Thread: All Things:Comedy

Review: Director Jay Chandrasekhar's Tentative Sincerity Steps Undermined In Uneven, Sophomoric 'The Babymakers' | The Playlist

If you thought that “Knocked Up” was too mature a take on impending fatherhood, then “Babymakers” just might be the movie for you. Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, it follows the comical misadventures of a husband who is reluctant to discover whether or not his sperm is “confused” – and if so, how he’ll handle getting his wife pregnant. Marginally more sophisticated than Chandrasekhar’s efforts with the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, “Babymakers” starts off solidly before getting sidetracked by set pieces that take over the entire narrative – and ultimately reveal how little of one there was in the first place.

But overall, Chandrasekhar’s first tentative venture towards something slightly more sincere is undermined by, quite frankly, his irresistible urge to take the piss out of every sequence that might have been played even remotely seriously. He’s a capable director, and he has a great sense of comic timing, but he’s still only a “comedy director,” which means everything is played for laughs and nothing resonates for more than a few seconds. (Not to mention that plot developments – say, an emerging rift between a husband and wife – is perfunctorily handled at best, and then resolved without ever addressing what might have been going on under the surface.) Ultimately, “Babymakers” starts off promisingly, but pays off prematurely, which is why the sterner stuff of deeper feeling should be nurtured, and the sophomoric hijinks strangled in the crib – or at the very least, thoroughly disciplined.

I completely forgot about this.

Originally Posted by adgy-san

Review: Director Jay Chandrasekhar's Tentative Sincerity Steps Undermined In Uneven, Sophomoric 'The Babymakers' | The Playlist



I completely forgot about this.

Who is that review from...Senor PissyPants? Ok, clearly not a fan of the sophomoric Broken Lizard, which the reviewer points out repeatedly, but also, looking for a non comedic comedy. If I want sophistication in my movies about sperm I will wait for Wes Anderson's Criterion of The Quixotic Adventures of Mr.Tadpole to arrive in stores. Imagine that, a 'comedy director' making a comedy. Ass.

Originally Posted by jerseydevil

Who is that review from...Senor PissyPants? Ok, clearly not a fan of the sophomoric Broken Lizard, which the reviewer points out repeatedly, but also, looking for a non comedic comedy. If I want sophistication in my movies about sperm I will wait for Wes Anderson's Criterion of The Quixotic Adventures of Mr.Tadpole to arrive in stores. Imagine that, a 'comedy director' making a comedy. Ass.

Yeah, that site gets a lot of good news bits I don't see everywhere else, but they do have their pants on too tight fairly often.

What they neglected to mention was whether or not this flick was on its way to theaters or DVD or whatever...

My own internet sleuthing has revealed it's out on disc on 9/18.

Woody Allen Tackling Financial Belt-Tightening In His New Movie With Cate Blanchett, Louis CK And Sally Hawkins | Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

Woody Allen is in town directing a romantic comedy film about a woman trying to make it on a budget when she moves to San Francisco after her posh New York City lifestyle comes crashing down…

The film crew and cast–which is rumored to include Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard and comedian Louis C.K.–will be set in the Mission, the avenues in the western end of San Francisco, the Marina District and parts of Marin County.

Some Bay Area actors are supposed to be included in the project, which will also include filming shoots in New York City.

The movie is about a wealthy woman who finds herself broke and in San Francisco, living with her sister and downsizing her life.

She eventually meets a man in the Bay Area who could solve her financial problems, but she first needs to discover who she is and, more importantly, accept San Francisco as her home.

Louis CK, huh?

Oh Hell yeah...

President Camacho Set For A Comeback – Mike Judge And Terry Crews Working On Idiocracy Spin-Off (UPDATED) | Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

...a new bit of news from Terry Crews, soon to be seen slumming it in The Expendables 2 but a man with fine comic sensibilities, a credit to Everybody Hates Chris and dearly beloved as Idiocracy‘s Moron in Chief, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.

Speaking to Movieline, Crews revealed just how advanced Mike Judge’s plans for some kind of Camacho-centric spin-off are:

Me and Mike [Judge] are talking right now with Fox about some Camacho stuff. We literally met with Fox a week ago. It’s so cool.

Literally a week ago. It’s like vibes from their meeting crossed the Atlantic and sparked up by Mike Judge mood. Surely that’s what happened?

Now, with Judge’s history of working in both animation and live-action, it might not have been clear which way this one would, but a further quote tidies it up for us:

We’re going to start off on the internet and do some small interstitials with Camacho…

And with Mike Judge’s history being in both live action and animation, these could go either way but I’m going to gamble that they’ll be live action, in this case. My hunch is that they’ll take the form of presidential addresses, but I’d be happy to be surprised.

But...will it be brought to you by Carl's Jr.?

Sacha Baron Cohen Sets Up Film About A Bond-Like Spy And His Soccer Hooligan Brother | Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

...Baron Cohen’s new project. According to Variety he’s just sold a pitch to Paramount for a project that would see him star in the story of:

a James Bond-like spy forced to go on the run with his long-lost brother, a moronic soccer hooligan.

The assumption is that Baron Cohen would play the brother, though I don’t think it’s beyond the realms of possibility that he’d play both parts.

with the failure of The Dictator SBC might be at a crossroads. This sounds ok(especially if he plays both parts) but not likely to help put him back on top.

Patton Oswalt’s Letters to Both Sides: His keynote address at Montreal’s Just For Laughs 2012 | The Comic's Comic

Good stuff.

Review: 'The Campaign' Is A Laughless And Cowardly Political Comedy | The Playlist

With a seasoned pro like Jay Roach behind the camera, somehow “The Campaign” is insidiously stupid, a laugh-free water balloon lazily tossed at the institution of politics, and one that makes “Semi-Pro” look like a lost Robert Altman film. [F]

Watch A Little Mitch Hedberg Documentary | Prefix

n this short clip the subject is the late comic Mitch Hedberg, who passed in 2005 due to a drug overdose. By way of Lynn Shawcroft--who was married to Hedberg for the last six years of his life--we get a look at the notebooks Mitch used throughout his career and learn about the evolution of his writing.

The documentary is only 11 minutes long, but there's a lot of worthwhile content to behold. Towards the end, for instance, Lynn reads an exchange that Mitch wrote where he likened their relationship to the members of Aerosmith fighting. "They need tension to create," he said. "We fight, I come up with a new joke."