Category Archives: Slapstick

1964, British Slapstick, Comedy, Kanopy streaming, Slapstick

A Shot in the Dark (1964)

From KANOPY:

Peter Sellers returns as the hapless Inspector Clouseau in this hysterical comedy which introduces Herbert Lom as the long-suffering Dreyfus, and Burt Kwouk as Cato. Mistakenly assigned to a high-profile case, Clouseau finds himself falling for the prime suspect — a beautiful maid named Maria (Elke Sommer), whose talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time rivals Clouseau’s. But as the body count grows higher, Clouseau must find the real culprit quickly, or his career will be finit!

From Kanopy you can stream this 1 hour 42 minute old classic British comedy.

Recently, I reviewed a 2006 remake of this film called “The Pink Panther” starring Steve Martin.  In comparing the new version with the old 1964 version starring Peter Sellers,  my personal belly laugh count was a bit higher with the newer version.

Try both,  the plots of each film differ from one another.

1999, Amazon Prime, Bad Acting, Comedy, Eccentric cast of characters, Eccentric Detective, Explicit sexual discussion, Happy ending, Love Story, Male Prostitute for Women, Mostly About Sex, Nudity, Outrageous Behavior, Sex Scenes, Slapstick, Somewhat ridiculous plot, Tourette's Syndrome, Trash, Vulgar

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)

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From IMDB:

An average aquarium cleaner house-sits for a gigolo, only to be forced to become one himself.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 28 minute comedy film.

It seems I have reached the very bottom. Rob Schneider plays the hapless aquarium cleaner in a very trashy film that offers crude language,  a large set of strange and bizarre women who will pay for our hero’s services, and some genuine belly laughs.

Our gigolo actually never has sex with his “clients”,  instead trying to make each woman happier about herself.

You must appreciate slapstick comedy to enjoy yourself.

I LOVE TRASH!

2010, Acceptable Trash, Amazon Prime, Amusing banter, Comedy, Corny at times, Crude Talk, Eccentric cast of characters, Exaggeration Comedy, Father-son relations, Love Story, Mother-son relations, Sight Gags, Slapstick

Cougar Town (2010)

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From Amazon Prime Video:

Courtney Cox stars as Jules, a recently divorced single mother exploring the truths about dating and aging. While most women in their twenties go through life experiencing the challenges and pitfalls of meeting men, Jules took on the responsibilities of marriage Now in her forties, she embarks on a journey to self-discovery surrounded by divorcees and singletons eager re-live a time gone by.

From Amazon you can stream this 6 season  comic soap opera. Seasons and number of episodes are: 1 has 24, 2 has 22, 3 has 15, 4 has 15, 5 has 13, 6 has 13 making a total of 102 trashy and funny episodes. Each of the 102 episodes lasts about 22 minutes.

“Acceptable trash” is probably the most accurate characterization of this binge festival.  Making it the last video I watched in the day just put me in a good mood. Humor style remains constant but there is enough clever repartee to keep the fun going.  Almost all the characters are around for the entire collection except for Bobby Cobb who leaves  at the beginning of season 6.  Eight constant characters are the main actors:

  • Courteney Cox plays Jules Cobb, the lead female character.
  • Christa Miller plays Ellie Torres, the cynical people-hater.
  • Busy Philipps plays Laurie Keller, the slut-proud dumb blond.
  • Dan Byrd plays Travis Cobb, son of Jules and Bobby.
  • Josh Hopkins plays Grayson Ellis,  Jules’ new neighbor boy friend.
  • Ian Gomez plays Andy Torres, Ellie’s husband.
  • Brian Van Holt plays Bobby Cobb, Jules’ divorced husband.
  • Bob Clendenin plays Tom, the misfit surgeon neighbor.

Courteney Cox might be familiar to you as Monica from “Friends.”

When I had seen all 102 short , funny,  trashy, and sometimes corny episodes I felt bereft.  Enjoy the nonsense!

 

2020, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Amazon Prime, Barely Acceptable Trash, Bloody scenes, Comedy, Could Be Hard To Watch, Crude Talk, Embarrassing episodes, Farce, Father-daughter relations, Grungy, Kazakh, Kazakhstan, Male Chauvinism, Nudity, Outrageous Behavior, Political Satire, Remarkable Costumes, Satire, Sight Gags, Slapstick, Vulgar

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

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From IMDB:

Follow-up film to the 2006 comedy centering on the real-life adventures of a fictional Kazakh television journalist named Borat.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 35 minute complete film.  Spoken language is  Kazakh (which is a Turkic language), the official language of Kazakhstan, and English. Part of the fun of the film is that the Kazakh is translated into English subtitles written in ungrammatical garbled phrases.  Just listening to Borat murdering the English language is a hoot.

Basically this at times wildly funny satire is aimed at Donald Trump and his band of merry Trump Thugs.  Secondarily the goal is also to make fun of Kazakhstan.  Supposedly the plot is this: Borat must present his daughter to Donald Trump as a gift to avoid being executed in Kazakhstan in an “excruciatingly painful manner.”

Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) paints Kazakhstan as a backward collection of shabby villages in which women, including his daughter,  are kept in cages with absolutely no rights. Throughout the film he and his daughter quote the Kazakhstan bible which instructs how to (mis)treat women.

In the past there was a TV program called “Candid Camera” in which unsuspecting participants were secretly filmed while being placed in awkward situations. Each Borat episode follows exactly that model. In most cases the episode features an individual or group of people who are Trump supporters. These victims are conned into revealing their appalling ignorance and conspiracy acceptance.

WARNING: “Embarrassing, vulgar, disgusting, crude” are a few adjectives that must be applied to some episodes.  How on earth did this film get past the decency censors?  Make no mistake, I am no prude. But there have to be limits on what is shown in public. You are warned.

Ignoring the crass downside,  you have some truly funny belly laughs in store.

2012, Acceptable for teenagers, Acceptable Trash, British Comedy, Comedy, Dysfunctional Lives, Eccentric cast of characters, Exaggeration Comedy, Lot's of Fun, Mayhem, Netflix Streaming, Often downright silly, Outrageous Behavior, Sight Gags, Slapstick, Sometimes seems silly, Vulgar

Cuckoo (2012)

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From IMDB:

Cuckoo is every parent’s worst nightmare – a slacker full of outlandish, New Age ideas.

From Netflix you can stream 5 seasons of this outlandish British TV series. Each season consists of 6 or 7 episodes, each episode lasting about a half hour.

Talk about fun trash! Remember that British humor is a bit more bawdy, over the top, and uses slapstick more than American humor. At times the humor may seem a bit puerile.

In each season some newcomer invades the home of Ken and Lorna Thompson and their two children Dylan and Rachel. In season 1 the invader is Rachel’s surprise new hippie husband Cuckoo (yes, that is his name). In seasons 2,3 and 4 Cuckoo’s naive son Dale replaces Cuckoo. In season 5 Ken’s long lost sister Ivy Mittelfart takes over.

Probably the best comedian in the cast is Kenneth Collard who plays the very eccentric Steve.  Steve is the wacko who claims to be Ken’s best friend and who in fact drives Ken nuts.

Ivy is played (embarrassingly) by Andie MacDowell.  Not once do I claim that the acting is especially good.  But what trashy fun!

I LOVE TRASH!

2015, Acceptable for teenagers, Adultery, Amazon Prime, Antique Cars, Australian, B-movie, Bad Acting, Based on a Book, Bullying, Comedy, Corny, Cross Dressing, Eccentric cast of characters, Haute Couture, Love Story, Marital Infidelity, Mediocre, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Outrageous Behavior, Quirky, Revenge, Sad small town, School Teacher, Senior citizens, Slapstick, Small Town, Sports, Unmarried mother, Unusual

The Dressmaker (2015)

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From IMDB:

A glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 2 hour film.

Revenge is the keyword in this Australian comedy-drama. Wikepedia offers you more than you probably want to know about this film. Equally important is the ever present theme of haute couture.   It stars Kate Winslet as a femme fatale in the titular role of the dressmaker, Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage, who returns to a small Australian town to take care of her ailing, mentally unstable mother, played by Judy Davis.  Along the way we encounter a love affair, false accusations of murder, and (did we forget to mention ?) revenge.

Sometimes the acting is over the top if not downright corny. But the visual fun of the film is the outrageous cast of  characters: the policeman is a cross-dresser, Judy Davis is a positive wreck, several women are timid and unattractive until Tilly takes charge. Three quarters through the story we think we see a happy ending … but then suddenly — (you will just have to watch the film!)

Even though I would give the film a B+,  I enjoyed every minute. Visually the oddities and clothing transformations are fun to watch and the story for all its faults is engrossing.

2003, Acorn TV, Adultery, British, Comedy, Failing Marriage, Farce, Murder Investigation, Slapstick

Alibi (2003)

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From IMDB:

“Alibi” is a thriller with a bit of romance and touches of black humour along the way. Greg is discovered with the dead body of his wife’s lover by Marcey, a public servant moonlighting as a waitress at a party thrown by Greg for he and his wife’s wedding anniversary. Marcey sets about ‘organising’ th e slightly neurotic Greg in his attempts to cover up the ‘accident’.

From Acorn TV (Offerings limited to entire British Empire) you can stream this funny series of just three episodes, each episode lasting one hour.

Michael Kitchen plays Greg.  You may recall him as Christopher Foyle in the TV series “Foyle’s War”.  Greg is a slightly befuddled entrepreneur caught up in an unsuspected affair.

Sophie Okonedo played Tatiana Rusesabagina in “Hotel Rwanda”. Here she plays a supremely inventive liar who attempts to help Greg out of his trap. Her facial expressions are remarkable.

Phyllis Logan played the head housekeeper Mrs. Hughes in “Downton Abbey”. Here she is Greg’s scheming wife.

British humor is often slapstick. Nonetheless, just relax and enjoy the fun.

 

 

2005, Comedy, Corny at times, Feel Good Not For Children, Flirting, Love Story, Sight Gags, Slapstick

Hitch (2005)

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From NetFlix:

Smooth and sexy Hitch helps clueless clients make a great first impression with their dates so they can get to the second date. But when a lovely gossip reporter starts nosing around his business, Hitch has to figure out a whole new strategy to love.

Possibly slow at first, some funny sight gags get the action started, especially when Kevin James (“Paul Blart:Mall Cop”) enters the scene as the love-sick Albert.

Expect some mush, but also expect to have some fun.

2006, Acceptable Trash, B-movie, Corny at times, Crude Talk, Love Story, Nudity, Revenge, Ridiculous plot, Sex Scenes, Slapstick

My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)

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From Netflix:

Fed up with his manipulative girlfriend, Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman), New Yorker Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) gives her the heave-ho and moves on with his life, leaving the heartbroken Jenny — aka G-girl — to do everything within her superpowers to humiliate Matt. Anna Faris, Rainn Wilson and Eddie Izzard co-star in director Ivan Reitman’s slapstick fantasy comedy about a bitter superwoman scorned.

In a moment of TV Wasteland desperation, Kathy and I happened upon this comedy on one of our many HBO channels. Kathy sniffed in disdain and then joined me in laughing at some of the great sight gags. To be sure, this is a B-film which can be silly, vulgar, corny, and still funny enough to be worth the watch.

Much of the humor centers around sex (shocking, right?). Sex with a powerful super hero woman anyone ? Sex while flying in the sky anyone ? What’s not to like ?

Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson, and Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute of “The Office”) are featured in the cast.

Have some off-color fun!

2011, Acceptable for children, Catholic culture, Comedy, Could Be Sad, Italian, Satire, Slapstick

We Have A Pope (2011)

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From Netflix:

The pope has died, and the congress of cardinals has chosen his successor. But what happens if the newly elected pontiff doesn’t want the job? This comedy follows the Vatican’s travails as it strives to make one cardinal accept his destiny.

You need not be Catholic to enjoy this funny and sad romp through Rome, but it might help. Especially that is true because the film makes a bit of fun of various aspects of the Catholic church.

Basically, the newly elected pope does not want the job and he escapes in street clothes into the busy Roman life while his Secretary of State desperately searches for him hoping to convince him to remain as pope.

You might recognize the actor Nanni Moretti who directed this film. He plays the psychoanalyst which the Secretary of State hires to help the newly elected pope in his time of indecision. Needless to say, this is all tongue in cheek. At one point the psychoanalyst divides the cardinals into volleyball teams and stages a tournament. If you want to see Nanni Moretti in a wonderful film, try “The Son’s Room”. “We Have a Pope” is, on the other hand, a mere diversion which at times can be very funny.

In Italian with subtitles.