"Well acted vehicle slowed down by few big laughs."
Relatively clean comedies are few and far between nowadays. We are forced to watch huge cocks enter mens ears from bathroom stalls, and jokes about dildos entering mens orfices for our humor. We had a gem with Chicken Run, but it's no laugh fest. Nor is Almost Famous, or Nurse Betty. And now here we have a basic straight forward comedy- a guy has to convince his would be father-in-law to let him marry his daughter. Comedy ensues. But not that much.The laughs here are clean for the most part. I won't ruin what the majority of previews already have, but there are were only two decidedly dirty jokes, and quite frankly, it could have been worse. So the movie had taste and thats all well and good, but the trick is having taste and having serious SHOCK value.
Very tricky.
The Marx brothers were masters at this. They would set up jokes form the beginning of a film, and even though we see the set up, we still bust a gut laughing when it comes because it doesn't FEEL expected. When something is set up here... It's an obvious setup, but the bustagut never occurs. Why not, you ask?
Maybe because they tried to handle this with an air of reality. It works effectively in places, the dialogye flows naturally between Stiller and Deniro, and it's genuinely funny. But this naturalness doesn't allow for much broadness. For insanity. And insanity is what makes the comedic world go round and round.
And yes, utter madness does occur. Albeit, it occurs naturally without being forced, but it doesn't have the punch it should have. The movie is good for quite a few chuckles, and maybe two gut busters (both involve the cat), but for the most part it misses its mark.Comedy that suceeds as long as you don't mind not laughing that much. And like jokes about speedos. Cause they emphasize the penis. And penises are funny.
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