The Coronavirus has everyone in lock down to prevent more people from becoming exposed or infected. Not sure what to watch while at home? Disaster movies (one of my favorite all time genres) seems like the obvious choice; HOWEVER, not this week. This week it’s all comedy to keep things light 🙂 This week I review The Ridiculous 6, Skiptrace, A Stupid & Futile Gesture, and Fun with Dick and Jane.
Written by Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler (should be a clue) and directed by Frank Coraci. Set in the Wild West, this is a story about Tommy, played by Adam Sandler, who becomes orphaned and raised by Apache Indians. He gets visited by his biological father (he thought was dead) who gets kidnapped and now Tommy has to save him. Along the way, he meets five guys who happened to be his half-brothers. Hi-jinx ensue on their quest to raise money to release their dad from the captors. A couple twists and turns, some cool stunts, and less cleavage than I expected. Plenty of Burro poo though…and ointment cream for whatever ails ya.
The Ridiculous 6 has everything you want in an Adam Sandler movie. Silly jokes, physical gags, sarcasm, and complete dedication to the art of wacky comedy. Plus, it’s a Western! All the usual suspects are here plus a few more to keep things interesting. Really, it’s a bunch of friends having a good time making a fun movie. The brothers are: Terry Crews as Chico, Jorge Garcia as Herm, Taylor Lautner as Lil Pete (genius), Rob Schneider as Ramon, and Luke Wilson as Danny. Nick Nolte plays their dad Frank Stockburn and Harvey Keitel plays his old bitter partner Smiley. Ensemble includes Steve Buscemi, Will Forte, Steve Zahn, Jon Lovitz, Whitney Cummings, David Spade, Danny Trejo, Vanilla Ice, Nick Swardson, and more. Super fun and available on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:
Written by Jay Longino and directed by Renny Harlin. Detective Benny Chan, played by Jackie Chan, teams up with American gambler Connor Watts, played by Johnny Knoxville, to bring a suspected Chinese underworld leader to justice. Includes Eric Tsang as Benny’s ex-partner and Winston Chao as Victor Wong. Lots of action and hi-jinx, kung fu, extraordinary scrapes and near-misses, and still time for heart to heart talks. Two stories simultaneously–one with Bennie trying to get Connor back to China as a witness and one with a Russian crew trying to bring Connor back to Russian for a different matter. All while dodging the Chinese underworld who wants to kill them. Sounds like a lot but it keeps moving. Johnny Knoxville actually does a pretty good job here and works well with Jackie Chan. There are some fun moments and never a shortage in kung fu fight scenes and stunts. The end credits give a glimpse of potential onset injuries Jackie Chan is known for since he does his own stunts.
I still don’t know why it’s called Skiptrace but it was still fun to watch. If you like Kung Fu or Jackie Chan, check it out. Available on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:
Based on the book by Josh Karp, written by Michael Colton, John Aboud, and directed by David Wain. The story revolves Douglas Kenney, played by Will Forte, and best friend Henry Beard, played by Domhnall Gleeson, who start the National Lampoon Magazine in the 70s. National Lampoon was a satire magazine which seemed to have enemies at every turn as the writers discriminated against no one for stories. This strategy only increased their popularity as well as stress to continue putting out borderline material. They end up creating a radio show–with all the original Saturday Night Live players–Radner, Belushi, Chase–etc–before they were scooped up by Lorne Michaels for SNL. The stress of it takes a toll on both friends and the magazine suffers for it. Eventually, the actors get jobs at SNL, Doug and Henry each go their separate ways, Henry to a more normal life while Doug takes the Hollywood path to pump out movies such as Animal House and then Caddyshack. For Doug, it’s a life of drugs, parties, and mayhem which leads to a tragic decision and a giant food fight.
Overall, I’m always interested in these backstory films which give a peek on the making of something like a magazine or film or group of some kind to gain a better understanding of what people endured, with through, or whatever. Also, this time period was so abused with drugs, I’m surprised any of them made it out alive. It’s not much of a comedy; although, it does have quite a bit of humor. But it’s more like people trying to have a conversation with Doug and him responding with one liners. Available on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:
Written by a team led by Judd Apatow and directed by Dean Parisot. Based on the original film from 1977, this version has been updated to skewer big corporation and greed. A couple living in suburbia thinks everything is going well until the financial bottom falls out and they turn to crime to pay the bills. Dick Harper, played by Jim Carrey, just hits a big with a promotion to VP of Communication for Globodyne. Jane Harper, played by Tea Leoni, is his wife who works as a travel agent. She quits her job to stay home the same day Globodyne loses all its stock and closes its doors due to financial mismanagement. Dick and Jane eventually run out of money and things to sell, their utilities get turned off, the lawn gets repo’d, and no one will hire them. So, they turn to robbery and eventually get quite good at it. Hi-jinx and bungled attempts make for some good laughs. When another couple tries crime and gets arrested, they realize it could have been them. they decide to do one last heist which becomes their ultimate score and use the money to help Dick’s ex-coworkers out. Alec Baldwin plays smarmy Jack McCallister, CEO of Globodyne, and Richard Jenkins plays Frank Bascome, a VP of Globodyne.
Overall, it has its humorous moments–how can it not with Apatow, Carrey, and Leoni? It hits a little close to home in many ways with the corporate update and I’m sure there were many families who thought of crime as a way to make money after losing everything they had (Enron). I occasionally quote “That’s a lot of lettuce.” during every day life. (refers to money) I watched on dvd, available on Amazon or Hulu. Watch the trailer below:
Always count on you for the recommends for the week! Thank you so much!
Thanks for letting me know 🙂 I try….