laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton) (08/27/83)
Recently, somebody posted an opinion that they didn't like movies where 'crime pays', and got told to go watch Disney movies. I cannot speak for him, but I can speak for me. There is a class of movies which are billed as comedies which are guaranteed to make me walk out of the theater. "Vacation" was the last movie that made me do this. i do not know whether the other movie fits into this category, since I have not seen it, but i do know that "Vacation" does. (well, the first part, anyway, i left, remember). The premise of these movies is that you take a 'regular guy' and watch him make an ass of himself and then you get to laugh at him. This in itself is not a bad thing; I thought that Arthur in the Grail was an incredible comic hero; and can find myself laughing at him when he makes at ass of himself. The problem with the movies that I walk out on is that their basic premise is that the hero has a conflict (or series of conflicts) between his own personal morals and the morals of the society in which he lives. Again, there is nothing wrong in this, since this is true of all of us. The problem is that these heroes do not attempt to resolve their conflicts. Sometimes they do not even seem to notice that the conflicts exist. I cannot bear this. This is high tragedy, not comedy, and I can not see what people are laughing about. I want to reach out and grap the poor schmuck and say -- "Look, you, right now, you are going to have to sit down and decide whether extramarital affairs are a good thing, a bad thing, or whether it depends on all the parties involved." If the hero would get his act together and make a decision and live with it, I could get on with enjoying the movie. I do not have to agree with the decision, but I do have to see that the poor schmuck has put some thought into it. You can also make a movie out of how the hero comes to his decision. I like those movies as well. What I cannot stand is the pathosless comedies where the hero staggers around, learns nothing, resolves nothing, is still the schmuck he ever was, and is viewed as an object of derision. I feel that I am sitting in a hall full of vampires and ghouls that are feeding on someone else' distress, but I realise that this is an overreaction. Nonetheless, It makes my skin crawl, and i have to get out of the theater.... "Trading Places" and "Doctor Detroit", 2 movies which are not great, demonstrate that you can have very funny movies as well as characters who actually try to figure out their conflicts and do something about it. laura creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura
milla@cca.UUCP (Michael J. Massimilla) (08/29/83)
I have a different reaction to that kind of movie. I am bored by it.
The characters are so stupid they aren't funny. A good comedy is funny
because it leads you into realistic expectations and then explodes them.
M*A*S*H is funny; Three's Company is boring. If I can't identify with
the characters, even a little bit, there's just nothing to laugh at.
An interesting side-effect of the boredom is frustration. Surely the
writer could have done a better job! The recent deluge of incredibly
poor fantasy/science-fiction movies (Space Hunter, YOR, Metalstorm,
Krull, etc.) absolutely disgusts me. If a studio is going to spend lots
of money on special effects, why can't they spend just a little on a
half-decent script? Presumably they have someone who can distinguish
real writing from garbage.
The irony is that these movies, bad as they are, make money. That means
they'll keep on making them. It's a vicious cycle because there are few
enough new movies so that people will go to see a lot of very mediocre
films. The critics have even started to judge the films on certain
relative standards ("the best 3-D movie ever made . . .") that don't
mean very much.
Maybe someday I'll get involved in the movie industry. Until then,
c'est la vie.
Mike Massimilla