Archive for the ‘comedy’ Category
Author: Colin
Hail to The King, baby
Don Coscarelli, the director who brought us The Beastmaster (1982) and Phantasm (1979) is not a name that would immediately leap to mind should someone mention ‘cult classic’. Phantasm, while original and oddly engaging in its time, was hardly a cult classic. Popular, yes – and certainly better than a lot of the dross around at the end of the 70s – but I wonder how many fans of the original Phantasm have watched what is probably, nay, certainly Coscarelli’s best feature to date?
Author: Colin
Action!
I have seen the best film ever made. The only problem is that this wasn’t it. It is, however, an action movie that tries quite hard to make you believe it’s a spoof of an action movie – but I certainly don’t mean that in a bad way. Yes, there certainly will be people out there who will enjoy picking holes in this movie; the cheesey dialogue, the seemingly endless supply of bullets and grenades available to our heroes, a plot so thin you can see daylight through it and an array of über-macho blokes doing what the Americans so fittingly describe as ‘blowing shit up’. Did I like it? Yeah, of course I did.
Author: Colin
On song
When I recommend a film to The Divine P, it’s usually met with some form of statement intended to convey her misgivings about ever having chosen to live with me in the first place. She’s a harsh critic, but as I’ve made her sit through some pretty eclectic stuff, pretty fair and unusually trusting. The other things you may know about me by now is that I am English, but not the tub-thumping jingoistic kind, just English. I am also distrustful about films with songs in – don’t ask why, it’s just not right. So, imagine an evening where there’s an English film on TV that The Divine P loves (and which I recommended), that has songs in and which makes me proud to be English.
Author: Gerald
‘Conducător’
Monty Python’s weaponized killer joke may have been used for offensive purposes, writes Gerald Loftus, but under the Ceausescu regime humor was mainly in self-defence: “Humor is what kept Romanians alive, and Tales from the Golden Age (2009) aims to re-capture that mood, portraying the survival of a nation having to face every day the twisted logic of a dictatorship.”
Author: Colin
How dark do you like it?
At just shy of one and a half hours, this film certainly packs in both the tragedy and the comedy. If you’re a fan of Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell and all the other kerrrazy dudes, you may well want to give this one a miss. If, however, you can see the funny side of people dying in rather unpleasant and inconvenient ways and in the associated shenanigans in trying to ensure nobody gets blamed, go for it.
Author: James
Pixar’s peak
A delight – make sure you don’t miss your chance to laugh and cry in roughly equal measure at the final Toy Story installment.
I ask you – manipulated to tears (nay, proper sobs) by a bunch of cartoon characters? That was me, sure enough, at the end of Toy Story 3 (2010) by Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 2 (1999)) who, along with writers Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine (2006)) and John Lasseter (Cars (2006)), has ensured that the franchise that first put Pixar Studios on the map takes its bow with all the wit, charm and sheer lovableness that characterized the first two chapters.
Author: James
Screw this
Seriously, though, what is it with the Sex and the City adaptations and their incredibly well-endowed…running times? I mean to say, men do account for some 49% of the western world’s population and, no matter how much modern women may bang on about asserting their independence, there’s no way that most of them won’t be going to see this without a man in tow. And only women bleed, right? Hmmm.
Author: James
Light, bright night
Picturenose is delighted to welcome Otilia Ilie to our reviewing team, who opens her account with her take on a date with a difference.
From Shawn Levy, director of The Pink Panther (2006) and Night at the Museum (2006) comes a funny, light action-comedy – Date Night (2010). Claire (Tina Fey) and Phil (Steve Carell) Foster are “just a boring, married couple from New Jersey” who decide to add some spice to their marriage with a ‘different’ sort of date.
Author: James
The brotherhood of man
Picturenose welcomes New Europe correspondent Andy Carling to the fold, with his take on one of the funniest and most affecting music biopics for years. Let’s rock! 
The world of film hasn’t been kind to Heavy Metal, but this has changed with a remarkable documentary that will appeal to even those with no interest in the music.
Author: James
Just ‘tanfastic’
Álex de la Iglesia (The Oxford Murders (2008)) manages a near-’ferpect’ blend of genres with Crimen Ferpecto (Ferpect Crime) (2004) – a much lauded, much-awarded comedy-thriller of the blackest pitch.
Rafael (Guillermo Toledo) has the world at his fingertips – a model fashion salesman, he is confident, arrogant, and is happily enjoying the women and freedom of a bachelor lifestyle. Naturally, he’s had his way with the pretty sales girls who work, er, under him, all except one – the seemingly shy, ugly-duckling Lourdes (Mónica Cervera). It’s all going great, until he is pitched against another salesman Don Antonio Fraguas (Luis Varela) for the position of floor manager.
- Colin: Mike: the Matrix was utter toss. Don’t go there. Anyhow, I’m right with you on Aliens –...
- Colin: James: Why not do ten more and see if you can avoid putting the god-awful travesty that is Independence Day in...
- CD: The Day the Earth Stood Still (it’s about an alien who is Jesus…but better than ET) Soylent Green...
- James: Hello Chris, and welcome to Picturenose! Many thanks for your comment – I thought, in fact, that...
- James: Colin, good points, both on Westworld (which should really have been included, I know, I know) and otters.