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MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... viewing day count
268 .......................... 318
__________________________
November 15th
—— 2015 ——
SPY
—— comedy ——
Alright, I don't downright despise comedies like 'Spy',
but they often range from right above mediocre to rather terrible
Rarely do I ever outright adore an American comedy, but when the ****-loaded, foul-mouthed and mean-spirited style hits the jackpot it certainly can be comedy gold. Because comedies like ‘Superbad’, ‘Pineapple Express’ and the ‘21’ and ‘22 Jump Street’ movies are all way above the mediocracy of many modern American comedy films. This particular style isn’t necessarily anything special, but the balance between imbecile humor and bad taste seems to be pretty much perfect and almost acts as a parody or at least a purposely dumb-smart successor to lowbrow humor...
Now, I come from a little country called Denmark, which is one of the most “free-to-say-what-the-f*ck-we-want” countries in Europe and unlike America we aren’t so sensitive with bad language in public and the tendency to bleep everything on live television. To Americans, the movie medium appears to be the most amazing excuse to finally say and do whatever the f*ck they want, which is something I think shows in their comedies. Bad language in and around itself seems to be the main source of joke material, and they don't merely mention it in their sentences, they basically build the entire dialogue around bad language and explicit sexual speaking. Sex is also something that is “whatever” here in Europe, and especially Denmark, so again this isn't a big deal to us. I don't want to boil American comedies down to bad language and explicit and extended sex jokes, but a lot of the movies are most certainly based around this thin basis – it works for me in some instances, but most of the time I'm not overly impressed by it, especially because there isn’t anything impressive or clever about busting a bad word. But in the hands of the right people, it can certainly have both purpose and meaning, like the ‘WTF’ running joke in Edgar Wright’s British comedy, ‘The World’s End’. In general, British humor is a very fine example of finely tuned comedy that is elegantly executed and not annoyingly exaggerated with jokes that is written to perfection and not worn out to perpetuity.
In particular, I’m not a fan of the modern major directors of comedy, that of Paul Feig and Judd Apatow, who both tend to make overlong American comedies with a good dose of dragged out humor and with a huge celebrity cast to drag people in. What happened to just 90 minutes of solid, sharp and/or satirical comedy, which doesn't feel like a lenghty workprint full of deleted scenes and several improv-outtakes going on end? Why do so many American comedies always have to drag the joke further than the balls of an old man scraping the surface of the floor while summarizing a porno using sign language; further than a dick up your tight ass you little whiney piece of ****, further than uranus, which actually means your anus cause that's what you ****ing are if you get that reference you ridiculous limp dick mother****er little **** bitch! You got that or what, Mr. Wise Guy I-look-like-I-came-out-a-90-year-old-womans-vegina aka bug ass idiot, you know who I am? You God damn ******** ****** I **** your mother you little ugly bitch, I sure as hell hope you get my mother****ing point right about ****ing now because this is the end of the god damn line you little **** *** ****** ***** *******. Oh, man, how I wish those were the stars I actually awarded this movie with, because then it would be a God damn masterpiece.
Okay, so on top of that D-sized titty train of destruction, let us take a step back and look at things in a more mature and manageable manner. Actually, this can be said in the simplest kind of way; it just isn't funny to hear the same kind of joke, told in ten different ways, in what seems like at least five different takes, all of which could or should have been outtakes but somehow, someway, ended up in the actual movie anyways. All too often, it appears as if the director yelled "action", left all the cameras rolling, and went to get a coffee and bagel. And when he came back, he would then yell "cut" and move on to the next scene, telling the actors to do the same all over again and continue to act out of thin air until he yelled "cut" again when the cast clearly didn't have any more synonyms for the word "f*ckface" to go on. Obviously, improv-comedy can be really great when it works, especially when the director allows his actors to use it. But where it can go wrong though, is when the director suddenly demands it or when a script survives on it. A scene can turn truly funny if an actor catches the moment and comes up with something that is not memorized. But building an entire movie on the concept simply doesn't cut it, at least not without cutting the movie to a mangle first.
'Spy' did have a few home runs in the humor department and I definitely did laugh a couple of times, but a few laughs doesn’t last long for a lengthy movie running for more than two hours and relying on dragged out jokes, usually titty humor and with a potty mouth to go with it. A lot of it feels lazy, uninspired and ultimately a monotonic mess to sit through - even for the supposedly satirical angle on the spy genre... The rating I will give this does reflect that I didn’t downright hate it, but I think I have just come to be annoyed by this formula, kind of like with Marvel’s superhero standards. I have seen worse from American comedies, but this is starting to feel like one American comedy too much every time I end up watching one of these. I thought the trailer looked pretty good, which is the case with quite a few of Paul Feig’s films, as well as American comedies in general, but I always end up disliking them.
As for the cast, I think Jason Statham was misused though not necessarily miscast. I think he can work well as the straight face in a funny situation, where ‘Crank’ is definitely one that comes to mind, but with ‘Spy’ he just felt like a flat character playing an inflated version of himself. I don’t even hate Melissa McCarthy, I honestly see potential in her as a comedy actress, but without the right material, she can get really annoying. I think she worked best in ‘Bridesmaids’, as a side character presented in small doses. Anyways, ‘Spy’ had some fun action, a few good moments, but mostly it definitely isn’t for me. I will take a British comedy over this stuff any day…
__________________________
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... viewing day count
268 .......................... 318
__________________________
November 15th
—— 2015 ——
SPY
—— comedy ——
Alright, I don't downright despise comedies like 'Spy',
but they often range from right above mediocre to rather terrible
Rarely do I ever outright adore an American comedy, but when the ****-loaded, foul-mouthed and mean-spirited style hits the jackpot it certainly can be comedy gold. Because comedies like ‘Superbad’, ‘Pineapple Express’ and the ‘21’ and ‘22 Jump Street’ movies are all way above the mediocracy of many modern American comedy films. This particular style isn’t necessarily anything special, but the balance between imbecile humor and bad taste seems to be pretty much perfect and almost acts as a parody or at least a purposely dumb-smart successor to lowbrow humor...
Now, I come from a little country called Denmark, which is one of the most “free-to-say-what-the-f*ck-we-want” countries in Europe and unlike America we aren’t so sensitive with bad language in public and the tendency to bleep everything on live television. To Americans, the movie medium appears to be the most amazing excuse to finally say and do whatever the f*ck they want, which is something I think shows in their comedies. Bad language in and around itself seems to be the main source of joke material, and they don't merely mention it in their sentences, they basically build the entire dialogue around bad language and explicit sexual speaking. Sex is also something that is “whatever” here in Europe, and especially Denmark, so again this isn't a big deal to us. I don't want to boil American comedies down to bad language and explicit and extended sex jokes, but a lot of the movies are most certainly based around this thin basis – it works for me in some instances, but most of the time I'm not overly impressed by it, especially because there isn’t anything impressive or clever about busting a bad word. But in the hands of the right people, it can certainly have both purpose and meaning, like the ‘WTF’ running joke in Edgar Wright’s British comedy, ‘The World’s End’. In general, British humor is a very fine example of finely tuned comedy that is elegantly executed and not annoyingly exaggerated with jokes that is written to perfection and not worn out to perpetuity.
In particular, I’m not a fan of the modern major directors of comedy, that of Paul Feig and Judd Apatow, who both tend to make overlong American comedies with a good dose of dragged out humor and with a huge celebrity cast to drag people in. What happened to just 90 minutes of solid, sharp and/or satirical comedy, which doesn't feel like a lenghty workprint full of deleted scenes and several improv-outtakes going on end? Why do so many American comedies always have to drag the joke further than the balls of an old man scraping the surface of the floor while summarizing a porno using sign language; further than a dick up your tight ass you little whiney piece of ****, further than uranus, which actually means your anus cause that's what you ****ing are if you get that reference you ridiculous limp dick mother****er little **** bitch! You got that or what, Mr. Wise Guy I-look-like-I-came-out-a-90-year-old-womans-vegina aka bug ass idiot, you know who I am? You God damn ******** ****** I **** your mother you little ugly bitch, I sure as hell hope you get my mother****ing point right about ****ing now because this is the end of the god damn line you little **** *** ****** ***** *******. Oh, man, how I wish those were the stars I actually awarded this movie with, because then it would be a God damn masterpiece.
Okay, so on top of that D-sized titty train of destruction, let us take a step back and look at things in a more mature and manageable manner. Actually, this can be said in the simplest kind of way; it just isn't funny to hear the same kind of joke, told in ten different ways, in what seems like at least five different takes, all of which could or should have been outtakes but somehow, someway, ended up in the actual movie anyways. All too often, it appears as if the director yelled "action", left all the cameras rolling, and went to get a coffee and bagel. And when he came back, he would then yell "cut" and move on to the next scene, telling the actors to do the same all over again and continue to act out of thin air until he yelled "cut" again when the cast clearly didn't have any more synonyms for the word "f*ckface" to go on. Obviously, improv-comedy can be really great when it works, especially when the director allows his actors to use it. But where it can go wrong though, is when the director suddenly demands it or when a script survives on it. A scene can turn truly funny if an actor catches the moment and comes up with something that is not memorized. But building an entire movie on the concept simply doesn't cut it, at least not without cutting the movie to a mangle first.
'Spy' did have a few home runs in the humor department and I definitely did laugh a couple of times, but a few laughs doesn’t last long for a lengthy movie running for more than two hours and relying on dragged out jokes, usually titty humor and with a potty mouth to go with it. A lot of it feels lazy, uninspired and ultimately a monotonic mess to sit through - even for the supposedly satirical angle on the spy genre... The rating I will give this does reflect that I didn’t downright hate it, but I think I have just come to be annoyed by this formula, kind of like with Marvel’s superhero standards. I have seen worse from American comedies, but this is starting to feel like one American comedy too much every time I end up watching one of these. I thought the trailer looked pretty good, which is the case with quite a few of Paul Feig’s films, as well as American comedies in general, but I always end up disliking them.
As for the cast, I think Jason Statham was misused though not necessarily miscast. I think he can work well as the straight face in a funny situation, where ‘Crank’ is definitely one that comes to mind, but with ‘Spy’ he just felt like a flat character playing an inflated version of himself. I don’t even hate Melissa McCarthy, I honestly see potential in her as a comedy actress, but without the right material, she can get really annoying. I think she worked best in ‘Bridesmaids’, as a side character presented in small doses. Anyways, ‘Spy’ had some fun action, a few good moments, but mostly it definitely isn’t for me. I will take a British comedy over this stuff any day…
__________________________