of the British DVDs but the woman cuts him off after about three "man is like horse"s. I understand why it's with the deleted footage but I'd take that exhibition of human behavior any day over the reaction of a southern belle, whose boor(at)ish dinner guest brings a bag of human excrement to the table. Funny? Maybe it's male humor. Breaking stuff is another brand of comedy that almost always leaves me cold. And not laughing. From The Three Stooges to I Love Lucy, the crashing of props just isn't a laugh fest for me and especially so when the items are in an antique shop one of life's magical zones.  Again, I think that type of humor is more male-oriented.

With the Ali G character, it's not so much the dosage as the length of any given bit. Ali G at the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms training center with the drug sniffing dogs! Hilarious! Ali G's interviews with Andy Rooney, the guy from the Actor's Studio, ex-LAPD chief Daryl Gates, Buzz Aldrin, Newt Gingrich, Sam Donaldson, trying to get his ice cream cone glove marketed, training to be a cop... geez, there were countless hilarious Ali G moments!!! When I say he heals the ill, I'm not kidding. We use Da Ali G DVDs to get us over the flu or a cold in this household.

Mr Bean, Cyba, was a favorite TV show of my parents who watched it via a Canadian network from their Michigan home. Once a week, they would try to describe how funny Mr Bean had been the night before. It never sounded very funny though. They'd talk about his little car, how he never spoke, his teddy bear. Then one night I caught "Mr Bean" on a late night show and thought he was hilarious doing that changing out of a suit and tie and into a Speedo without getting undressed. THAT was funny! We found the videotapes through PBS and watched them repeatedly. I looked forward to the movie, but with reservations because of the short bit-to-feature comedy killing syndrome. Sure enough -- a flop with a few isolated moments of hilarity.

Same with Beavis and Butthead -- HILARIOUS on MTV but the movie was not a complete success. Pretty good, but not the whole enchilada.

Wayne's World on SNL = funny. Wayne's World the movie = mostly lame.

Though Team America didn't have a TV predecessor, it did have the South Park boys. This one worked for me beginning to end. Funny, artistically brilliant, clever, fresh, with catchy songs.  I even loved the vomit scene. It may have had a couple lagging moments but not enough to bring its rating down from a solid 5 out of 5.  In my opinion, it was the Best Film of 2005. 

The only place I think a feature COMEDY film regularly being a success, is with a recorded stand-up routine. Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chapelle, Lewis Black, George Carlin, Chris Rock -- all of those worked fantastically well. Even Robin Williams had a full on funny feature film with his stand-up!

Okay. I'm done ranting about comedies. Once and for all. Finito.  Maybe not...

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin