The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame V: Comedy Edition

There is very much that but the lines are more clever and amusing I feel in dubbed than subtitled.
I do believe Stephen Chow did his dubbing, not 100% sure, but I think so.


IMDb had this bit of trivia about it:
The English dubbing and the English subtitles are almost entirely different scripts. While in some places the phrasing might just be turned around, in others whole lines have been rewritten with different jokes and references.

an example is in the opening scene in the police station where the gang leader snaps at a cop for looking at him.
Subtitle: What are you looking at? You think I'm handsome?
Dubbed: What are you looking at? You want the name of my tailor?

__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Ah, that's OK...maybe I'll like it anyway

I am amazed just how many "surprises" I've had in the Personal Rec HoFs. Films I truly thought: Really?! And then find out how much I enjoyed them.
So, ya never really know.

I’ll be digging into this shortly. Trapped inside during a snowstorm, as good as any time to start it up.

Just finished watching Waitress (2007). Written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly, the film stars Keri Russell as a pregnant, unhappily married waitress who unexpectedly falls in love. This movie is pie. I like pie. The film is warm and sweet and fills you up just right, not too heavy, but not too light either. Keri Russell is wonderful in the lead role and she has good chemistry with the always charming Nathan Fillion. There are memorable performances from the supporting cast, especially Andy Griffith and Adrienne Shelly. I didn't like Jeremy Sisto's performance and found his character a little one dimensional. Also, the film could have done a little more with Darby Stanchfield's character. Other than that, I really liked the characters. I thought the screenplay was well written with the right amount of charm, humour, heart and depth. I liked all the pies in the film too and how they tied into the story. There is a bittersweet element to the film, considering the tragic and heartbreaking murder of the director, Adrienne Shelly, shortly before the film's premiere. It's sad she wasn't able to see how well received the film was and how much joy it brought to viewers. This was a great nomination for me and I am glad that I finally watched it.

Yeah, Waitress is a very sweet little film.

In the commentary for it Keri Russell talks about how emotional she was at the premiere because the final shot of (not really spoilers, but still in spoiler text)

That adds a little oomph to it all.

Agree that “Waitress” is a fine film and so glad you enjoyed it. I knew about what was in the spoiler, but where was the husband?

Big fan of waitresses here but I have not seen that movie.

The 80s new wave band? Or hot waitresses in general

He's credited as "Cake Man", so I assume it's a bit part. It's been several years since I've seen the film, so I don't know exactly. I only became aware of the cameos after watching the film for the third time (while listening to the commentary with Russell).

Cold Pursuit, 2019

Nels (Liam Neeson) is a snowplow driver in a small ski resort town whose adult son is inexplicably killed under suspicious circumstances. While Nels' wife (Laura Dern) grieves, Nels sets out to find his son's killers. His actions set off a chain of events involving a powerful drug dealer called Viking (Tom Bateman) and the head of a rival drug dealing outfit, White Bull (Tom Jackson).

Someone has messed with Liam Neeson's child, and he's coming after them with a particular set of sk---wait, no sorry. And he's coming after them with a snowplow!

This film takes the very popular "someone messes with an older man's family" thriller genre and shifts it laterally into dark comedy crime territory, with what I found to be mixed success.

On the positive side, the film is packed with acting talent, from Neeson and Dern to Jackson (Shining Time Station flashbacks anyone?), to a brief role by enjoyable weirdo Michael Eklund as one of Viking's thugs. I'd also like to give a big shout out to Nicholas Holmes, playing the Viking's son, Ryan. It's hard to be a kid in a big Hollywood movie and not be totally irritating, much less this type of film in which most of the dialogue is saturated in irony and odd timing. So kudos to Holmes for making his character likable.

I would also compliment the writing in terms of the plot itself. There are a ton of characters floating around, and it was pretty easy to keep track of who was who and also to layer in various character dynamics and subplots. One subplot that I appreciated---to a degree--was the paternal relationship between Ryan and his father's second in command, Mustang (Domenick Lombardozzi), who feeds him Fruity Pebbles behind his father's back.

Where I struggled a little with this film was in the sheer volume and nature of the comedy. It throws everything at the screen, and I mean everything, and sometimes I wish it had taken a less-is-more approach. Sometimes the humor is either repetitive (such as two different jokes about mourning parents watching their children's bodies being moved by comically slow machinery) or a bit too predictable (in one scene a boy asks Nels to read him "anything" and I thought What, is he going to read him a snowplow manual? and sure enough, yes, that was the joke.). There was also a bit of a disconnect where the first ten minutes really focus on Nels' grief, but then no one (including Nels!) even mentions his son's name for almost the rest of the film.

I only just realized while looking up IMDb information for this film why the plot sounded vaguely familiar, yet the title was not: it is a remake of a Stellan Skarsgard vehicle called In Order of Disappearance that I almost watched a bunch of times. Not only is it a remake, it was made by the same director who filmed the original! I wonder how the two films compare.

In any event, I enjoyed this film, but felt that it was a little uneven and a little over-long.

The original, In Order of Disappearance, is a lot better.

It's on Kanopy, so I might check it out just to compare.

It's funny, because I just watched Riders of Justice, another dark comedy crime "revenge for dead family member" Scandinavian film.

I think you could guess

Takoma trying to be nice in her review of Cold Pursuit lol. Not a movie I would've thought of as a comedy.

Hairspray (John Waters, 1988)

I'd somehow never seen a John Waters film up to this point and this certainly wouldn't have been my first pick but it was still a pretty alright time. It has a nice aesthetic and Ricki Lake is charming and beautiful here and really carries the film on her back. There's not much of the film I personally found all that funny but there's certainly some amusing ideas e.g. the mother going into complete hysterics when she sees a black person, the "race riot" that's just white people attacking each other, the racist conversion therapy and while I'm not sure how intentional it was, it feels like the film touches on the performative nature of cis-straight-white activism and allyship a bit. I didn't really get a ton out of it but it was enjoyable enough. s are hard to write about.

I like this version of Hairspray, but I also quite enjoy the remake which is an ENTIRELY different film and basically takes all of the edge away and makes it a more bubblegum cheerful musical. But a fun bubblegum cheerful musical, in my opinion.

CODA (2021)

Little surprised this was classified as a "comedy" because although it had some funny moments in it, for me this was more a drama and a musical. Which I guess a musical with deaf family members is funny in a way.

It's a great film, a deaf fishing family is being squeezed by regulations while the one family member that can hear wants to sing in a touching coming of age story.

You've got a number of good "little jokes" in the film..like the person who is supposed to judge and moderate the boats doesn't seem to have ever been on the boat. Or the sister teach's her friend to spell out that she has crabs to her brother because she doesn't want them to hook up.

Good Morning Vietnam (1987)

In the late eighties Hollywood decided to unload a second wave of Vietnam films. These films tried to show a bit more of what happened over there but they were still crude. Robin Williams films have a certain quality to them...in the sense they are dramas with Williams brand of humor shoe horned into the film. If you remove Williams and his bits you could end up with a solid drama. So at the end of the day as a comedy we judge the Williams act and this...wasn't that great.

I'm not a big guy for wokeness but Williams doing racial and gay voices doesn't really age well...it's just awkward and uncomfortable. The basic plot of the film is also dark but because Williams has an ego his character isn't a bad guy even though he's just looking to get laid. The people in charge try and kill him but no consequences are had for those actions. I like the plot but I was just left cold with the outcomes and I didn't think this felt like a real Vietnam story.

Seen Good Morning Vietnam multiple times and always enjoyed the mix of comedy and drama. However, it has been a while.

I have not heard of Coda.

It's been forever since I've seen Hairspray, but I remember enjoying it - speaking of, I watched a very good and quite beautiful documentary last night, I am Divine on Netflix.

I do remember seeing In Order of Disappearance; it was dark and done very well, but I have not seen Cold Pursuit.

It has been ages since I saw Waitress and barely remember it though I do remember the "warmness" the film evoked and all the yummy pies. I never knew about the tragedy; which is sad

I liked Good Morning Vietnam although it took me multiple times seeing it. Never heard of CODA and never seen Hairspray.