“My father was an exceptional man!”
British farce comedy at its finest, this is not pretentious and annoying like so so many other British scripts, you know the ones I mean – Four Weddings and a Funeral, the Bridget Jones series, anything starring Hugh Grant opposite another British lead. This was a guy’s comedy, it is chock full of every type of humor imaginable, and while romance plays an integral part in the foolish farce, the real moments of comedy brilliance splash around in the gutter.
I love Alan Tudyk from 28 Days, Serenity and many more – always an impressive force on the screen, and while some would say he is over the top, his death scene in Serenity should surely shut his critics, soundly . . . up. I am going to be sentenced to grammar hell for that sentence. Am I giving you a headache yet? Take some Valium, dear. Peter Dinklage will stand out to many indie film lovers, he reminds me of a friend of mine from college – his acting style is classic and wonderful. Probably the guy who gets the, “I can’t believe he committed to that” award goes to Andy Nyman – who really feces his fears.
The British cast may not appeal to many of my American friends, but you should recognize a few of the more memorable faces, and since this is Directed by Yoda – like it you will, or Miss Piggy will have to kick you – HIYA! Yes, it was directed by Frank Oz, no relation to Dorothy. And, yes, European actors tend not to come out of some Sneetch factory with their hair all perfect and their bodies toned. Still, I think that is what makes the casting excellent, the characters could very easily exist – and, I am sure we all will recognize certain friends or family members in some of them. Best of all with this script though, nothing unbelievable ever happens – so, be wary of the next funeral you attend. And for God’s sake, have some couth, please.
If you don’t laugh at this one, I think you would fail my Frasier test. That’s the one where I make a potential mate watch Frasier and if she doesn’t laugh at least twice in an episode – well, let’s just say she doesn’t get to meet mom.
Oh no, I see there is an American version of this film slotted to release in 2010 – please don’t muss it about, you Yank, Chris Rock! Yes, I said Chris Rock (completely different comedic style), I am hopeful though; the new version will apparently retain the always inspirational Peter Dinklage who keeps the punch spiked throughout Frank Oz’ version.
If you can catch this sucker on cable, treat yourself on a day when you are taking things a little too seriously – it’ll make you smile.
The original British version is much better. It had more subtle humor and was all the more better for it. This follows typical American humor, and decides if your not slapped in the face with it, it can’t possibly be funny. While I find Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence funny sometimes, they are much better when they aren’t shouting at the top of their voice. Just not a huge fan of the loud African-American talk (yelling mostly). It just gets on the nerves and doesn’t quite pull off being funny.
I just saw a poster for the remake of this. The same dwar– erm… little person is back. It's being directed by Neil Labute, who's earlier films I like ("In the Company of Men" would be a good bin review), but recently he directed "The Wicker Man" remake… make of that what you will.
Any idea what it is going to be like in the Hollywood version? I am guessing it is going to suck!
Great review! Saw this flick and laughed my butt off ! Waaaaay funny. Such a good time. Geez, two, three locations tops and yet, still a solid story without any boring minutes wasted – this is very, very rare in moving making. The smaller the location numbers the small the excitement usually UNLESS the script is that well written. Hats off to the writers of this one !