QuoteReplyTopic: Yo, Zuker-Man...Where’s the FUNNY?!?!? Posted: September 30 2008 at 5:31am
AIRPLANE IS, WE'LL BERRY GLADLY ADMIT, ONE of the FUNNIEST MOVIES EVER MADE. AND POLICE SQUAD MAY BE the FUNNIEST COMEDY SERIES in the HISTORY of TV. BUT DAVID ZUCKER, ONE of the MEN RESPONSIBLE for BOTH of THEM, APPEARS to HAVE ALMOST COMPLETELY LOST HIS SENSE of HUMOR in the DECADES SINCE.
SINCE IT IS FAIR to ASSUME THAT ANYTHING FUNNY in a SO-CALLED COMEDY WILL BE INCLUDED in the FILM's TRAILER, AMERICAN CAROL(BASED on IT'S ALL-BUT-LAUGH-FREE TRAILER) MAY BE the LEAST FUNNY "COMEDY" SINCE UWE BOLL's SIMILARLY TASTELESS (AND SIMILARLY POINTLESS) POSTAL -- IN FACT, SEVERAL of the SUPPOSED "JOKES" in the CAROL TRAILER ARE IDENTICAL to "JOKES" in POSTAL.
WHILE WE WELCOME a GOOD BELLY LAUGH AS HEARTILY AS ANYONE, WE ARE ALSO HERE to WARD OFF MOVIE-GOERS from SPENDING GOOD MONEY to SEE (OR RENT) BAD MOVIES -- AND AMERICAN CAROL IS BERRY BAD INDEED...
HOPPER: "I was judged RAZZIE®-worthy for my work in WATERWORLD...But your chances to avoid my fate, especially with the similarly bone-headed POSTAL coming out the same year, actually look Berry Good..."
One of the most basic devices of truly funny comedy is "misdirection," playing with the viewers' expectations and turning them on their heads to get a laugh. Zucker seemed to understand this in the past (the hilarious "Japanese garden" joke in Zucker's TV series "Police Squad" is a perfect example). But in the trailer for "American Carol" there is not even one joke that relies on this device. Instead we get countless "fat" jokes, "Jihad" jokes, "Vestal virgins" jokes -- an endless string of supposedly "funny" moments that, before the set-up has even been on-screen for half-a-second, are clearly NOT funny. How sad that one of America's formerly great satirists has sunk so low.
Those great days of David Zucker are over now, with bad films like BASEketball (nominated for 2 Razzies), Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4 (won 1 Razzie), etc.
The Mormons were'nt really popular in the beginning, they're now becoming more popular, even in Hollywood.
I think this is supposed to poke fun at Michael Moore and conservatism but not a spoof. I have seen the trailer and I'm never interested in films dealing with politics, unless I'm interested in subjects in the film so I can't tell for sure if this will be good or bad.
Michael Moore has such great potential for being parodied. Yet, it seems as though Zucker blew a chance to do so. So, instead of making subtle stabs at Moore's hypocrisy or twisting of fact, he makes fun of surface materials like Moore's fatness.
What the hell, Zucker? I hope you aren't trying to go down the path of *gulp* Seltzerberg.
This movie wasn't previewed for critics, and we all know what that means. Based upon the trailers, it is obviously a greater insult to its target audience than it is to Michael Moore and "liberal Hollywood." I find it interesting that the political right has a remarkable tendency to be the first to use the kind of degrading tactics to attack the left that they frequently accuse the left of employing.
Nine times out of ten, in art as in life, there is no truth to be discovered, only an error to be exposed.--H.L. Menken
Although this film is not being pre-screened for critics, there are more than 2 dozen User Ratings for it already posted at Box Office MoJo -- of the 26 users who've already rated (and presumably seen it) 10 (or 38.5%) gave it an A...and 14 (53.8%) gave it an F. Here's a LINK to check American Carol's on-going rankings at B.O. MoJo.
When I first saw that video {Zucker's political comedy in a nutshell.} I thought it looked like a video made by liberals to make fun of conservative's use of fear mongering. My god Zucker is so unsubtle in his "satire"!
Also, just saw the trailer. WTF? Is the "satire" in this movie really going to come in unfunny physical/toilet humor, instead of making fun of Moore for making ridiculous assumption, duping film subjects, and making questionable claims (OK, maybe American Carol will have those jokes, but they would probably be crappily done).
Well...I've heard over the radio that the host loved the movie. Yeah...I don't know, though. He was bashing on Oliver Stone's W so maybe he's a conservatist or something. Basically, he's saying "Go watch American Carol and W will fail!"
"W" might fail because of Oliver Stone's, attention to detail. Also, it's conservative not conservatist.
Be fair now, they could have been making a George Bush joke there.
As for this movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua looks like the far more dangerous movie this week. American Carol was hardly even advertised; I'm sure it's bad, but BHC looks to me like the lowest form of kid-pandering scum.
RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: I actually went with my son to see CHIHUAHUA on a Saturday matinee and, although it was kid-pandering and mindless, it was essentially harmless pap -- an odd cross-breeding of elements from both BABE and THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY...
I would've NEVER expected that from you. I expected something much more...angry, like the ignorant Americans ranting about a kids movie, for Christ's sake, on the Internet. It's sad to see adults bashing kid's movies.
Originally posted by HeadRAZZBerry
RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: I actually went with my son to see CHIHUAHUA on a Saturday matinee and, although it was kid-pandering and mindless, it was essentially harmless pap -- an odd cross-breeding of elements from both BABE and THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY...
Well...I've heard over the radio that the host loved the movie. Yeah...I don't know, though. He was bashing on Oliver Stone's W so maybe he's a conservatist or something. Basically, he's saying "Go watch American Carol and W will fail!"
I hate to be the one to break this too you, moviewizguy, but radio talk shows, apart from the small number of stations that are affiliated with Air America are almost 100% dominated by hosts with very conservative political agendas....You know all that stuff you've ever heard about the "liberal media?" That's the biggest bunch of crap since...well, whatever the Republicans told us last week.
Nine times out of ten, in art as in life, there is no truth to be discovered, only an error to be exposed.--H.L. Menken
I expected something like the ignorant Americans ranting about a kids movie, for Christ's sake, on the Internet. It's sad to see adults bashing kid's movies.
Here's why:
As for this movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua looks like the far more dangerous movie this week. American Carol was hardly even advertised; I'm sure it's bad, but BHC looks to me like the lowest form of kid-pandering scum.
People aren't bashing it just because it's a kids' movie, it's because it's pretty much on par with "Baby Geniuses". Basically, take babies, er I mean dogs, have them "talk", and by "talk", I mean just have them say modern slang terms with a dog themed twist to them, and surrounded them with a floppy excuse of a plot that will last for at least 80 minutes of screen time. Then watch as the studio heads laugh their way to the bank as parents everywhere have to sit through this as their childern don't realize the movie is made up of the some pudding that is inside their diapers. Remember, just because it's a hit, doesn't mean it isn't sh*t.
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Topic: Yo, Zuker-Man...Where’s the FUNNY?!?!?
