Funnymen?

I've had the occasion recently to see a number of current film comedies and I planned on writing a long 2- or 3-part post about the state of the Hollywood comedy in the early 21st century, but then I realized I'd just come off as a cranky old curmudgeon, and that happens enough without me making a multi-part affair of it. Frankly, I know Hollywood is not making movies for me anymore, and for the most part, I've quit taking chances on films I'm pretty sure I won't like. So instead I'll just give a few quick opinions about what I've seen lately.

Just as Jaws and Star Wars are often noted as turning points (for better or worse) in the history of movie blockbusters, so There's Something About Mary was a turning point for me and comedy. I'm over 50 and I still chuckle (who am I kidding, sometimes I laugh hysterically) at bathroom humor--just mention the 90's rock band the Ass Ponys to me and see what happens. But I couldn't finish watching that movie. Not because I'm squeamish (the idea of semen as hair gel makes me smile), but because I just didn't find much in it to be very funny. I want to like Ben Stiller--he seems like a nice guy and I respect his parents--but I have yet to see him in a movie I like. To be fair, I've skipped most of his hits, like the Fockers series, because they just don't sound funny to me. But recently I've seen Dodgeball and Tropic Thunder (pic at right) based on the recommendation of friends, and both left me rather cold.

In both films, Stiller is an cartoonish, egocentric prat (though in Dodgeball, he's also a supporting character and a bad guy) and he's surrounded by similarly cartoonish people. The plots are silly parodies but some of the bite is missing because each film wants, to some degree, to be the thing it's making fun of: for Dodgeball, a heartwarming sports film, for Tropic Thunder, a summertime action movie blockbuster. Yes, I chuckled occasionally in both films. Rip Torn is great fun in Dodgeball, screaming "My sweet dick!!" from a wheelchair when the dodgeball team wins their first game. And Robert Downey Jr. has fun with his role as a white actor who has his skin darkened to play a black character in a film. But both films have cardboard heroes (Vince Vaughn in Dodgeball, Stiller in Tropic Thunder) I never cared about. Blazing Saddles, the granddaddy of movie parodies, is one of my favorite films of all time, but are these slack, bombastic, cynical bores what that film hath wrought?

Other comedies I've seen in the past year: The Simpsons Movie (disappointing), Fred Claus (Oh, Jesus, the pain--see pic at left of Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti, both of whom you'll feel sorry for by the end, if you stick around that long), Hot Fuzz (not bad but too long), and Get Smart (took its action plotline way too seriously). Hell, Iron Man might be the best comedy I've seen lately, and the comedy there is mostly incidental to the action. I still have faith in the Coen Brothers--Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers and Burn After Reading are all worth seeing, but they're not exactly mainstream laughfests. I also have some mild affection for The Brothers Solomon (photo below), a B-movie comedy with Will Arnett (Gob of Arrested Development) and Will Forte (from SNL), though even there, the dumb humor hit/miss ratio was still too high in the wrong direction.

I am not attracted at all to the recent "genre" of overgrown fratboy films (the domain of Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow, though surprisingly, I enjoyed The 40-Year Old Virgin) and I haven't even considered the issue of romantic comedies yet, because I haven't seen very many of them lately (I like Sandra Bullock, but haven't seen a film of hers in years). I don't mind "dumb" comedy now and then, but a few "smart" comedies to balance things out would be nice. I'm willing to give some more comedies a chance, but I fear I'm in for mirthless times.