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Reviews
Waiting for Guffman (1996)
Over-hyped, but Not Horrible
This is a fairly enjoyable film, but honestly I don't think it's deserving of all the praise it gets. If I could sum it up in one word, it would be 'mild.' The story is mildly interesting, and it follows a group of small-town folks who are mildly quirky, putting on a play that is pretty bad, but only mildly funny.
Part of the problem, I think, is that it's somewhat one-joke-- the characters are stupid, and they're putting on a bad play. Beyond that, there's not much to laugh at. There are a few moments of comedy, but most of it is just repeating the same ideas which aren't original or funny in the first place-- Fred Willard's character is self-obsessed and obnoxious, Catherine O'Hara is blindly supportive of him, Corky St. Clair is flamboyantly gay, etc. It seems cliché'd to compare this (or any improvisational comedy) to Spinal Tap, but the key difference between them is that in Spinal Tap, the characters say funny things. In this, the fact that the characters are stupid/vain/whatever is supposed to be the joke. And it gets old very quickly.
Watching the film, it seems like the play is going to be a hilarious climax, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be. The songs themselves are pretty funny, because they're so cheesy and typical of amateur musical theater, but being subjected to 15+ minutes of the same joke -- these characters are bad actors and the lyrics are cheesy -- is tiresome.
Also, I'm guessing the ending is supposed to be surprising, but it's telegraphed pretty clearly, and you can see it coming a mile away.
That's My Boy (1951)
Not one of the better Martin/Lewis films
This film, while enjoyable, has quite a few flaws. The idea of casting Martin and Lewis as graduating high school students/freshmen in University. While Lewis can obviously pull off his role as a 'nerd', Martin doesn't look anything like someone in their late teens, and it's almost laughable when they refer to him as such in the film.
Eddie Mayehoff is very good in his role, but overall I don't think this was a good vehicle for Martin and Lewis. By that I don't mean they're bad in it, but rather it doesn't give them a chance to display their talents much. Lewis doesn't get many chances to do his slapstick, silly voices and wild takes. He plays his typical eager, earnest youngster, but in most films that's simply one of his character's aspects. Here, it's the whole thing. Martin doesn't get the chance for many songs, either.
The script itself, and the editing, can also be clumsy at times. The repetition of the already-silly line "It's all for you, Junior" becomes unintentionally hysterical as 'Terry' says it for a third time, and the scene ends with her, Lewis and Martin just standing there, staring at each other awkwardly. There's an overly long scene of Eddie Mayehoff's character singing the school song, with no punchline at the end. The clunky, bare-bones editing stops the finale from having any tension. Before you can ask yourself "will Junior be able to win the game with this kick?" he's already done it.
If you're a Martin and Lewis completist, like a member of my family is, obviously you'll want to see this, but if you're just looking to see a funny Martin/Lewis movie, I recommend watching one of their better ones like "The Stooge", "The Caddy", or "You're Never Too Young".
Chilly Beach (2003)
A pretty good show, especially if you're Canadian
I'm not going to summarize the show, cause it's easy to find a good summary online. I think it's a pretty good show. I haven't watched it in a while, but I do have the Season 1 DVD and I watched it when new episodes would air on CBC.
The show's not always hilarious, and it sometimes feels amateurish, as some of the jokes are kind of repetitive or predictable, but most of the time it's really enjoyable. My favourite character is probably Dale, but I like most of them. I'm interested in seeing the movie, and I can't wait until it finally gets aired, released on DVD, etc. Apparently it's tied up in ownership issues or something?
The Raccoons (1985)
Fantastic show
This was a series with great voices, great music, great animation and great stories. In short, a wonderful classic cartoon. My favourite characters were Bert and Cyril, probably because they got the most development (although all the characters changed a bit over time). It's unfortunate that its DVD release seems to have stopped, but on the bright side, it'll probably be shown again in Canada when Teletoon starts its own Retro channel in spring 2007. And right now it's showing on Boomerang in the UK.
The general opinion is that it went down a bit in quality towards the end, but even those episodes are still very enjoyable. The earlier, first season, and specials, were more exciting because they focused more on the raccoons fighting against Cyril Sneer's industrialism, rather than on the characters' moral dilemmas and social problems like the later ones. The music and animation was also better in the early ones.
BTW, just to clarify, it was actually an English-Canadian cartoon, not French-Canadian.