OSS 117: Grade C

C
OSS 117 (2008)
Jean Dujardin, Bernice Bejo. Director Michel Hazanavicius. (French, subtitled)

I appreciate French culture and I can see how this movie would be hilarious to a French audience, but for me, it was a not-so-funny spoof of 1950’s spy movies, as made by Hitchcock, for example, starring Cary Grant. It has the suave, debonair, Bond-like spy (Dujardin) who drives an exotic sports car while fake scenery flows past. Seated beside him is the exotic woman in a silk head scarf (Bejo). He is a French secret agent sent to Cairo to find out who stole a big arms shipment. His cover is to run a poultry company because, as we know, chickens are universally funny. What probably tickles the French audience is the spy’s Clouseau-like clumsiness and incompetence, and especially his social and cultural faux-pas. He evaluates a Muslim religious practice with the comment, “Hmm. What a strange religion. It will never last.” He beats up a muezzin for making a racket at dawn when he is trying to sleep, thinking the poor fellow is just a local rowdy. Toward the end, the movie abandons sophisticated cultural humor and goes for a bizarre showdown with a Nazi organization holed up under a pyramid. The film is a competent spoof, playfully acted and moderately funny, but I think it works better if you are French.

Superhero Movie: Grade B

B
Superhero Movie (2008)
Drake Bell, Sarah Paxton, with Leslie Nielsen and Tracy Morgan. Writer & Director Craig Mazin.

This spoof of the superhero movies has tons of laughs, most of them broad and obvious. The opening sequence, in which the young protagonist Bell gets banged on the head and knocked down three times in quick succession, fairly sets the tone. Still, if you like slapstick, and I do, you have to admit that these stunts were done perfectly.

Bell is bitten by a radioactive dragonfly and acquires super powers. The Spider Man references are played to the hilt, but there are also good spoofs of Batman, Superman, some of the X-men, and even Mission Impossible and that scene in The Firm, where Tom Cruise hides on the ceiling, dripping sweat as Gene Hackman hunts him just below. Of course, in puerile form, it’s not sweat but another bodily fluid in this parody. My favorite joke was the dragonfly explaining what he was doing on a rooftop. “Why I’m just perching here on this gargoyle, gazing meaningfully out over the city,” he answers, as if that were the standard and customary behavior of a superhero, which it was, for Batman and Spider Man at least. This film is not as funny as The Naked Gun or Scary Movie, but good writing makes it just a cut above average.

Smiley Face: Grade C

C
Smiley Face (2007)
Anna Faris, John Krasinski. Director Greg Araki

In this fluffy stoner comedy Faris eats a plate of “electric” cupcakes by mistake and is completely stoned when the movie opens. She remains stoned for the whole rest of the day. Never mind that marijuana dosage is not additive like that or that it would be pretty hard to stay high for a full day on any single dose. It’s a “I am so high” joke and you have to accept that premise.

Her agent reminds her of a big audition, which she will have to do stoned, and her pot dealer (who pontificates on Reagonomics) warns her to be at Venice beach by 3pm to pay the money she owes, “or else.” The audition is hilarious. While trying to bum a ride to Venice, she runs into Krasinski (“Jim” from The Office), who gets her involved in some adventures ranging from a trip to the dentist to acquiring a rare manuscript copy of the Communist Manifesto. There are some subtle political jokes there. But I enjoyed the parody of the Scary Movie series, (which was already a parody). Faris starred in those movies and here she makes good fun of herself, if you are alert to what’s going on. Instead of monsters and chain-saw killers, the “horrors” are the sounds of the dentist’s office and its wood-paneled waiting room, squalid offices, the Marxist professor’s suburban wife, a ride on a city bus, and so on. It's funny satire, helped a lot by Faris’ Scary-Movie-like mug shots and physical acting. The stoner jokes involve well-worn references to memory loss, munchies, present momentism, lack of motivation, and so on. There are a few funny lines, but most of it is pretty lame. Still, Faris’ self-parody keeps the ball rolling even though the story is ultimately pointless. There is no character or relationship development. Krasinski seems utterly lost.

In the Land of Milk and Money: Grade B

B
In the Land of Milk and Money (2004)

Christopher Coulson, Kim Gillingham. Writer-director Susan Emshwiller

In this bizarre comedy a scientist (Coulson) introduces a genetic modification into cows to increase milk production, but the milk causes mothers to become psychotic killers of their children. The contamination only affects mothers and they only want to kill their own children. The situations that develop are hilarious, as sweet, stereotype moms quietly go nuts and try to kill their (mostly adult) children. Mercifully, we don’t see any violence against youngsters. The agribusiness corporation naturally covers up the scandal while the scientist works feverishly on an antidote. Meanwhile, zombie-like mothers across the country are captured and placed in concentration camps suggestive of the Japanese-American internment camps of WWII.

What is life like without any mothers? The movie echoes “A Day Without A Mexican” to show how much everyone depends on mothers, but in other respects, men prosper taking women’s places in the workforce, reminding us how it was in Germany when the Jews were whisked away, and some men are happy to be free of nagging wives. Gillingham is a pregnant news reporter who finds out the story then is desperate for the antidote before her child is born.

The sets are corny or ironic abstractions of 1950’s suburbia, right down to the furniture, costumes, colors, hairstyles, and accessories (except, oddly, the scientist drives a Miata, and the news equipment is modern). Music tends to uptempo pizzicato strings from 1950’s TV ads or drive-in movie intermezzos. The acting is remarkably good for such fluff. At first I thought this would be a wicked satire of popular concern over mad cow disease, then it seemed it would be a parody of 1950’s B-movies, or 1950’s stereotypes, then it looked to be comparing the morality of American and German WWII concentration camps, then by the first hour I knew it was only a collection of funny skits and silly bits in a dark mood. But it kept me laughing.

Hot Fuzz: Grade A

A

Hot Fuzz (2007)

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost. Co-writer and director Edgar Wright

This British send-up of cop buddy movies is literally a laugh a minute. The dialog is so witty you can hardly keep up. Excellent performances throughout, especially by Frost. The action sequences are first class and even the editing is humorous. Some of the themes from Shaun of the Dead (same star and director) are carried forward. This time it is grim-reaper-like hooded figures who do the gory (but funny) killings. Despite the dedication to laughs, there is also a serious subtext about small town social life. The set up before the hero gets to the small town where the action happens takes too long, and the multiple endings run on far too long. The DVD outtakes are a scream in themselves. A little editing would have made this an even better picture, but even so, it is worth watching more than once.