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manicmango13
Reviews
Greg the Bunny (2002)
Watch it for the mentally challenged turtle
I never get attached to shows. I hate sitcoms, and the few shows I like always get canned. I made the mistake of getting attached to this.
When I saw the first episode, I couldn't believe anything that good was on TV. It was actually funny! Yet I knew it wouldn't last. I could see that the mainstream just wasn't ready for Greg the Bunny. After all, how would one prepare for a show full of crazy puppets? The characters are amazing. Eugene Levy, Seth Green, and Sarah Silverman are all very funny. However, the puppets make the show. Count Blah is obviously a take off of the count on Sesame Street. The retarded turtle who graduated from Harvard (he got head of his class), the alcoholic thespian monkey, the washed-up Rochester Rabbit, and several others that I can't think of right now are all hilarious. Junction Jack is certifiable but hilarious. Each episode has a few things that make you laugh out loud. Tardy the Turtle has a non-sequitir one-liner every episode, such as "Nobody's supposed to touch me where my bathing suit covers." The episodes I liked best were the one with the constipated Snuggles bear who screams "somebody kill me!" while on the john and the one where Junction Jack castrates Jimmy's (Seth Green) girlfriend's dog and the episode where Greg gets really involved in "puppet's rights." The DVD has a ton of outtakes and special features and is definitely worth it since this show got canned two years ago.
The Cameraman (1928)
I love this movie!
This is probably my favorite silent movie and on my top ten list of favorite movies. I stumbled upon it by luck--TCM had a tribute to Buster Keaton on his 109th birthday, and this film seemed worth taping. It was. I have on very few occasions laughed this hard in my life! There are a few things that really stand out about this movie and about Buster Keaton's comic genius (which I never would have appreciated without The Cameraman!). One is that very little about this film seems dated (well, other than the swimsuit styles and cars). The other is that there are several funny parts, and they are VERY funny! Basic premise: Buster (the actual name of his character) is a hapless tintype photographer. One day he meets Sally (Marceline Day) and gets a crush on her. So he follows her to her work at MGM and decides to be a newsreel photographer.
The pool sequence is just great! Buster takes his lady friend to the swimming pool. While changing into his suit, a large man barges in on him in the dressing room and refuses to leave, creating a rather awkward scenario. Buster accidentally grabs the other guy's suit, which is several sizes too large. When he gets up on the diving board, it falls off as he attempts a cannonball, and he steals some woman's swim shorts. The woman's boyfriend drives her home, and Buster sits out in the rumble seat and gets rained on. Then he runs into a cop who thinks he's drunk (which was, obviously, illegal in 1928...more so than it is now, anyway) The Tong War (not sure exactly what that is, but it doesn't matter) also is very funny. Buster, who has been having trouble with one zealous cop for the entire film, accidentally knocks out a man's monkey in front of this cop. They think the monkey is dead, so the cop makes him pay for it. Buster takes the monkey carcass aside, and the monkey (who is absolutely adorable... I do hope no monkeys were harmed in the making of this film) wakes up and becomes Buster's pet. Then Buster films the Tong War, but when he gets back to MGM headquarters, there was no film in his camera.
Buster and the monkey go boating while Sally and her boyfriend go out in their motorboat (motorboat? They had those then?). Anyway, they get in a boating accident, and the guy runs off leaving her to drown. Buster goes and saves her, but leaves afterward, so she thinks her boyfriend saved her. He gives up being a newsreel cameraman and gives MGM his last roll of film, which contains (of course) both the Tong War and footage of Buster saving Sally (that's one helpful monkey!). And all is right with the world.
This is a great movie for anyone new to silent films or to warming up your "I love movies with lots of special effects and sound and color and sex/violence/profanity" friends to them. If you didn't catch it on TCM and it's not on anytime soon, definitely splurge and buy the DVD. It's just that good.
Sid and Nancy (1986)
Inaccurate but interesting black comedy
Having been a fan of the Sex Pistols and Sid Vicious for only a few months the first time I watched this movie, I took it all as fact, which it clearly is not. If you want a factual account, read John Lydon's Rotten or watch the Filth and the Fury (great documentary, by the way). That said, I still like this movie and gave it a 7. Gary Oldman gives what is probably his most convincing performance as Sid Vicious, the doomed punk rocker. Gary was several years older than his character, but I couldn't really tell. That lifestyle tends to age people, so perhaps it was best that they didn't use a 21-year-old. Chloe Webb was much more cleaned-up looking than the real Nancy but also delivered an amazing performance. Why hasn't she had much more of a career? Some (including Johnny Rotten) say this movie glamorizes drug use. I say this is one of those films that, despite having copious drug use throughout, is an anti-drug film. Anyone who walks out of this movie wanting to use drugs obviously didn't pay attention well enough. My favorite part of this film, however, is the black humor strewn throughout. I felt bad laughing at such a film, but in the end, I did. I also cried a lot. It was an emotional roller coaster, but I think it's worth it. My only word of warning is that this film definitely deserved it's R rating. If you're easily offended, skip it.
Soul Plane (2004)
MY VIRGIN EYES!
I hate to comment on something I didn't finish, but if I spare one person what I sat through for almost an hour before turning it off in disgust, it will be worth it.
I decided to watch this with an open mind, knowing it was on the bottom 100.
Bad idea. I usually love crude humor, or can at least tolerate it. I love so-called "black" comedies. I'm not easily offended, either.
It started off okay and quickly went downhill. I laughed a few times (for example, when the main character got stuck in the airplane toilet), but that was it and didn't compensate for the strong disgust I felt.
I didn't laugh when the dog got sucked into a jet engine. I usually can't see the humor in animals dying (except in Animal House). I didn't laugh at much else of the nastiness, either. I turned it off after an incident involving a blind man and a baked potato that I don't care to repeat the details of, only that the wave of nausea still hasn't passed over me.
Simply put, it was smut-filled and simply not funny with barely any plot. This is one of the times when if you don't have something nice to say, you should get the word out.
Don't say I didn't warn you.