HEADS UP! This article may contain SPOILER!
2009 was not a good year for comedy fans. Sure we had I Love You Man, Zombieland and The Hangover to make us laugh, actually I believe that they’re going to go down as cult hits or instant classic. But then there were Dance Flick, Land Of The Lost, Year One, Jennifer’s Body, Night At The Museum 2, Bruno, I Love You Beth Cooper, The Ugly Truth, The Goods, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Old Dogs and Gentlemen Broncos. One disappointment after another, somehow something got lost in the jokes.
But what I notice happening more this year compared to the previous is that we had more comedy that suddenly switches gear to drama. I’m not talking about dramedies like Little Miss Sunshine and Juno. I’m talking about comedy movies that sell themselves as a laugh fest but they surprised us by how dramatic they could be as the plot progressed. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t…
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FUNNY PEOPLE, written and directed by Judd Apatow
I stand by my review that I think this was a great movie but I can understand why some people would think it was hella boring and I don’t blame them because FUNNY PEOPLE was Apatow taking a drastic detour from his usual raunchy movies like 40 year Old Virgin and Knocked Up.
FUNNY PEOPLE was still rated-R, it was still adult humor, I’m beginning to think Apatow doesn’t know how to come up with clean hilarious jokes, but FUNNY PEOPLE was more personal to him. And that’s how it lost its audience. People expected to laugh their ass off,.. not seeing how Adam Sandler’s character tried to get his woman back. We could easily watch some romantic chick flick for that kind of theme and get the same results.
Some say the first half of FUNNY PEOPLE was decent when Sandler’s character was dying but then they say the second half got a bit too long for their taste.
But what I think Apatow tried to deal with FUNNY PEOPLE was showing us that even comedians have their problems, comedians don’t laugh all the time, it’s not always fun and excitement and sex and fame and glory. It was not based on Apatow’s real life story but it was sort of like Apatow remembering how it was back when he was just a struggling comedian, looking up to comedy stars who may or may not be all that they appear to be on stage or on screen.
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EXTRACT, written and directed by Mike Judge
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Judge. Loved Idiocracy, Beavis And Butthead, and Office Space. But something was definitely wrong when the only, and I mean only, character that was truly funny in EXTRACT was the weird annoying neighbor, reminiscent of Milton and his stapler.
Maybe some filmmakers just don’t have it in them to tackle subjects they’re not supposed to. They can experiment all they want but maybe they’re better off leaving it to those who actually know how.
In this case, the drama was between Jason Bateman and Kristen Wiig’s characters, the couple with their marital and affair problem.
The worst part was, when the conflict was finally introduced, when they confronted each other and it got awkward, Judge tried to bring the tension down to comedy again and failed because the scenes prior already left a bad taste in your mouth.
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COUPLES RETREAT, co-written by Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau
In my review, I said this was Vaughn and Favreua’s being mature. They’re not the party life Swingers boys they used to be. They’re still fun but they’re also family men and they reflect that on their characters.
COUPLES RETREAT could be an effective comedy or an awful comedy, depends on how you’d perceive it.
Let’s be real, it really didn’t have much to offer when it came to comedy. Occasional moments would happen here and there, swimming with sharks, or yoga instructor with barely nothing on, guitar hero contest, but other than those few, COUPLES RETREAT was straight up drama.
Don’t even get me started with all the relationship problems that each couple had, they way the male and the female respectively talking it out in the open whether through argument and yelling or hugs and tears, was an indication that watching COUPLES RETREAT was like reading an unconventional self-help/relationship book at Barnes & Noble.
So if you and your loved one wanted to watch COUPLES RETREAT just for the laughs, prepare to be let down. But if you watched COUPLES RETREAT and somehow managed to find a tiny bit of appreciation for Vaugh and Favreau’s attempts to teach you what it means to be in a relationship, who knows, you might enjoy the movie.
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WORLD’S GREATEST DAD, written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
A comedy doesn’t get this dark, dramatic and disturbing and yet I find it to be one of the most under-appreciated films in 2009. When Robin Williams‘ character found his son finally succumb to his bad habit, watching him grief was agonizing and oddly powerful. But what Goldthwait would do was that he’d successfully spin it some more, spin it to where it would be if you could use something that messed up situation, to your advantage. The drama was there, but so were the elements that made you chuckle and shake your head in disbelief because of how far Williams’ character would go with the lie just to change the course of his life.
In a way, it’s Goldthwait making fun of people that always encourage others to look on the bright side, or that good things could come out of tragedy. Yeah, no sh*t!
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THE INVENTION OF LYING co-written and co-directed by Ricky Gervais
Just like FUNNY PEOPLE, I can understand why audiences wold hate this movie. It had a great concept, great cameos too from celebs who believed in Gervais’ sense of humor ala The Office (The Brit version) but I’m not going to lie to you, watching THE INVENTION OF LYING was like watching 2 or 3 movies in one. A comedy turned into drama turned into romantic drama. And that could upset some people.
That and I think the movie ran the risk of being compared to Bruce Almighty, where one man gets to play god, the difference was THE INVENTION OF LYING carried a bit of atheism and self-sufficient messages.
I’m not saying that was the problem, I’m just saying that movies with identity crisis, they’re not certain of what genre they want to be a part of or what plot they want to convey or movies that go way off astray to other directions way too often would end up confusing the audiences and that’s not a good sign.
All that and more practically hurt this movie’s chances of surviving. Maybe if Ricky Gervais would stop trying too hard and just focus on entertaining, whether or not he belongs on the big screen wouldn’t have to be a question.
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THE INFORMANT! directed Steven Soderbergh
I thought it was a brilliant movie but it did have one mistake.. It should’ve come with a warning label that says “This movie is for those who can laugh at misuse of ethics” If you’re not that target audience, trust me when I say THE INFORMANT! would put you to sleep, literally. As a matter of fact, it was indeed one of the most boring comedy of the year.
Just like WORLD’S GREATEST DAD, what Soderbergh tried to show you here was how far Matt Damon’s character would go to spin lie after lie after lie after lie to his favor. He’d go through business jargon, he’d fool the investigators, he’d talk to the press, if didn’t work out the first time, he’d come up with another story and then another one. The difference with WORLD’S GREATEST DAD, was that those around Damon’s character would only fall for his tricks for so long, after a certain period, we were just watching him digging his hole deeper and deeper because none of his efforts and tricks worked. It was a satire, was it a funny one? Once again, it depends on whether or not you’re the kind of people that would laugh at this type of clusterf*ck.
