Tag Archives: Comedy

Comedy, Detective, Imaginary British Cinema

#168 – Excuse Me Sir, I’ve Just Been Shot

Leave a comment

(1973, GB, 105 min) Dir Aldous Oxbury. Cast Peter Cushing, Felicity Montague, Denholm Elliott, Christopher Lee.

Zany detective nonsense with Peter Cushing’s famed detective Albert Franklin investigating his own murder as he bleeds out from the gunshot wound he believes to be the agent of his ultimate demise. “But you should see a doctor!” exclaims his secretary, Pam. Not a bit of it – he’s too excited about the investigation to be bothered wasting his time on medical assistance. “Imagine how cold the trail will be by the time they’ve pulled out that bullet and stitched me up!” A fun romp with Denholm Elliott his nervy contact on the force and Christopher Lee as his incarcerated Moriarty-like nemesis. The best part of the film has to be the gravitas Cushing brings to the role that sells every scene regardless as to whether it requires him to crawl through a bed of eels (don’t ask) or deliver a dressing-down to a royal guard who he believes is wearing an improperly buttoned coat. Fantastic London locations add to the film’s charm including a chase through both Kew Gardens and Highgate Cemetery. This seems an obvious set-up for a series but alas, if this were the case there none but this sole entry.

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms

Comedy, Horror, Imaginary British Cinema

#159 – Back Again To Be Bad

Leave a comment

(2012, GB, 100 min) Dir Christopher Smith. Cast Reece Shearsmith, Peter Serafinowicz, Alexi Sayle, Julie Andrews.

Supernatural comedy. The Grand Order of the Everlasting Night had a foul plan – they were going to raise from the dead the most nefarious, bloodthirsty tyrants that history has to offer to wreck the most profound and unimaginable havoc on earth. From the four corners of the earth they summon Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, Elizabeth Báthory and, by accident, Jim Morrison. The trouble is they have no idea what to do with them now that they have them, all five seemingly unable to raise dread armies at the drop of a hat and also a bit depressed at being reanimated. The solution? Bung them all in a remote Scottish cottage for the time being while a Plan B is hashed out. So Stalin and Hitler are continually fighting over the bedrooms, Genghis is making all sorts of odd smells in the kitchen, Báthory’s taking forever in the bathroom and Morrison refuses to tidy up. An equilibrium has yet to be reached when there is a knock at the door. It’s only Churchill, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, a not dead Julie Andrews and, by accident, the Big Bopper and they’re there to sort out the tyrants once and for all. Cheap, slapdash and hilarious with a very unexpected good sport cameo from Andrews.

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms

Comedy, Imaginary Norwegian Cinema

#157 – Djevlene! (Devils!)

Leave a comment

(2000, Nor, 98 min) Dir Tomas Dakk. Cast Olaf Minger, Ballhammer, Alan Danielsson, Alvus Binghauser, Totes Felching.

Norwegian mock-doc about the black metal group Djevlene decamping from the city to record their new album among the trees and mountains of the north. The film opens with a typical Djevlene performance – pounding, down tuned and fronted by agonised screaming – intercut with the quartet being interviewed, pledging their allegiance to Satan and intimating the dark deeds that they’ve done unknown by the media. Cut to their minivan opening in the dark, in the woods, in the snow, to much complaining about the cold and the cramped, dilapidated accommodation they have to stay in. Before you know it they’re fighting over the top bunk and the last sausage and jumping at the wind outside. In the night, following a strange creaking, their drummer Vic finds a hidden door that leads to the basement and in the basement is a grave, its headstone reading: Satan. Then, from under the ground, a blood curdling howling begins. The rare horror comedy that manages both with fine performances from the titular band as played, with admirable good humour, by real life band Snørr.

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms

Comedy, Imaginary British Cinema

#149 – Pansies Ahoy!

Leave a comment

(1953, GB, 102 min) Dir Aldous Oxbury. Cast David Niven, Dirk Bogarde, Charles Falder.

Florist duo Ted and Gerry decide to do their bit in the war and sign up for duty in Her Majesties navy, both assigned to the same ship, the HMS Pielight under the watchful eye of the notoriously humourless disciplinarian Captain Reginald Oxphroy. Ted and Gerry, being incorrigible cut-ups (as we have seen in training when they snuck a goat into their Sergent’s bedroom), decide to have themselves a little fun decorating the ship with flowers of all sorts and sizes and the more Oxphroy clamps down on them the more they appear. They find themselves eyeing up a court-martial for insubordination when suddenly, on the horizon, a U-boat! A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues and wouldn’t you know it the only thing that keeps the ship’s morale up is those damned pansies! Of course the krauts get a jolly good thrashing and of course Oxphroy comes around to the mischievous florists way of things and before the films out it’s medals all round. Hurrah!

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms

Comedy, Imaginary US Cinema

#146 – You Have To Start At The Bottom… To Get Your Way To The Top!

Leave a comment

(1958, US, 110 min) Dir George McAnderson. Cast Anthony Perkins, Shirley MacLaine, James Mason.

Bright cartoonish comedy set in the world of big business. Anthony Perkins is Osgood Berenson, a country kid come to the Big Apple with his County College Certificate of General Excellence in his suitcase and the will to achieve in his heart. After a promising interview with Flexible Industrials he turns up on his first day dressed for his very own office only to be met by the mop and a bucket needed for his new position as janitor. By chance he meets the head of Flexible Industrials, the business titan Olivier Welles (Mason), when he’s taking care of the private washrooms up on the 32nd floor and makes an impression with his can-do attitude. “I have to say you seem like a most competent and assured young man,” says Olivier, “Which makes me all the more impressed that you’re willing to work your way up to the boardroom from down in the basement. I’ll see you up here in a year and I’ll make you partner, how does that sound?” That’s when Olivier’s daughter Pat (MacLaine) comes in and the smitten Osgood’s mind is made up, kicking off twelve months of begging, borrowing and stealing his way up the greasy ladder. A fine fun and funny film.

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms

Comedy, Imaginary British Cinema

#140 – Belfastards

Leave a comment

(2014, GB, 104 min) Dir Jim Laughlin. Cast Phil Laverty, James Gillen, Brendan Forde.

Spin off from the popular BBC NI TV show about a trio of track suit wearing wastrels on the streets of Belfast who have transcended the cultural divides of their city, united in their common interest of being wee turds. Their favoured forms of mischief involve general loutishness on the streets, calling the emergency services out to fake crises and then stoning their vehicles, stealing cars and joyriding them about the town all while getting “lit on Bucky”. Their big screen debut sees Diz, Mickey and Tummers being chased through Belfast city centre after stealing a rack of children’s clothes for Diz’s sisters baby and, once caught, being recruited to stop local drug dealers from the inside. Your ability to tolerate the Belfastards brand of comedy will depend entirely on your ability to spend more than an hour and a half in the company of such appalling scumbags though for some fans the trappings of the shows’ expansion from its half-hour slot to feature-length has diluted the rough-edged charms of the show. For some though the film’s depiction of the central trio’s lifestyle is implicitly condoning them but to those critics the Belfastards themselves would no doubt say “get away up yourself”.

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms

Comedy, Imaginary French Cinema, Romance, Science Fiction

#139 – Monsieur B dans l’Univers (Mister B In Space)

Leave a comment

(1963, Fr, 98 min) Dir Albert. Cast Albert, Mimi X, Oscar de la Vana.

A grayed up Albert is stuffy aged bachelor Monsieur B, the company man is chosen to travel to the distant planet of French Andromeda where he will act as accountant for the colony there. His  faster than light journey out is a wonderfully sustained piece of physical humour in faux zero gravity – like the Blue Danube sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey remade by Jacques Tati. French Andromeda too is a fantastic visual creation – the best that early Sixties film money could buy, all purple rocky landscapes and blue plants. When he’s out there he makes contact with one of the green-haired alien locals (as played by his real life wife Mimi X) and falls in love. Of course it all goes downhill from there with the colonists set against the natives. Albert found himself in the middle of a political storm at the time with both left and right agreed that his film was an allegory for the colonial enterprises of French Indochina and North Africa but neither side agreed on whether the film was pro or con. Albert, for his part, simply shrugged and claimed no responsibility for their interpretations. thankfully, now that more than fifty years have passed we can appreciate this sweet, sad film for its beautiful colour photography, balletic slapstick and romance.

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms

Comedy, Imaginary British Cinema

#137 – Helmland Hustle, The

Leave a comment

(2009, GB, 101 min) Dir Michael Winterbottom. Cast Steve Coogan, Jason Issacs, Tom Hardy, Riz Ahmed.

“So, tell me, in your own words,” asks Mike, a Nick Broomfield-alike documentary filmmaker played by Steve Coogan, of young soldier Newell (Hardy), “What do you think that the British army is still doing here, in Afghanistan?” Newell opens his mouth, closes it, and then looks to the left of the screen where Jason Issacs’ Oliver Messing stands. Messing is the Media Relations Officer for this division, sent by the MOD to ‘liase’ between the troops and the filmmakers. He shakes his head and Newell turns back to Mike and the camera. “I’m afraid I can’t be answering that question sir,” he says. Half mock-doc and half feature, The Helmland Hustle slots quite comfortably alongside 24 Hour Party People and A Cock and Bull Story in the Winterbottom/Coogan collaborations though it’s not quite as pointedly self-referential as either. The only issue with the film is that while it lays out it’s satirical stall early on it fails to cash in on this, focussing more on personality clashes than the absurdity of the situation they are all in. Besides that it’s still very funny with a great turn from Issacs, here quite ably keeping pace with improv veteran Coogan, and from Riz Ahmed playing an interpreter who despite blagging the job doesn’t actually speak the local language.

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms

Comedy, Imaginary Danish Cinema

#135 – Fra Midnat (From Midnight)

Leave a comment

(2006, Den, 109 min) Dir Jan Hodl (Uncredited). Cast Per Spee, Tomas Peter, Michael Samsa.

When people think of Dogme 95 they invariably think of the first two, Festen and The Idiots by Vinterberg and Von Trier when in fact there were a great many more that received the official certification but didn’t make as much of an impact on the public consciousness. Number 47, Midnight On, is one such film. Like the great majority of Dogme film, the muddy mundanity of the visuals seems, at a glance, to be reflected in the content, following as it does one night in the life of a trio of suburban Satanist youths as they drink, smoke drugs, take a stolen car for a spin and, from the titular time of night, worship their dark lord. A closer inspection reveals the dark comedy at play with mothers not having washed certain members cloaks, a sacrificial kitten being too cute to kill and even the joyriding going awry when they are confronted by the vehicle’s burly owner. The film’s kids are trying their best to be grim and gritty but just don’t have what it takes. Even the patented Dogme style works for once too – while not a found footage film it looks like it could have been filmed using equipment any one of these middle class children have lying around in their house.

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms

Comedy, Imaginary US Cinema

#130 – Flunkies

Leave a comment

(2002, US, 105 min) Dir Andy Farmer. Cast Matt LeBlanc, Michael Imperoli, Adam Goldberg, Paul Sorvino.

The late 1990’s and early 2000’s were a golden time for the mob comedy with Analyse This, Mickey Blue Eyes and The Whole Nine Yards, among others, providing lackluster laughs for the less discerning audience. Pitching in a little late for the party is 2002’s Flunkies starring Matt LeBlanc as the lead knucklehead of a trio of wannabe heavies (along with Imperoli and Goldberg) for mob boss Tony ‘Two Fish’ Mogiano. In the course of protecting Tony ‘Two Fish’ from an imagined hit by a postman the three idiots manage to accidentally off the big man themselves with a badly placed bird feeder. Hilarious peril results with everyone from the cops to the Triads battling it out for supremacy. In lieu of any actual jokes the film is meta instead with Imperoli a veteran of Goodfellas (along with Sorvino) and The Sopranos and the three guys having witless conversations about TV shows and foot massages that is supposed to nod to Tarantino’s pulp literate hitmen but instead serves to remind us how much better QT does that kind of banter.

www.imaginaryfilmguide.com

Twitter: @MadeUpFilms