Comedy is genre of movie that is loved by all, whether you are 3 years old or 100 years old there is something in the comedic universe for everyone. Lets face it other genres aren't quite as universal, horrors are very much 50/50 split betwwen those that can't get enough of them, to those that literally hate them. Thrillers seem to be enjoyed by the vast majority of the population, but usually difference in opinion from film to film is rather vast. And drama's are an definately an acquired taste and most people will avoid drama's especially in the younger male demographic, no matter how good the film itself may be. But comedy; well thats another story entirely and though people's sense of humour differs there is a comedy out there for everyone. I may have completely missed the mark on that statement and I could be utterly wrong, but though not everyone wants to cry or be scared, everyone wants to laugh don't they?
If I'm honest I've seen more bad comedies than good ones, The Coen Brothers remake of The Ladykillers nearly destroyed my soul it bored me that much. And I have great respect for the Coens, True Grit, their most recent endevour was exemplary, but The Ladykillers was badly paced and from what I've read, an unnecessary remake of a cult classic. Suffice to say I didn't even finish it, a rare feat for any film I watch, let alone a Coen Brothers Film. So a lot comedies don't rank high on my lists of my favourite films, and to be honest to crack into my top 50 a film would probably have to be more than just a straight up comedy.
The most recent comedy to impress me was Judd Apatow's Bridesmaids, which I've now seen twice and could probably watch at least another two times before it stopped being funny. But before I saw Bridemaids, I saw two rather mediocre films the first being The Hangover: Part 2 which was utterly apaulling, but actually did raise a couple of laughs out of me. The second was the slightly better Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz as a truly awful teacher that I must admit I aspire to be one day (I dislike children), but the movie felt like it didn't take its jokes far enough at times and at others felt like it took the joke way too far. All three films I've mentioned above I enjoyed, The Hangover: Part 2 was just an inessential sequel that acted more like a remake, though with a great commercial success it will ensure Part 3 will be on its way shortly. I must admit that the original Hangover film they tied the story up enough at the end that I had no real desire for a sequel. Bridemaids Does tie up its loose ends, but I would like to see another as some of the characters feel like they haven't been used to they're full potential.
So here we have two films, one that I didn't really want them to make into a series and one that I do and they probably won't. Now there are plently of Thriller series The Bourne Trilogy, The Matrix Trilogy, The Alien Qradrilogy to name but a few and horror movies seem to never just leave it one film; A nightmare on elm street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Saw. But when it comes to comedy there seems to be rather scarse selection of film series, The Hangover seems to be the first in a while. Other ones I can think of are the Police Acedemy films (which aren't funny), The Naked Gun, The Carry On films (also not particularly funny), Meet the parents. The latter of which has had a steadily declining quality which seems to be something that happens a fair bit in comedy films. They recycle the same bits and they get less and less funny each time you see them. This is also done in horror as well, the same gags and ideas are done to death. They do get tiresome after a while there isn't anything worse than a joke that you hear to many times.
So why does comedy suffer so much more than the others? Many used to call it the curse of the sequel, but I think that convention been broken countless times nowadays. The Dark Knight was way better than Batman Begins (though both are truly great), Spiderman 2 was better than the original and Toy Story 3 I felt was the best in the series. But I no comedy series of films seems to have retained the quality of the original. I find this odd as their are television shows that have kept they're comedic elements funny and original for several years. So why can't film do the same.
To sum up I'm generally hoping that Bridemaids makes a sequel that can keep up with the suberb original. And who knows maybe some great mind will create a comedy series of films that keeps my interest and that doesn't make me wanna jump off a building like The Ladykillers almost drove me too.
No comments:
Post a Comment