It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Simon Pegg & Nick Frost – Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz have to be two of my favorite comedies of the last decade. So when I saw this video of the duo chatting about their time spent working with the legendary Steven Spielberg on Tintin, I LMAO.
This book had my attention from the moment I saw the amazingly creepy picture of the hairless cat on the cover (Creepiosity Index: 9.47). Of course, I had to check out Creepiosity. Author David Bickel has managed to pull together about 90 pictures and concepts that somehow capture the bizarre, uncomfortable realm we all find ourselves dealing with from time to time. And like many people, Bickel’s response is to point them out to us and help us laugh about them. Will it help us get over how creepy some of these things are? Probably not, but let’s give it a shot.
Creepiness surrounds us in everyday life. From the creepiness of a restaurant’s animal mascot encouraging you to eat its own kind (p.36) to kids on leashes (p.86), from the ancient, mysterious candies found in a Grandma’s candy dish all wrapped in colored cellophane (p.104) to kiddie beauty pageants (p. 118), and everything in-between, above, below, and on the edges of things brought forth from the human mind.
But how do you measure this realm of the unintentionally creepy? I’ll leave the tale of how the Creepiosity Index came to be for Bickel to tell, but it all boils down to a fancy looking mathematical formula involving neck hairs per square inch standing on end, the number of time you wince, and a 10% factor if there are clowns involved. Clowns are damn creepy at times (Steven King’s It ring a bell for anyone?) so I certainly get that. And there’s enough pseudo-science to the formula to sell me on the idea. Some things in life are too creepy to NOT be measured!
Obviously Bickel is one of the world’s most respected creepiologists. “Creepiologist” is a term not to be confused with Creepologists who study creeps (which are in a different category all together), or Crêpeologists who study crêpes (tasty thin French pancakes served with a variety of fillings). Though Bickel might get a kick out of eating a crêpe with a creep, I’m guessing he’ll stick with finding creepy pictures and determining their Creepiosity.
By far my favorite part of the book talks about “Squirrels That Look At You a Bit Too Long.” He describes squirrels as basically rats “with a great PR person” and I’ve had my share of their knowing, creepy stares from time to time. These days, the squirrels in our neighborhood are more likely to raise the ire of my two dogs in the back yard. But every once in a while I still see an occasional squirrel with a suicidal streak standing his ground in the middle of the road tempting me to “make his day.”
Bickel manages to capture those odd moments we all have in pictures we can share with others and have a laugh together. I think Creepiosity would make a great gift for a friend or as something to break the tension in a room. But overall, I’m still pondering the Creepiosity of Nursery Rhymes (p.160) and whether I should continue to warp my children…
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
Among the many great comedians gracing stages around the United States, I seem to gravitate to the comedy of those people willing to not only point out the bizarre things in our everyday lives, but tell it like it is. Critical social commentary through comedy. People like Robin Williams, George Carlin, Jon Stewart, and Lewis Black are at the top of the heap. Not only can these individuals make us laugh, but they can through their talent and intelligence make us think at the same time.
Lewis Black’s latest Comedy Central special – Stark Raving Black – features 80 minutes of intelligent insanity. Black’s anger and volatile rants are legendary, but it’s his fickle finger of death and sputtering delivery that defuse that anger while making numerous points about politics, popular entertainers, the economy, and even the iPhone. Every time he gets incensed about a topic, I learn something new or get to consider it from a different angle.
Though he comes across as a cantankerous 60+ year old man going from observation to observation with the wisdom that’s come from not only watching the world but participating in it, there’s an underlying current just below all the vitriol. That current, funny enough, is hope. After all he’s seen, he still holds out hope that things will change for the better. He just figures that all his hopes and dreams will come true the day after he dies. That’s dramatic irony at its finest.
As Black describes being part of a fundraiser where he has to perform after Vince Gill, the quintessential beloved country artist who you can’t help but like, and his wife Amy Grant, a pure Christian woman with a beautiful voice so perfect she is “made entirely of cream”… How can he possibly follow this couple who don’t say a single swear word on stage? Without swear words Black thinks he has maybe 5 minutes of material! Evidently he turned to his friend and fellow comic Kathleen Madigan (a very funny lady in her own right), who had found him the gig and told her to look at her watch – that this is the precise moment we are no longer friends.
If you’ve seen Black before, you know he uses every swear word and crude reference in the book… Can you imagine him on stage with the Vice Gill/Amy Grant power couple? It would be like matter and antimatter meeting – the whole place would explode!
Black’s intelligence comes through in spades as he describes the economic woes currently happening in our country. “Many people blame what happened economically on the people who couldn’t afford rent and bought homes… Those broke *@@#(! are the ones. Really?” If someone came to you on the street and says “I know you can’t afford rent, but… wanna house?” Doesn’t that sum up the mortgage crisis beautifully?
He points out that the sole reason for the crisis was greed. From the Bernie Madoff ripoff to the $1.2 million office redecoration done by CEO John Thain at Merrill Lynch right before the company went down the drain. These people just want more toys and no accountability. When Black talks about what he would do with $1.2 million for redecorating an office, it involves a Great White in a personal aquarium and an Intern… That would probably have more effect than a $67,000 credenza that Thain had purchased for his office.
Black also riffs on the iPhone. He says it’s an amazing instrument, but it’s attached to AT&T, which makes it a “rock”. If we have wireless phones that can work anywhere on the planet, why can’t we have alternative energy solutions? We can take photos of our friends and text message people, but we can’t figure out alternatives to fossil fuels?
But in the end, he talks about hope. It’s the best drug on the planet and one preferred by the young – such as those who worked tirelessly to get Obama elected during the presidential election. Evidently, Obama “lactates hope” and we all were hoping for change. It’s those hopes and dreams for himself, our country, and the world, that he keeps alive day after day. He expects the flying cars will show up at his funeral.
In addition, there’s a 69 minute documentary titled “Basic Black: The Lewis Black Story” that focuses on Black’s life on the road. He evidently reads the newspaper and watches CNN regularly to digest material and then he regurgitates what sets him off on stage. They drive across the country in their bus from gig to gig – Black, Jeff Costa (sound man and merchandise guy), Ben Brewer (tour manager), John Bowman (comic who typically does the opening act for Black) and Frank Moreno (bus driver) – as Brewer puts it “as one big, grumpy family.” It seems they get a lot more work done by driving and avoiding the tension and downtime typically associated with flying everywhere.
The documentary provides a great look behind the scenes on a comedy tour – definitely something I’ve never seen before. Seeing a baby picture of Black with his fingers pointing in the air explains a bunch. Evidently he didn’t even know he was doing it until a fan did it back to him in a public place at one point and he asked one of his friends about it.
And then to see clips of Black’s routines in the 1980s was absolutely hilarious. I didn’t know who he was until about 10 years ago and to see routines from 30 years ago was amazing. Who knew he was a drama student?
If you like Lewis Black and have seen him on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart in his brief “Back in Black” segments or caught earlier shows, I’d definitely recommend you pick up Stark Raving Black. The documentary alone is worth a look to learn more about Black’s background.
Robin Williams. For me, the name itself brings a smile to my face. Fond memories of listening to my old, beat-up tape of An Evening At The Met over and over again until I could quote large sections of his comedy by heart. Memories of watching Mork and Mindy on television with my parents and thinking how cool it would be to be from the planet “Ork” and to live in Boulder, Colorado – only about 25 minutes north the house where I grew up. And all the great movies Robin made such as Good Morning Vietnam, Awakenings, and the The Fisher King.
He’s been entertaining me as an individual for nearly 30 years, so each time I hear about a new comedy special he’s doing you know I have to find a way to watch, listen, or pick it up on DVD. Despite nearing the age of 60, a bout with open heart surgery in March 2009, and having to cancel his comedy tour, I’m not sure Robin has slowed down much in the last three decades. Maybe he’s cut back on the drugs and alcohol, but he’s still got an amazing gift for entertaining an audience.
That brings us to Weapons of Self Destruction, his latest comedy tour filmed in late 2009 and released on DVD at the end of March 2010. This is the first comedy concert he’s done on HBO since 2002. Since then, Robin’s routine has aged a bit to match the current state of the world and he may have a few more gray hairs, but his talent for seeing the bizarre in the everyday continues to amaze. It was obvious the audience felt happy to be there to experience Robin live.
Robin covers everything from politics, health care, global warming, as well as his own experience with open heart surgery. He doesn’t pull any punches either. Early on he mentions Sarah Palin’s book and says he “found it somewhere between fiction and non-fiction in the fantasy aisle,” which proved he hasn’t lost his gift for lampooning. As he says later in the show, Sarah is a gift to comedians everywhere.
Being in Washington DC for the show was an inspired choice with everything going on on the Hill. I think Robin’s idea of having politicians in Washington be required to wear jackets like NASCAR cars labeled with the names of everyone who’s sponsored them. The health care debate would be much more lively if he was the one moderating the discussion. If we knew which drug companies were sponsoring each senator or representative, it would make the health care voting much more transparent don’t you think?
And I absolutely loved all the technological references scattered throughout the show. He wanted an iHeart so he had the latest tech in his heart. And now he has a GPS in his car. “I was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, I was halfway across, and all of a sudden the car went ‘Take a right turn.’ ‘What? No can do HAL! Not that depressed, really.’ And the car went ‘Really Robin? I saw Bicentennial Man.’ ‘SHUT THE #@%* UP!’”
And to top that, the Bob Dylan GPS routine had me rolling and laughing off the couch. He does a damn good Dylan impression. I think I’d pay for it. “Drivin’ down the road look ahead, there’s a light / Very soon, very soon, you’re gonna have to take a right / Drivin’ along, drivin’ along, drivin’ in the land of the free / Remember to pull off if you’ve gotta take a pee / Do it now!”
As per usual, if you are easily offended by language or adult situations, Robin on stage isn’t really for you. He swears regularly, talks about sex and drugs, and generally makes fun of absolutely everybody.
Included with the DVD are two amazing extras.
The “Local Highlights” feature provides a collection of clips from his national tour taken all over the United States and Canada. You can tell he takes the time to research each place a bit and has local humor for each audience, which is fantastic. It really drives the point home that Robin is a professional and wants to entertain.
But the “Past Show Highlights” feature for me beat the “Local Highlights” feature hands down. There are clips from four of his previous shows – Off the Wall in 1978, An Evening with Robin Williams in 1982, An Evening at the Met in 1986, and Live on Broadway in 2002. Each provides a glimpse into how Robin’s shows have matured over the years from comedian to actor/comedian to dramatic actor and beyond.
If you like Robin Williams and want to see his latest stand-up comedy routine, I’d encourage you to watch Weapons of Self Destruction. He is back and better than ever. Hopefully he’ll go on another tour before too long and I can catch him in Denver!
Grave robbing. These days it doesn’t happen much. But in the 19th century it was a booming business, even if it was highly illegal. For writer/director Glenn McQuaid’s directorial debut, I have to say though the setting and story were in a horror style, it was the comedy that shined through for me. For a first-time director, it was top-notch.
I Sell the Dead follows the path of Arthur Blake, a 19th century historical figure known to steal bodies from cemeteries and coffins throughout England until his eventual capture. In the movie, Blake (played by Dominic Monaghan of The Lord of the Rings, Lost, and Flash Forward) decides to weave a tale for the strange priest, Father Duffy (Ron Perlman of Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy) who comes to talk to him before his hanging. Add to that the unique character of Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden, who also produced the film), the body thief who trains young Angus in the art of body snatching, and Dr. Vernon Quint (Angus Scrimm of Phantasm fame), the doctor for whom Angus and Willie steal the bodies… It’s a unique cast.
However, the strange non-supernatural characters like Dr. Quint and Father Duffy are only part of the equation. When corpses run low due to better security measures, you start getting more creative in where you look for bodies. What happens when you encounter a good looking corpse stabbed with a stake through the heart? Do you remove it to take the body to the good Dr. giving you so many problems? Or what happens when you encounter strange creatures that like to eat your flesh and don’t react quite the same way living things do when you chop off their limbs…
The horror bits were balanced out with the gallows humor throughout the production. It seemed more in the spirit of Evil Dead than a serious film. Don’t let that stop you from watching though – there’s plenty of blood and violence to go around.
Included with the DVD is an I Sell the Dead comic book that follows the story as well, in a slightly more artistic fashion. That said, the special effects in the movie were perfect. Understated in many places, but just enough so that when certain things happen later on (like the slitting of a throat or stabbing in the forehead) they have a bit more shock value.
In addition, you get two bonuses on the DVD – “The Making of I SELL THE DEAD” and “Visual Effects Behind the Scenes.”
According to “The Making of…”, the film was shot in New York, and there was an incredible amount of work that went into simply getting ready to shoot. The props alone must have taken weeks of preparation. Filming on location as opposed to on a controlled set makes things much more challenging to do, but obviously the cast and crew had a good time and worked hard to make the film great!
And in “Visual Effects Behind the Scenes” you get a chance to see how they took the location-shot footage and introduced computerized effects to fill in the blanks (like Willie holding his disembodied head in his hand during one scene). Storyboarding and 3D computerized animatics made it easier to try and plan for the unexpected, but it’s fascinating to see scenes progress from drawings to cartoons to live action in the movie.
IFC Films has released two of my favorite films in recent months on DVD – Dead Snow and now I Sell the Dead. Who can pass up a horror-comedy about zombies OR grave robbers? Be sure to check them out at your favorite retail or rental counter.
–Fitz
p.s. Check out this film and others at Barnes and Noble!
Relationships are hard. They take the time and effort to tend to them properly or may they grow in weird directions or die off completely. Breaking Upwards tells the story of a young New York couple who choose to alter their relationship after four years to figure out what they should do. This “alteration” is to take a few days off a week from each other to explore their own independence.
Yes, it’s kind of an odd solution to a complex problem. But creative people like writer Daryl (played by Daryl Wein) and actress Zoe (played by Zoe Lister-Jones) sometimes come up with some of the most creative solutions. That said, this couple makes even the most crazy couple seem relatively sane.
The film is loosely based on a year in the actors’ actual lives and explores some very interesting concepts around monogamy and relationships. Marriage, polyamory, being single… they’re all in play. And it’s not just the relationships between the main two characters, but with their friends, parents, and coworkers.
Their parents are unique. Daryl’s insane, neurotic parents are played by the always endearing Julie White (the mom from Transformers and Transformers 2) and Peter Friedman (The Savages). And Zoe’s free love, pot-smoking mom is Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding). Each brings the baggage, experience, and perspective of relationships that worked or didn’t, providing even more angles on the story of Daryl and Zoe.
When Daryl meets Erika (Olivia Thirlby from Juno and The Wackness), things get more complicated. Each faces their codependency and a new phase of the relationship with obvious trepidation and distress.
As romances go, I have to say this one has a good mix of comedy and serious drama. But the concept of a couple staying together a few days a week holds it together from beginning to end. And I have to say I enjoyed it all the way through, watching to see what would happen next in their relationship.
Though Breaking Upwards may not be a traditional date movie, it will certainly kick off some interesting conversations. If you have a chance, I highly recommend checking it out when it appears at the IFC Center in New York City and on Video-on-Demand April 2, 2010! For more information on the film, click on BreakingUpwards.com.
In 2007, a relatively unknown comic by the name of Jon Reep was thrust into the spotlight during the fifth season of Last Comic Standing. He’d been in a few television commercials for Dodge trucks as the guy who’d pull up with his friend in an old beat up car, look up at the truck beside them, and say “Hey! That thing got a Hemi?”
While on Last Comic Standing, my wife and I found his sense of humor to be hilarious. Not only does he have great stories about growing up in the small town of Hickory, North Carolina, but the “fish out of water” moments he has had while living in Los Angeles for the last 10 years.
Well, now he has another big-time comedy special to share his unique point of the view with the world. Recorded live at the McGlohon Theater in Charlotte, NC, Jon Reep: Metro Jethro provides examples of how he’s adapted to living in the big city while staying in touch with his small town roots.
So what exactly is a “Metro Jethro”? According to Reep, a “Metro Jethro” takes the good parts of small town life and adapts them to big city living. As you might imagine, things from the deep south don’t always jive with big city sensibilities.
Reep shares many tales of growing up in “Hick-r-y” as a child, including some great stories about his dad David Reep. One that stuck with me was when his dad tried to clean the pool by strapping on some heavy weights and trying to breathe through a garden hose. You can guess how that worked out.
He also shares tales from his marriage, including one involving a wedding dress, a hanger, and a sprinkler head in their hotel room in Hawaii. With everything soaked, Reep on the balcony enjoying a cocktail, and his wife-to-be screaming inside, it was definitely a memorable moment in their relationship!
The Bonus DVD includes a video of the entire special as well as some great extras with Reep’s parents sharing their own perspectives on some of the experiences he shares during his show.
If you like comedy, it’s tough not to laugh at Reep’s Metro Jethro. Be sure to check it out at your favorite retailer and laugh your way to some moonshine martinis!
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up Jon Reep’s comedy catalog at Amazon below!
Sometime in the mid 1980s, I was exposed to Monty Python. It was, of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which of course stunted my growth and imprinted itself upon my brain to the point where Python lines began creeping into every day conversation. My parents were appalled. Neither could stand the humorous antics of these men dressed up in costumes banging coconuts together to make clip-clopping noises.
Yes, it’s true. I’m a Monty Python addict. But nothing really prepared me for the depth of Monty Python: Almost The Truth. As a Monty Python fan, I learned things I had never known before in each and every episode. Because of this, I will recommend to all of my closest friends (most of them Python fans) that they must watch the series on A&E and pick up the DVD set.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. So why is this such a ground-breaking documentary series? Because, like all great documentaries, it presents information that you may or may not have heard before in such a way as to make you think about things more deeply. I never knew how the Monty Python troupe came together or what they did before. It simply wasn’t something I considered prior to watching this series.
Starting with Episode 1, we learn the humble beginnings of each member of the troupe and how they found their funny bones on their own or in pairs before eventually finding their way together for Monty Python’s Flying Circus. By the time you get to Episode 4, you realize that not only are they very funny and talented, but they’ve all gone through some rough times as artists and people. And by Episode 6, you come to find that they’ve all found ways to move beyond Python and find their own ways in the world.
Some of the startling facts that I learned from Monty Python: Almost The Truth:
Terry Gilliam had a life before Python in the magazine business.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail was financed by a bunch of big name bands in the 1970s, including Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull.
Graham Chapman was an amazingly functional alcoholic. I always knew he had alcohol issues in the Flying Circus days, but I didn’t realize how much.
Documentaries are often long, dreary, boring affairs. But Monty Python: Almost The Truth couldn’t be further from the norm. All the way through I felt entertained and educated.
When you arrive at Disc 3, you find a collection of sketches, extended interviews, interview outtakes, and the Terry Gilliam Picture Gallery. Among the sketches are three of my favorites – “The Parrot Sketch,” “Ministry of Silly Walks,” and “The Cheese Shop.” The fact that these guys could sit down and write lines like “He’s off the twig! He’s kicked the bucket, He’s shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!”, the absolutely insane list of cheeses from around the world that is somehow made funny by the fact that the proprietor of the cheese shop has no cheese at all, and then the simple yet odd physical comedy of John Cleese doing his silly walk… It makes me laugh just to think of any of them.
As I said at the beginning, this collection is a must have for any serious Monty Python fan. Rush to your favorite retailer and pick up your copy of Monty Python: Almost The Truth today. You won’t be sorry!
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up this and other Monty Python DVDs below!
What do you get when you mix Paul Rudd (recently in Role Models, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Knocked Up) and Jason Segel (from How I Met Your Mother and Forgetting Sarah Marshall)? Fun times. Combine that with a great script about a budding bromance and you have a comedy with some serious hilarity.
Rudd’s Peter Klaven has become engaged to his girlfriend of eight months, Zooey (Rashida Jones). And, during the wedding planning it’s become very aware that Peter has no guy friends to speak of, whereas Zooey has several (very eclectic) girl friends she hangs out with regularly.
To fix the balance between a lack of groomsmen and many bridesmaids, Peter seeks the help of his gay brother Robbie (Andy Samberg), who works at a gym. Big brother gets tips on how to go on man dates with likely subjects. This process of course is not without its pitfalls, including a gross projectile vomiting incident with Barry (Jon Favreau) after a poker game.
After a few such incidents, Peter loses hope in finding someone to be his best man and bumps into Segel’s Sydney Fife – this great, honest guy enjoying being single in California. Peter strikes up a friendship with Sydney and we get some wonderful “guy” moments interspersed with some odd moments here and there.
The fact that Peter gets into this bromance so deeply begins to trouble fiancee Zooey, but it all gets sorted out by the end.
Beyond the main actors, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Lou Ferrigno‘s scenes. He stole the show in a few places (the Ferrigno/Segel sleeper hold incident comes to mind) and added a celebrity dimension to the real estate market Peter was working in.
Though I know my wife enjoyed the movie too, I felt that the characters definitely came from a guy’s perspective – especially Zooey’s female friends, who were all caricatures. One was self centered and wondering why she couldn’t find a nice guy, and another (played by Jaime Pressly) fit the profile of a wife constantly fighting with her husband and then having great make-up sex afterwards. Though I know a few folks with interesting personality clashes in their relationships, these ladies took the cake.
Beyond the movie, the DVD does include a number of extras, including a commentary track by director John Hamburg with Rudd and Segel, a “Making of…” feature, some extras, extended and deleted scenes, and an eleven-minute Gag Reel.
The “Making of I Love You, Man” describes how the project came about from a script by Larry Levin and was then contributed to by director, producer, and writer Hamburg and producer Donald De Line. This was De Line’s first producer credit, so you could tell it was a well tended project. And everyone on board from the producers, writers, cast and crew really bought into the movie concept to bring it to the big screen.
The “Extras” section includes nine different mini-features from “Whole Bunch of Tongue” to “City Slacka – Paul Rudd Tries to Get Through One Line.” Though I loved the Gag Reel, I have to say this is a hilarious string of features that had me rolling in places. I’m amazed at some of the improvised lines that didn’t make it into the movie!
Six “Extended Scenes” are also included and once again showed the improvisational gift of the cast. When Rudd starts going into the “Different Strokes” theme song at the engagement dinner, it was a stroke of genius. It’s obvious that Rudd and Segel had a great time riffing on each other at length during filming.
Also in the long list of special features are three Deleted Scenes, of which you catch glimpses of during the Gag Reel. “The Lost Man Date – Rugby” and “Gay Bowling League Night” would have been great during the film, and I’m a little shocked they weren’t included. But the “Groomsmen Photo Session” was a bit disturbing with all of their pants around their ankles. (Maybe it’s just me.)
I Love You, Man was hilarious and definitely worth seeing if you missed it at the theater. Be sure to check it out at your favorite rental or retail outlet!
–Fitz
p.s. Pick this up and other great comedies at Amazon below!
I’ll be among the first to admit that I’m a huge fan of Steve Martin. His intelligent, yet zany gift for acting, comedy, and slapstick makes him unique. I’ll also be the first to admit that the first Pink Panther (2006) wasn’t that great a film. It had its moments, but never really worked for me.
So when I had a chance to review Pink Panther 2, I hesitated. However, it has such a great cast I had to see how it turned out. And I’m glad I did. I actually liked it a lot more than the first one.
Pink Panther 2 picks up a while after the first movie ends. Chief Inspector Dreyfus (played beautifully by John Cleese) has assigned Jacque Clouseau (Steve Martin) to serving parking tickets. Since Clouseau stole the credit for saving the Pink Panther diamond from Dreyfus, the Chief Inspector has worked hard to keep the bumbling Inspector out of his way. Unfortunately, Clouseau is requested to become part of a “Dream Team” of international detectives working to stop a series of high profile thefts around the world by a thief known as “The Tornado.”
Rating:
To find these artifacts (including the Magna Carta, the Shroud of Turin, and an ancient Samurai sword as well as the Pope’s ring and the Pink Panther diamond), the Dream Team investigates the site of the most recent theft of the diamond and begin piecing together what The Tornado is up to. Inspector Vicenzo (Andy Garcia) from Italy, Chief Inspector Randall Pepperidge (Alfred Molina) from New Scotland Yard, Kenji Mazumoto (Yuki Matsuzaki) from Japan, and Sonia Solandres (Aishwarya Rai), a biographer of The Tornado, work with Clouseau to solve the case. Of course, it’s not that simple. Clouseau manages to bumble his way through crime scenes, interviews, press encounters, and so on, but eventually the case is solved.
Along the way we encounter Mrs. Berenger (the always amazing Lily Tomlin), who acts as the politically correctness advisor for the French Police. She and Clouseau have some highly amusing scenes where we learn more of the Inspector’s ways of looking at the world, including one scene about sexual harassment which is hilarious and another about racial discrimination. Tomlin and Martin haven’t worked together since 1984′s All of Me, and the give and take relationship between them is still apparent.
We also see more of the relationship between Clouseau and Nicole Durant (Emily Mortimer). The flashback scene between the two at a restaurant in Rome includes one of the most amazing bits of slapstick and comic timing that I have seen in a very long time. As Clouseau attempts to pick out a wine for their dinner date, he bumps into the wine rack and bottles begin falling. Martin manages to juggle the bottles to the waiters in the restaurants as they fall, and does so with Clouseau style. That scene appears fairly early in the film and kept me watching to the end.
Overall, I think Pink Panther 2 was a much funnier film than the first one. The interactions between the actors – Garcia, Molina, Matsuzaki, and Rai – with Martin were always well done. You could tell the cast had a great time working together as an ensemble. And seeing Tomlin and Martin together again was a thrill.
In addition to the movie itself, the DVD includes three features…
The “Gag Reel” is a great collection of gaffes and mistakes from the filming. The camaraderie was readily apparent between all the cast and crew. And who wouldn’t have fun working with these great actors?
“Drama is Easy… Comedy is Dangerous” focused on the many comedic stunts in the film. Martin still has a gift for physical comedy that in my mind is rivaled only by John Cleese, who was also in the film. The directors and producers spoke about the difficulty of having a film more physically demanding.
And in “A Dream Team Like No Other”, we get to hear from more of the cast about working together. This is an amazing group of talented professionals and it’s great to hear from each of them — Martin, Reno, Mortimer, Molina, Garcia, Matsuzaki, and Rai.
All in all, I have to say I really enjoyed Pink Panther 2 and look forward to seeing what happens if there are more Pink Panther films. Though this movie didn’t do well at the box office, I think it will do well on DVD. Be sure to pick up a copy at your local rental store or retailer.
–Fitz
p.s. Click here to pick up The Pink Panther and other goodies from Amazon!
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