Ed's Review Dot Com

New Line Cinema, Principato-Young Entertainment,

Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Tiffany Haddish, Method Man, Jason Mitchell, Luis Guzmán, Nia Long, Will Forte, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Jamar Malachi Neighbors, Benedict Cumberbatch

Rell Williams (Jordan Peele) is really sad, and his world is crashing down. His friend Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key) would like to help out, but when a little kitten arrives at his door, Rell finds new purpose in life and bounces back. But a week later the poor little kitten is stolen, and so Rell and Clarence head out to recover the cat. But it isn’t going to be easy as they have to impersonate gangsters and thugs as they deal with the drug lords and crooks that run the city to try to get their kitten back.

I must admit I was waiting a long time for this to come out on video, and I was rather disappointed when it came time to pop it in the DVD. For some reason I expected more out of this. Now, I remember these guys from the MadTV days when I watched it religiously every week. I used to Tivo SNL and watch MadTV first! (Yeah, there is a new MadTV on this season, and it just isn’t funny). I enjoyed their characters, although this movie kind of felt like a very, very long version of their “Jinx” skits where somebody does or says something bad, and the guys have to go through extreme measures to break the jinx. They were very funny, but always went on WAY too long. This is kind of the same thing. I found myself wishing this would just be over and something else funny would come on. They are finding a new audience on their new TV show, and I must admit I have never seen that one, not even once, so there may be something going on there that I just don’t get. I really think these guys are very talented comedians, but they didn’t put it to good use with these characters. They spend the whole movie switching between making extreme funny faces and faking terror or fear, and talking like tough gang members about to “pop a cap in yo’ ass”. Perhaps there is a taste for this, like what I felt for The Three Stooges back in the day, but I found this extremely silly. I realize that comedy often is made by going to the extreme, but this so far that it’s like Borat without the clever bits. I found it just dragged on and on and did not strike me as very funny at all. I am sure there is a market for these guys, and I wish them well in future endeavors, but I think this one missed by a mile. Sometimes sketch comedy doesn’t stretch out to a full feature without getting too thin.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Darko Entertainment, Principato-Young Entertainment,

Rob Corddry, Leslie Bibb, Keegan Michael Key, Riki Lindhome, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon

A couple, Jack (Rob Corddry) and Vanessa (Leslie Bibb) move into their new home. Vanessa is very pregnant, and they bought the house at a good price, but that could be because it’s reputed to be the most haunted house in all of New Orleans. The house comes with it’s own demonic curse, and soon Vanessa learns she has twins, but one is a kind and gentle child, and the other is the devil’s child. The family has to call on the elite Vatican exorcism team for all the help they can get.

There have been some great horror and suspense movie satires. I usually really enjoy spoof movies. After all my sense of humor bends hard toward sarcasm, and satire is my cup of tea! I like the Airplane movies. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is probably my favorite film. I sat through the Charlie Sheen parodies, and everything Leslie Nielsen ever made. Police Squad is a personal favorite. But this one was just plain stupid. There wasn’t anything funny about this film. Well, that’s not fair, as there were a few times when I laughed, but there’s a fine line between genius and just plain stupid. It’s like how some SNL skits become classics that endure for generations, and some other ones just make you say, “What were you thinking?”. I don’t know who approved this one, but it’s not very good. The whole thing is mostly silly, and it’s a decent idea that just was executed very badly. If you can imagine about 90 minutes of the killer rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail in his own feature film, that’s about as grabbing as this movie was. It reminds me a little of the old, old Soupy Sales show that instead of being clever and funny, was just plain tedious because he tried way too hard. (Not a Soupy Sales fan. I know you’re out there). I just didn’t think this movie was worth the effort, and I really found myself getting annoyed more and more by this. I felt the story was dumb, the acting was awful, the humor was over the top and not funny, and it wasn’t remotely scary, although they didn’t really try for that. They were too busy slap sticking it up to really have any meat n the story. I recommend you skip this one!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog