The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
What has been levelled at this film, in the press, is the fact that there's product placement and the fact that the character, once choosing to engage with life, undergoes crazy, dangerous and reckless feats with seemingly little or no psychological repercussion.
Some of that is true and I at least see where it's coming from, although I would argue that the product placement in the movie is the ok kind, the real kind. For example there IS a website called EHarmony on which single people date and people do eat Papa John's pizzas (presumably) and if you're setting a film in the world in which we currently live it's not unreasonable to expect characters might interact with products, restaurants or websites much like we do every day. I'd rather that than changing names to DaddyJoe's Pizza or ECompatibility or something. The bad kind of product placement is when characters casually drop names of products into conversations like 'It's an Omega actually' with it having no bearing on the plot, like an advert on the TV (James Bond Casino Royale).
The other point that Walter Mitty is surprisingly brave, all of a sudden, for a middle aged schlub, once the plot demands it of him, is slightly true but, to be honest, it is done in such a charming way, to the strains of Kristen Wiig giving a kick ass, inspirational rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity and you are so rooting for him, at the point it happens in the film, that you go along with it. Anything more drawn out or believable would stop the incredible, exuberant and brilliant pacing of this film. Well, it didn't bother me anyway.
You, as an audience member, are meant to be inspired by Mitty's seemingly over-the-top, exciting and probably expensive, real experiences in the same way Mitty is inspired by the fantasy life he has earlier in the movie. Watch it like that and it's better.
All that being said, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is the best film Ben Stiller has ever made as a director. Are Tropic Thunder, Zoolander and The Cable Guy much funnier? yes, of course, Walter Mitty is not strictly just a comedy but in terms of juggling multiple themes and multiple styles, while telling an engaging and fun story and making it look incredible and beautiful? THIS is his best work to date.
Also people worried that it might be too soppy, or too simplistic, too overly sentimental or too silly... it's, thankfully, none of those things. It's a surprising, fun, entertaining, enjoyable comedy drama with wonderful fantasy elements and lots of sweetness and surprise. Kristen Wiig is also an unparalleled delight, proving herself, again to be more than just a fantastic comedienne but an actress to watch and respect.
Turn off your cynical or ironic glands, relax and get carried away watching this enchanting, midlife-crisis-as-a-fairytale movie.
8 out of 10
Girl Most Likely
However, if you chose not to see the film or dismiss it out right because of that opinion, like some almighty snob, in favour for a ridiculously awful movie in which CGI things hit each other then not only are you thoroughly misguided but also you missed out on one of the funniest and most charming movies of the season.
Every so often one of these films is squeezed out into the summer schedule. Up until that annoyingly bad sitcom The New Girl, Zooey Deschanel was practically making a career out of starring in them. This one, however sits alongside Dan In Real Life, Stranger Than Fiction (or more recently, Everything Must Go), Admission or 50/50 and don't worry if you don't really like any of those films either, because while it's similar in terms of Hollywood output, casting, tone etc. it's also very different.
The plot would not look out of place in one of Woody Allen's lazier, later comedies. A playwright turned play blurb writer, living in, fairly high society, New York thinks she has her life together, loses everything, more or less, in one day and, through a plot contrivance, ends up living with her kooky mother played, predictably, by Annette Benning in Atlantic City, surrounded by a cast of wacky characters, only to, eventually, break her writer's block and turn her experience into an award winning, critically lauded play. In fact, I think, Woody Allen may have already made that film.
So, you may be thinking, how does a quirky, self indulgent, predictable and cliche riddled plot amount to one of the funniest and most charming movies of the season? Well it's simple. It's the thing that most films, usually, get staggeringly wrong. The cast and, more importantly even than that, the script are tremendous. Kristen Wiig does the sort of performance that Judd Apatow crushed and destroyed but some of us saw lurking, between the horrendously misjudged poo gags, in Bridesmaids and, actually, even betters it. Annette Benning is, for the first time in her career I think, not annoying and instead turns in a funny and nuanced performance as Wiig's obsessive mother. Matt Dillon is priceless as a sort of beardy and dishevelled Steven Seagal type character, who, hilariously, seems to be lying about being in the CIA and a whole bedtime storybook full of long-winded, tall tales about bizarre and adventurous experiences he says he has. Finally, I found Christopher Fitzgerald as the mollusc obsessed, slightly inward and agoraphobic brother, a delight to watch.
So, to the script and while every seemingly-negative point I said earlier might be true, the script is still fantastically written. The dialogue, scenarios and observations are laugh out loud funny and the jokes are actually ABOUT something or are just joyously odd, much in the way the best Woody Allen scripts used to be, which is a breath of fresh air in this world of easy and sad dick and fart jokes. The characters are wonderfully, and yes sometimes obviously, written with the clue to the script's greatness lurking in the little details. The gag involving the boardwalk crush that Ralph has, played by the always watchable Natasha Lyonne, and the glittery make up tears she gives Wiig or the quick shot of the fridge full of sandwiches towards the end, for example, add little rye laughs to an already hilarious script.
Don't be put off by your impression of what you think it is and don't be too cool for it or too cynical for it, just go and see it and support a film that isn't a sequel, a remake, made for the GDP of a small Eastern European nation and doesn't have enough CGI in it to drown James Cameron's ego.
Even if you don't like it like I did, you'd still be showing the ever increasingly mindless and redundant studio bosses that not everything needs to be a big spectacle, sometimes people want to laugh, cry and have their cockles warmed.
7.5 out of 10 cheese and ham sandwiches
Bridesmaids - 19th May 2011
This is a situation I hope to again address with yet another mammoth catch up session over the next couple of weeks. Then, I promise, I am going to try and stay on top of this blog.
So, casting my mind back a month and a half, what did I think of Bridesmaids? Well, firstly let me say something:
There have been, since this film came out a whole heap of articles about 'can Women do raunchy comedy?' or 'Should Women do raunchy comedy?' all focussing on the feminist/sexist angle of gross-out/raunchy comedies. Well, the mere existence of these articles questioning anything to do with this film from a gender angle is ridiculous sexism. The only thing under debate about this film should be is it funny or not, does it work or not and is the acting any good. So that's what I am going to focus on, any comment about 'is this the women's Hangover' is about as relevant, after you've seen the film, as asking 'is the Hangover the Bachelor Party for the new millennium'.
Ok so with that out of the way... I have been waiting and may have even said in this blog once or twice, for Kristen Wiig to finally be in a good film. All these films I have been going to hoping for her to shine bright like she does on SNL and each time being woefully annoyed at how average all her roles have been, her excellent cameo in Knocked Up not withstanding. Well here is her own script shepherded to the screen, not as an SNL vehicle with Lorne Michaels at the wheel but by Mr. Movie Comedy New Wave himself, Judd Apatow.
On the plus side this means that it will be seen by a shed load of people and make lots of moola but on the downside it means we are treated to needlessly disgusting scenes of vomiting and deification, over the top sex scenes and repetitive gags surrounded by a handful of his favourite rom-com cliches that, at this point, make me yawn.
Bridesmaids starts brilliantly, some great subtle acting by Wiig and some spot on observational comedy along with the odd weird character and some beautifully awkward set ups.
This does continue throughout the film but unfortunately a great little clever, female perspective buddy comedy, character study of a story gets trampled all over by Apatow's less than fancy footwork. There is a great little film hiding behind all the see-it-coming-from-a-mile-off childish poo gags and irritatingly broad and unlikely characters having unrealistic conversations.
This 'throw everything and the kitchen sink' approach to reworking the original idea leads to one of the most annoying things in the film for me and that is the way that, after a sweet, funny and well performed beginning scene with the two friends, Maya Rudolph's character then switches gears completely to facilitate the introduction of her 'new' best friend and rival to Wiig simply to add yet another irritating comedy cliche (in this case also badly played by the actress in question) to this meal of a film that was slowly becoming a very messy stew.
Deep down this is a good solid and funny film about female friendship in the face of a marriage which leaves one of them alone, about trying to start your life again as a woman reaching her 40s and with a nice underlying farce of nothing going right for the maid of honour in the lead up to the nuptials. When these elements peak out from behind the hem of Apatow's shit stained apron I was interested in the film again.
Now before I get accused of being too highbrow and before someone just says 'well really you're against women doing raunchy or gross out comedy' let me be clear, I am saying these things about the film because it's what I observed, I saw the potential for what I would've thought was a better film, the film I think the original two writers intended, it's my particular taste and because the gross out stuff, and this is crucial, simply wasn't funny.
Had it been funny then that would've been completely fine but instead it goes from 'oh no please don't' cringe inducing predictable farce through graphic and embarrassing depiction's of regrettable bodily functions to the whole, now infamous, scene climaxing with Maya Rudolph, who I've always loved as an actress, acting out a scene where a soon to be married, normally happy woman is forced to soil the incredibly expensive wedding dress she is wearing in the middle of a busy road.
I, honestly, and call me overly sensitive, wasn't laughing, I just felt sorry for her.
Despite the enthusiastic howls that greeted the scene from the other patrons in the cinema.
I hate to even bring up the scene because apart from the gender angle it's all people are talking about it seems and that's A) a shame because the film is better than that and B) probably the whole point of having the scene in the film in the first place.
Like the male nudity in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Walk Hard (although the former was at least pertinent to the story - the reprise at the end, however, was not), or the dilating vagina scene in Knocked Up, it's a talking point, a hook for people to write about, a clever marketing ploy and also a chance to see just how far you can go in a mainstream comedy. Any of that sound funny to you?
I am not being down on Apatow for all his films, although I do think like his former leading man Seth Rogan he may have run his course with all this, I just think with Bridesmaids he should've maybe either left it well alone or tried to make something a bit more intelligent, touching, quirky and interesting because the framework and the talent was there.
So although this was close it was still a case of no cigar for me when it comes to Kristen Wiig who I think is good enough to either have a career as a female Peter Sellers, if the script was right, doing multiple funny and carefully drawn character parts or as a female Ricky Gervais with the everyday down trodden awkwardness, which is what she is aiming for, I think, with Bridesmaids.
Still they made their money so who cares right?
6 out of 10 unfortunately off Brazilian meals
Points from the Wife - 6 out of 10.
MacGruber - 5th September 2010
Good, so with that out of the way I can now go on at length about everything that was so mind staggeringly bad and jaw droppingly awful about this film, which was absolutely everything. I would rather watch a video of some kittens being strangled than ever watch this again, there were more laughs in Schindler's List!
Now, I know what all 7 of you are thinking: what were you expecting? a work of unbridled comic genius? No, no I wasn't, funnily enough I was expecting an action comedy to have some passable action and to make me chortle, maybe... a bit. Too much to ask? apparently so. In fact I set out expecting very little, it's a Sunday night, I have been out and about all day, my wife and her friend are running through the first season of the Vampire Diaries in the living room and so I thought: what the hell, nothing much else going on, I could do with a mild titter or occasional chuckle, I'll see what they have at the video store. I should've taken a hammer to my knee caps instead or tucked into a cockroach salad, either would've been preferable than the last hour and a half that I'll never ever get back.
MacGruber is a film based on an SNL skit which itself is a parody of MacGuyver which was, in-part at least, a rip off of the A-Team also, judging by other SNL movie efforts and the fact that the show now is patchier than Patchy Patrick McPatchy's eye patch store and patchwork quilt emporium in Patchy New Patchshire, the chips were stacked pretty highly against it but I thought at least, like the best of SNL, it would have a certain shoddy charm to it. It doesn't, it's not funny, simply put, it is just not funny.
The running gag of the film, and one that the film-makers seem bizarrely impressed with, is that the villain is called Cunth. They must say it over a hundred times in the film, it wasn't funny the first time and ceased being even bearable the 432nd time they said it! There wasn't a single dead horse unflogged. What is absolutely brain itchingly, flat-out unbelievable and just cocking confusing is, despite the villains name, they didn't use it as part of an innuendo or clever word play.
Oh... wait... I am sorry yes they did, MacGruber said 'I am going to pound that Cunth' (wait for laughter... no laughter? really? what a surprise) and just like the funny name they were oh so proud of, they used that joke till it was worn thinner than a midget's unwaxed dental floss.
Normally in an action comedy the protagonist can either wise crack their way out of anything (see Beverley Hills Cop or Fletch) or they are a bumbling idiot, who, with the help of extraordinarily good luck, or a cleverer-than-they are sidekick, foils the villain's plan and saves the day (Naked Gun or Return of The Pink Panther). MacGruber attempts, I guess, to be the second one of these except he's not bumbling he's a willful, incompetent liability, a full blown, solid gold, highly polished arse head and quite possibly mentally ill (sadly not in a funny way). Without the innocence or ignorance of a Frank Drebin or the comic genius to pull off the misplaced ego of an Inspector Clouseau you find yourself not only completely unwilling to give to bronzed turd about the character but actively despising him and hoping beyond hope that the one-too-many-pies figure of Val Kilmer swaggers into view and mashes his stupid wigged face into a sloppy pulp.
None of this is really the fault of the cast, although Will Forte did co-write it and the others signed up to dance and splash about in this effluent (we'll let Kristen Wiig off because, as she was in the original skit, she probably had no choice), the fault must be laid firmly at the, no doubt, withered and clubbed feet of the script.
The people who coughed up the whole thing seemed to deliberately replace any hint of a joke with swearing, gratuitous nudity, callous sexual references, unpleasant sex scenes, gory violence, sudden deaths, occasional homophobia, endless repetition and even going as far as to smash you over the head with explanations of obvious, not very humourous, jokes after you just watched the whole sorry mess unfurl.
Now I am not a prude and I was not offended by any of the above, if used correctly and cleverly any one of those things can be tremendously effective and very funny but in the case of MacGruber each attempt at, I suppose, what was meant to be edgy, rude humour fell like a whole bunch of lead balloons onto the head of cute puppy right in front of some happily playing children.
Apart from the odd bit of music, the mullet and the filming style they completely wasted the opportunity to make any 80s references or even directly parody MacGuyver at any point. The film also completely short changed the audience when it came to the lead character building anything inventive or fixing anything with common household goods, which was such a staple of the TV show, hell even Axel Foley knows how to use a chewing gum wrapper! Instead the movie opts to make repeatedly unfunny and weird comments about ripping throats out, which I don't remember Richard Dean Anderson ever doing.
It was just such a waste, such a worthless pile of heavily pungent animal excrement that it actually made me sad. If given even a third of that budget, I know some people who could make a flick 50 times funnier, in fact everyone I know, even if they were bound and gagged to a chair could make a funnier film than MacGruber.
Thankfully there shouldn't be a sequel, what a pile of old Cunths!
1 out of 10 spat in, moldy green salads