Comedy

Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

Mr Beans Holiday

Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

Director:

Steve Bendelack

Starring:

Rowan Atkinson

Willem Dafoe

Emma de Caunes

Plot:

Mr. Bean wins a trip to Cannes where he unwittingly separates a young boy from his father and must help the two come back together. On the way he discovers France, bicycling, and true love, among other things.

Review:

I love Mr. Bean, I still laugh every time I see my favorite episodes of his show. I don’t remember being very impressed with the Mr. Bean movie from 1997, but saw this on Netflix and thought why not.

While not as bad as the 1997 movie, it still didn’t capture what I enjoy so much about Mr. Bean. I think the character might just work better in a shorter format. An entire movie with his antics can grow boring and tedious. There were several scenes that I laughed at and tons of awkward hard to watch moments, but I also spent a lot of time not paying attention to the movie cause I was bored.

I think I’ll just stick to watching the Mr. Bean TV show episodes and stay away from any further movies.

3/5

Hot Pursuit (2015)

Hot Pursuit (2015)

Director:

Anne Fletcher

Starring:

Reese Witherspoon

Sofía Vergara

Plot:

An uptight and by-the-book cop tries to protect the outgoing widow of a drug boss as they race through Texas pursued by crooked cops and murderous gunmen.

Review:

I’m not sure why, maybe it was the trailer, but I was expecting this to be a lot funnier than it was. I ended up really disappointed and a little angry by the time this was over.

Witherspoon’s character grew up wanting only to be a cop and ended up choking and became a joke in the force. She is give the opportunity to redeem herself by escorting Vergara’s character to Dallas because apparently they were in Texas, though Witherspoon is one of the only characters with a southern accent and it’s not even the right one.

Whatever.

Vergara is more than just a pair of boobs, though she has no problem using them to get what she wants. Witherspoon of course misjudges her because of that and they argue about it on multiple occasions.

This reminds me of the Identity Thief movie in that these two opposite characters were supposed to learn from the other. Sadly, they didn’t learn to be better people. Evidently when Witherspoon relaxes she steals. I’m not sure what Vergara learned, let the police kill the bad guys?

2/5

 

Tammy (2014)

Tammy

Tammy (2014)

Director:

Ben Falcone

Starring:

Melissa McCarthy

Susan Sarandon

Kathy Bates

Plot:

After losing her job and learning that her husband has been unfaithful, a woman hits the road with her profane, hard-drinking grandmother.

Review:

I’m glad that Melissa McCarthy is getting roles in comedy movies, but Tammy left a lot to be desired.

The plot makes it sound like a raunchy comedy with a grandmother and granddaughter, but it doesn’t deliver. I’m not sure if McCarthy just wasn’t given free rein or if she was having a series of off days, either way I didn’t laugh once. There were too many emotional parts and relationship revelations and not enough comedy. The main jokes were just about how disgusting Tammy was and I’m getting tired of those jokes. I hate when comics pick one thing and harp on it forever, like Kevin Hart and being short. Get over it.

Look at a Will Ferrell comedy or the better Adam Sandler movies, when they have a deep, meaningful, revelation it doesn’t take up half of the movie and a lot of the time they come to the wrong realization. Why can’t a female driven comedy do that? Why do they actually have to grow? Why do they have to make themselves “pretty”?

When Ricky Bobby has to find himself he goes about it in the most ridiculous ways and it’s hilarious because he’s doing it all wrong and he doesn’t know any better. When Dewey Cox gets his life together it’s just a long montage with him playing catch with his billion kids.

Tammy spiraled out of control, but the entire time she knew what she was doing was wrong, and it wasn’t funny. It was sad, because she was too stupid to figure out other options and she knew it.

Her finding a man at the end didn’t bother me because they do that in male driven comedies as well, but I didn’t really buy him being in to her.

I had such high hopes and I think that made the movie worse, for me.

1.75/5