THE UNFUNNY KINGS OF COMEDY ——- by Steve Nadis
Say the names Bill Murray, Steve Martin, and Woody Allen, and you’re probably thinking funny. Very funny. But if their latest pictures are any indication, you’d better think again. Murray deadpanned his way through his last two movies–Lost in Translation and Broken Flowers. In both cases, he betrays little emotion and turns in a flat, listless performance. (In “Broken Flowers,” however, Murray sports some pretty nifty sweatsuits.) Martin, similarly, seemed bored in Shopgirl, a poorly-written mess in which he does not so much as crack a smile. Allen’s latest effort, Match Point, was insipid and filled with bad acting. (i.e., Scarlet J. [tough to spell] is one of the worst femme fatales on record.) Why do these talented comedians equate dullness with seriousness? Have they forgotten how to be funny?
Posted by
at
03:34:29
Thanks, Snake! I thought I was the only one who felt that way. I feared I was becoming an old curmudgeon (“In my day, comedians were FUNNY!”). Hey, that’s a great bumper sticker. When is the next contest?
I think movie reviews are not your forte, Snake. I thought Bill Murray’s performance in Lost In Translation was great. Sure, I like it better when he does comedy. But, if you look back on his career, you’ll see that characters with flat affect are his trademark. Even in his most dynamic parts (Stripes, Groundhod Day), most of his laughs rely on his deadpan face and dry humor.
Steve Martin, on the other hand, has done far more un-funny comedies than funny ones. Hollywood has this idea that he’s a laugh-a-minute kind of guy, which means they often don’t bother coming up with a script. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he’s in yet another poorly written movie.
As for Woody Allen, does anyone even care what he does anymore? If he wasn’t rich and famous and married to someone a third of his age, he’d be in a retirement community, boring everyone with stories about the good old days of silent movies and jazz.
Thanks Roses. You’re not a curmudgeon, you’re just right. (I don’t know when the next bumper sticker contest will be but probably sometime this summer. As I usually say, as soon as I dream up the winning entry.)
Thanks Gatemouth, perhaps we should agree to disagree. I realize Lost in Translation got great reviews but in my book it was one big fat zero. Too many directors think it’s fascinating to look at Murray’s blank face. To me, there’s not much going on there. And not nearly enough. (As for the Steve Martin vehicle, I neglected to say that he wrote and produced the picture.)
Fair enough. But I do have to add that Steve Martin is one of the people in Hollywood who thinks he’s so funny that he doesn’t need a script. I remember when he did “Roxanne.” All the people on the set talked about how brilliant he was in the scene where he’s making fun of his own nose, how he just kept on improvising and came up with dozens of great jokes. Go back and rent the movie. Listen to that scene. Either they left the great jokes on the cutting room floor, or everybody on the set had really, really low expectations.
I’m not saying Steve can’t be funny. I’m just saying he’d be a lot funnier if he and all the other SNL alums put a lot more effort into their work.
I agree, Gatemouth. The thing about Shopgirl (which I definitely do not recommend) is that he tried very hard not to be funny and the result was, well, unfunny and wooden. And uninteresting to watch.
Bill Murray’s straight face cracks me up. I think I liked him more in “Broken Flowers”; there was more of an undertone of funny Bill just waiting to burst out.
Thanks FW. I thought the most of the interest in the movie came from the women he visited, not him. And I loved the neighbor (Jeffrey Wright). Unfortunately, he disappeared after the first act.
Match Point was an absolute embarrassment. Woody Allen is obsessed with the lives of the wealthy. Once every 15 years or so he comes out with a gem (Husbands and Wives was the last one I enjoyed, I think) but he isn’t worth the bother.
I quite enjoyed Broken Flowers, however. You can’t really hold Murray for his deadpan in this movie. It is, after all, a Jim Jarmusch movie. I loved the Don Johnson joke. Some people think the essence of comedy is . . . timing, but actually, it’s repetition. It’s repetition.
You’re right about Match Point, TB. And I can’t say I wasn’t warned.
You’re also right about Broken Flowers. It’s not Murray’s fault that Jarmusch had shot after shot of Murray staring off blankly into space with nothing else to do. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if Jarmusch found somewhere else to point the camera occasionally.
Once again Snake you fail to even mention the great work of Rob Schneider in “Deuce Bigalow-European Gigolo.” I bet Bill, Steve and Woody would never even contemplate playing a male prostitute in Europe. The jokes just write themselves!
Hi Doc. There’s a good reason Deuce Bigalow did not come up here. I was writing about the UNFUNNY Kings of Comedy. When I get to writing about the FUNNY Kings of Comedy, Rob Schneider will be first on my list.