Review – Supernatural Activity

Talk about an extremely small return on an extremely large investment. Every once in a great while (like maybe two or three times throughout the 90 minute running time) they pop out something entertaining. The rest of it is a mix of “how did you even come up with that?” and “what would make you think that was funny?” Further, you’ve got to have a broad background in pop culture – everything from The Last Exorcism to The Wire – to get the giant pile of references. I was saddened to have gone in expecting nothing more than a Scary Movie experience and not even getting that much. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – The Last Remake of Beau Geste

Marty Feldman stars in and directs this send-up of the ultimate French Foreign Legion storyline. The result lies somewhere between Mel Brooks and the English sense of humor best known to American audiences in the form of Monty Python. Though it has a few clever moments, it has just as many “yeah, that didn’t work like you thought it would” gags. On the other hand, I thought this was hysterical when I was a kid, so maybe I’m just not the target audience anymore. Mildly amusing

Review – The Legend of Awesomest Maximus

Awhile back, a lost child showed up out of nowhere. It turned out he was 12 years old and had miraculously time traveled from 1980. Out of sync with the 21st century, he had no idea that being gay no longer makes people the object of ridicule and images of women with their shirts off are easily available on the internet. In order to help him feel less disoriented, National Lampoon designed this movie with the kid’s sense of humor specifically in mind. It also helped the poor child get caught up on key plot points from 300, Troy and Gladiator, the pictures parodied in this stinker. The next time I’m overcome by the mood for a witless comedy, I hope it’s at least a trifle less witless than this. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Stan Helsing

Let's draw a Venn diagram. The first circle is people who've seen enough horror movies from the 80s and 90s to recognize the characters and situations in this parody. The second circle is people who hate horror movies from the 80s and 90s enough to enjoy a witless, mean comedy making fun of them. Do these circles overlap at some point? Perhaps if this had come out around the time its targets were in theaters (or at least fresh on video) it might have had more of a point. But all these years later all this accomplishes is heaping humiliation on poor Kenan Thompson, who must have lost a bet or something. See if desperate

Review – Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful

Julie Brown and friends produce an absolutely hysterical send-up of Madonna: Truth or Dare. Of course the big pitfall is that you have to actually sit through Madonna’s movie first so you’ll fully appreciate the jokes. However, at least at the end of the painful original you’ll have this desperately-needed comic relief waiting for you. Worth seeing

Review – Kentucky Fried Movie

The “Fistful of Yen” sequence in this collection of parody skits remains one of my all-time favorite comedy moments (though of course it helps to see Enter the Dragon first so you’ll get the jokes). The rest is largely hit and miss. Some of the routines are funny on the level of the later Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker hit Airplane! Other skits are too dated to work outside the magical days of the 1970s. And a few weren’t funny to begin with. Still, I have a soft spot in my heart – or perhaps my head – for this movie. I’d give it a slightly higher rating if I wouldn’t be embarrassed to do so. Mildly amusing

Review – The Naked Gun

From the Files of Crap Squad. Leslie Nielsen once again teams up with Jim Abrahams and the Zuckers to make a parody, but this time around it’s pure crud. They tried to make a go of the whole “Police Squad” cop show parody on TV, and it flopped massively. This first movie in the set met with a bit more success with audiences, but it’s at best a pale shadow of Airplane! Most of the comedy is physical, and a lot of it is so predictable and repetitive that it gets annoying after awhile. My favorite part of the whole production was the end credits, both because they included some subtle jokes and because they meant the movie was over. See if desperate

Review – High Anxiety

Mel Brooks takes on Alfred Hitchcock in a parody of several of the latter director’s pictures. Frankly, it isn’t Brooks’s finest moment. For starters, you have to be familiar with Hichcock’s movies to get a lot of the jokes, unlike Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein that are funny on their own in addition to being great send-ups. But more than that, it just isn’t as clever as we’ve come to expect from Brooks. Sure, it has a good line here and there. But overall it’s silly to the verge of dumb. Mildly amusing

Review – The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

Though it was directed by costar Gene Wilder, this silly little picture has a distinct Mel Brooks flavor. My favorite part of the movie was Madeline Kahn’s fine performance, but I’m sure Young Frankenstein fans will cherish the Wilder – Marty Feldman pair-up as well. The story – the famous detective turns a tricky case over to his younger brother Sigerson – is purely goofy, but the script sports a clever line or two. Mildly amusing

Review – Spy Hard

Once again Hollywood proves that merely casting Leslie Nielsen in a dumb parody doesn’t make it as good as Airplane! This is yet another one of those productions that pokes fun at movies that were current when it first came out, which means that unless you have a good memory for action pictures from the mid 90s, this isn’t going to entertain you at all. Even if you do recall what they’re mocking, it’s still not that good. The jokes are stupid and juvenile even by sub-genre standards. And poor Weird Al Yankovic. His opening titles song isn’t any cleverer than the rest of the mess. See if desperate

Review – The Onion Movie

Not since Kentucky Fried Movie has random silliness worked this well. Indeed, it’s even better than previous efforts because it has The Onion’s great sense of humor rather than the distinctly dated material from movies gone by. To be sure, it’s somewhat uneven. In particular, I thought the Network-esque story that cropped up from time to time didn’t really add much to the experience. But otherwise the range it ran was from side-splitting to “that’s kinda cute,” with almost no “eech, that sucked” moments. Comedy producers should do more of this sort of thing. Worth seeing

Review – The Cheap Detective

Come in looking for a Neil Simon send-up of hard-boiled detective movies, and you’ll get just exactly what you expect. One should really be a fan of the genre – or at least have seen Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon – before trying to get much amusement out of this. But most of the humor is entertaining in a dinner theater sort of way if you’re in on the jokes. The cast is a who’s who of 70s comedy cinema, headed up by Peter Falk in the title role. Mildly amusing

Review – Top Secret!

All these years later I’m still amazed that a movie with so many explicit anal sex jokes could ever get a PG rating. On the other hand, most of the humor here is on an emotional level that cries out for the sixteen-and-under audience. A young Val Kilmer stars as a singer based on – if not directly parodying – Elvis in some of the worst of his movies. The overall plot is very much a creature of the 80s, but fortunately the story isn’t really the point. The gags that form the bulk of the screen time and entertainment value are as timeless as they are corny (though sometimes they do manage to be clever as well). Thus there’s a good time to be had here as long as one doesn’t expect too much. Mildly amusing

Review – Team America: World Police

For the most part this plays like an extended episode of Robert Smigel’s “Go Lords” with a big dose of Parker/Stone humor thrown in. In other words, it’s puppets that have sex, barf and swear. A lot. On the other hand, it has a few funny moments, such as when a couple of members of Team America are attacked by housecats. And it’s nice to see anyone with the guts to mock the witless pseudo-patriotism that’s captured the nation’s attention of late. This isn’t insightful social commentary by a long shot, but as vulgar amusement I guess I’ve seen worse. Or at least more pointless. Mildly amusing

Review – Life of Brian

Though a lot of Monty Python fans prefer The Holy Grail, this one’s my personal favorite. It might be a name thing, or it might be that I admire the amount of chutzpah it takes to parody the gospels. But on the other hand, it might be my favorite just because it’s an exceptionally funny movie. The stoning sequence is at least semi-legendary. Anyone who’s ever dealt with academics and/or revolutionary wannabes should get a solid kick out of any of the scenes involving the People’s Front of Judea. And of course if you ever had to take Latin (and even if you didn’t) you should get a chuckle out of the graffiti sequence. Then there’s the closing musical number. And then there’s … well, you get the point. It’s the usual collection of Python skit comedy centered around a send-up of the life of Christ. Buy the disc

Review – A Mighty Wind

Every step these movies take away from Waiting for Guffman seems to be a step in the wrong direction. Or maybe the whole set even traces all the way back to Spinal Tap. In any event, imagine Best in Show only with folk singers rather than dogs and you’ve got the general idea here. Trouble is, most of the humor is too silly and too broad by far. Having grown up with parents who were into the whole folk music thing, I recognized some of the characters (or at least the character types). It helped that the acting was solid as ever. However, the plot and the dialogue just didn’t do enough to hold the production together and make it funny enough to justify the running time. Mildly amusing

Review – Pootie Tang

Lorne Michaels should at least derive a certain amount of satisfaction from this outing, because it conclusively proves that someone besides him is able to produce really bad movies based on short sketch comedy routines. Of course Michaels is still the master, but Saturday Night Live alum Chris Rock appears to have learned a thing or two on the “art” of drawing five minutes’ worth of script out into a feature-length production. I guess if you watch a lot of blaxploitation movies this lack-witted farce seeks to parody, you might have gotten more of a kick out of it than I did. But personally, I don’t think much of the trend in Hollywood to make such movies under the pretext that they’re meant to parody such movies. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Best in Show

Christopher Guest and associates are back in a slightly-too-self-conscious attempt to recreate the success of Waiting for Guffman. This time around rather than a small town’s civic pageant it’s a big-time dog show, but otherwise it’s the same “we’re not laughing at you we’re laughing near you” pseudo-documentary approach to the world of obsessive losers. Despite the somewhat labored nature of the production as a whole, most of the jokes are amusing and the acting is solid. Fred Willard does an especially good job as the former pro athlete turned inept commentator. Even the dogs are cute. If you’re trying to choose between this one and its predecessor, definitely go for Guffman. But if you liked the original you should get a kick out of this one as well. Worth seeing

Review – Casino Royale (1967)

The biggest joke in this whole movie is the one played on James Bond creator Ian Fleming; apparently he always wanted David Niven to play his super-spy, and the only time Niven ever actually assumed the role was in this bizarre parody of the Bond series. Most of the humor from this 1967 gem is either dated or stupid or both. Indeed, it plays out like a two-hour-plus Mad Magazine version of the “real” Bond series. So it goes almost without saying that this has little to do with the Fleming novel by the same name. With a cast this good (including Peter Sellers, Orson Welles, Woody Allen and a host of other luminaries) a much better movie might have been made. See if desperate

Review – This Is Spinal Tap

Here we have the ultimate rockumentary parody, the one that all others are ultimately judged against (and usually found wanting). Even audience members unfamiliar with some or even most of the bands being mocked should nonetheless be able to thoroughly enjoy the clever humor that runs at a constant high level throughout (though, as one of the characters observes, “there’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”) Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Schearer play the three lead members of a British heavy metal band that meets with mixed results during a concert tour of the United States. Several of the key scenes (particularly the “Stonehenge” sequence) are so funny and so popular that they’ve become comedy clichés. Though the guys tried to keep the gag running in subsequent projects, Spinal Tap never produced anything else that matches the entertainment value of the original. The DVD includes some funny, unused scenes and several other extras. Buy the disc