Ok, here’s how. Make a movie that:
a) utterly wastes the comedic talents of Simon Pegg, one of the funnier guys working in movies today.
b) has its main character be an utter jerk and idiot except when he suddenly needs to be warm and sensitive. Flip a coin before each scene to figure out which personality he’ll be.
c) has entire scenes revolving around a pig running through a high-class reception and an irritating dog flying out a skyscraper window. Those are two different scenes, by the way. Apparently, animals in motion are comic gold.
d) assumes chewed-up food and naked transsexuals are inherently hilarious.
e) is marketed as a comedy even though most audiences will laugh twice. Maybe three times if they’re drunk.
And that's one guaranteed way to lose friends and alienate people.
Ok, here’s how. Make a movie that ... has entire scenes revolving around a pig running through a high-class reception
Hey .... do not dis SUNRISE or HUD in your opinion.
Victor Morton — October 6th, 2008 at 1:11 amSweet reference, Vic. I didn't think of Sunrise while I was writing, though I should have. Not that this movie deserves such a cool allusion. I don't remember the pig running through a high-class reception in Hud, though. Have I mis-remembered?
J. Robert PARKS — October 6th, 2008 at 10:57 pmNo, I guess the pigs running around in HUD aren't really at a high-class reception: it was a kind-of-wrestling contest, all the town's young men chasing pigs around the corral. Which Hud wins in a kinda dirty but without exactly **cheating** way. I watched HUD last week at my personal Paul Newman Tribute festival, so it (and the SUNRISE memory it tickled) were fresh in my mind.
Victor Morton — October 7th, 2008 at 2:40 amI watched Hud for the first time a couple years ago. That movie is amazing in so many ways: Newman's wonderful anti-hero, how Patricia Neal matches him shot for shot, James Wong Howe's spectacular Cinemascope photography, the strong sense of place.
My own Newman tribute last week involved watching the Making-of doc on Butch Cassidy and then re-watching my favorite parts of that film. Note: my favorite parts do not include "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head."
I need to watch Sunrise again. That movie stands as the greatest flip-flop I've ever done on a film. The first time I saw it I didn't like it, thought it was boring. The second time I realized it was a masterpiece. I have no idea what I was thinking that first time.
J. Robert PARKS — October 7th, 2008 at 8:58 am