Comedy is dead, and this film killed it.
(There might be spoilers)
Director: Jonathan Levine
Writer: Katie Dippold
Run-time: 1hr 30minutes
Plot: Amy Schumer is a dick, goes through an apparently comedic breakup before her holiday to South America, she ends up bringing her mother, gets kidnapped after being too trusting and has to rely on her agoraphobic brother to save them.
Disclaimer: I cried at least 4 times during this film and a fair few times in the car ride back to Ben's. I would like to make it clear that, while I do cry a lot...probably too much, that I have never cried over a bad comedy. I have cried over good drama's, I've cried over emotional films, I've cried over kids films, I've cried over good comedy's and even mediocre comedies if there's a scene or two that makes me cry. Hell, just last week I cried when Hagrid burst into that lighthouse in the first Harry Potter film. But I have never been in such physical and emotional pain after watching a "comedy".
I really don't know where to start, I mean...this probably isn't just Schumer's fault I mean, a lot of honestly incredible talent said yes to this script, barring Joan Cusak who doesn't get a word but I'll get to that later. I'm also not saying she didn't say yes to the script but...she most likely did not get a script. I will say, however, that this is the fault of every single person involved in making this, and allowing it to get this far. It's sickening, it's sad, it's flat out not funny and we're forced to watch a pretty good actress, Goldie Hawn, and someone who can't act isn't a funny comedian for the majority of the film.
So what exactly is sickening about this film? After being kidnapped for a day, escaping and presumably not eating anything in 24 - 48 hours, Schumer complains that she's hungry and eventually passes out. Her mother drags her to find a doctor and Schumer is told she has a tapeworm. Fair enough, they're probably fairly common out there but then they try and get it out...you see this CGI creature come out of Schumer's throat and mouth and it's just hanging there acting like something from Alien. It's disgusting, I was almost sick in the cinema. I was heaving so much my eyes watered and I could feel my throat do that thing where it tightens up before you actually are sick. Thankfully I wasn't sick but the damage was done like.
What's bad about the film? It's not funny. Actually no it can be funny when it's focusing on Jeffrey played by Ike Barinholtz and Morgan Russell played by Bashir Salahuddin. Their scenes are absolutely golden, we all knew that one irritating person who would just hang onto you and just would not leave you alone, all you wanted to do was yell at this person and tell them to fuck off but couldn't. The scenes with these two are pretty much how you would image yelling at them going down. It's really funny, I wanna see Barinholtz pick better films considering the last thing I saw him in was Suicide Squad. I'm off topic anyway, where it isn't funny is...unfortunately any scene that Schumer is in. Her character isn't likeable, any attempt at trying to be funny feels like she's trying way too hard. It really is just painful to watch.
Joan Cusack is where I'm definitely the most split on the film...might go watch Split later, definitely better than this crap. Back to the point. Joan Cusak plays a mute and I'm already upset about that because how can you mute such a funny and incredible actress? Well, the way you can get away with that is by making her a crazy ex-special ops who cut out her own tongue to prevent herself from speaking under torture. Every single face she makes here should be put in a frame and hung on a wall. It's comedy gold and only she (and probably other equally talented actress') could pull this off. Pair her with Wanda Sykes, another insanely funny person who sadly isn't used to her full potential but is used well enough here for her to still give off a good performance.
My biggest problem is the film not allowing us to get to know these characters, to fear the main gang leader/kidnapper/whatever the hell he was. I don't even remember the characters name and granted he is a side character, but the thing is we're meant to fear him, we're meant to want Schumer and Hawn to get away from him but honestly, by the end of the film I just wanted him to kill at least one of them. Live up to this scary persona you apparently have and just off someone. Preferably Schumer's character considering what she did to him. To be honest, the only character I really felt any sort of connection to was Jeffrey and that's only because the actor is good enough to make it work.
Finally, the best thing about this film is just this one really odd, out of place shot towards the end. Once Jeffrey has found his mother and sister he runs to them and...it's like there's a camera in his body suit thing facing up at him on this really ugly angle and as he's running it's shaking. It's genuinely the funniest shot in the entire film because of how out of place and weird it looks.
This was just such a painful ordeal that the second the credits came up I grabbed my bag and left, I didn't want to be in there any longer. I couldn't continue to put myself in a bad atmosphere, I had to leave and so...I did. On the way home I couldn't stop crying, I was just on and off in tears. However, the best was yet to come. We saw a car that looked like Herbie with the registration plate that was basically HERBIE but with a couple numbers in there too. That was the best moment of the day.
That's it for today, I was also going to write up about the new Pirates film but it's just a lot of nothing that messes around with its characters personalities and sorely misuses Paul McCartney. I can't really say much more about it other than that. So now that that's done, I'll see you next time guys, peace out.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film please go and support it's creators by buying tickets to go see it in cinemas / buying the DVD or Bluray when the time comes.
No comments:
Post a Comment