Dumbest Comedies

Ridiculous compared to MEET THE PARENTS and MEET THE FOCKERS. I expected this to be pretty dumb, like MEET THE FOCKERS was, but I did not expect it to be this stunningly terrible. Needless to say, LITTLE FOCKERS is by far the dumbest and crudest of the three, though slightly humorous. Please--don't make any more!

I would like to dedicate this slap in the face to everyone who works for deciding the Golden Raspberry Awards. Come on, now. They have the nerve to nominate Stanley Kubrick for Worst Director for his fabulous work on THE SHINING, but they can't give VEGAS VACATION one single nomination? I'm left to assume, then, that every Golden Raspberry-er was too smart to go out and see this.

VEGAS VACATION has a plot that is hinted at by the title, in near fullness. Of course, it's inevitable that there are going to be two new actors for Audrey and Rusty, but who knew that neither of them would look like any of the previous actors? And the girl looks like she's from a foreign, Asian country!

Aside from the unbelief of VEGAS VACATION, it's not funny, either. It tries, but it fails, because the farthest it can go with humor is a joke made by Rusty about wanting to meet prostitutes in Las Vegas (that's not how he acted in the first three films); a wordplay scene using "dam" as a double entendre for "damn"; and a scene in which Clark disastrously turns much of his body blue (and it stays that way for quite a while).

Seriously. If you need to keep all the raunch in from the other three films to make this funny, do it! Lowering it down to a PG rating will do nothing but make it unfunny--and National Lampoon doesn't produce family films to begin with, do they? I guess that's why this is the only "Vacation" film thus far (and hopefully for good) not to be sponsored by the organization.

There's a fine line between dumb enough to make a hilarious movie, and so ridiculously dumb that it's hard to even let out a nervous laugh here and there. Though the original DUMB AND DUMBER was a good example of a former, this prequel is the perfect example of the latter. DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD is more of an homage to DUMB AND DUMBER than anything. The form of "dumbness" isn't even similar to the original, there is no similar plot, and it looks like two truly-smart teenagers imitating the believable stupidity of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. All in all? This isn't worth watching. For fans of the original DUMB AND DUMBER, you'll begin to miss the real Jim Carrey because of the awful impersonations you'll find here.

I'd like to give the directors for this a hard, facial bitchslap. Why? MEET THE SPARTANS wasn't just any old terrible movie. It was an unbelievably failed attempt to mash SCARY MOVIE with the Battle of Thermopylae. I have not even seen 300, the film which this parodies, but even an idiot can tell that this was a terrible spoof. I'll admit some parts are funny, such as the opening scene in which the not-so-politically-correct take on the Spartan sacrificing of imperfect babies is shown (actually, that could just be the only part that draws even a chuckle); but much of the rest is just a bunch of gross, dumb tries to make a parody as funny as one of its predecessors in spoofing, such as SCARY MOVIE and NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE. Bottom line: I regret meeting the Spartans.

Adam Sandler wastes his talent in GROWN UPS, a rarely-funny, overly-crude comedy. I can agree that I like the overall message about getting kids outside, but it's just like putting that message in and mixing it with the foul message of objectifying woman. The rest of the ensemble comedy cast doesn't perform any better than Sandler does himself: there's Kevin James and Chris Rock to add on. Kevin James' humor didn't surprise me all that much: he rarely gets a laugh out my lungs, anyhow. Chris Rock's only good work is EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS, which he created; this movie was just like his own stand-up comedy: dull and mostly pointless. I wouldn't recommend watching GROWN UPS. It should be called "The Worst of Adam Sandler".

Adam Sandler is one funny guy. It's the plot he struggles with in his films. Early on in his career, he was cast into such terrible plots. More recently, he has become subject to casting himself into mostly pointless films. YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN clearly depicts these inconsistencies by telling a funny, but overly superficial and flawed, farce of a story of an Israeli man who fakes his own death in order to get to his dream: becoming a hairstylist. (?)

Since this is a comedy that tells of a person of a different nationality than American, one would immediately think that most of the jokes would come from prejudice and racism. But, no! This is just like any other Sandler comedy: filled with vulgar, raunchy humor.

YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN marks the fourth Adam Sandler/Dennis Dugan (lead actor/director) collaboration; succeeding HAPPY GILMORE, BIG DADDY, and I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY; and preceding GROWN UPS and JUST GO WITH IT. Having seen GROWN UPS and JUST GO WITH IT, it's notable that the two make a good team, but they would be even better if they just went separate ways.

Like most comedies, the acting should be the last thing to worry about with this film. However, there is clear and present dumbness. Nick Swardson, who, if you have seen JUST GO WITH IT, you know as the "Sheepy-R" guy, and if you have seen BUCKY LARSON, you know that that was his first starring role, portrays Michael. Plain and simple: he is the worst of all the not-so-great cast members. There's one acting skill to applaud for, though: Sandler's ability to take on his personal interpretation of an Israeli accent. It's funny, witty, and even produces a good double entendre or two.

Unless you are looking for a film that the Middle East could have mistakenly titled, "The Worst of Adam Sandler" (umm, oopsch?), don't go out searching for YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN. It was a waste of time. 'Nuff said.

Funny, but not that much.

I didn't expect all that much of ALONG CAME POLLY--it's a rom-com, and those just aren't my thing. There were quite a few solid parts to it, but overall, it was an unrealistic, often-disgusting, ever-so-slightly original love story. Although Jennifer Aniston, who delivers some well-done acting, stars as the title role (Polly Prince), this is really more of a Ben Stiller comedy (well, I should just say FILM--does he really do anything but comedies?) Ben Stiller, sadly, just didn't have the time to perfect his role, as he was also spending much of 2004 working on two other successful comedies (DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY and MEET THE FOCKERS). It's clear, watching this one, that ALONG CAME POLLY was his last priority for a film to actually make beyond the average level.

MEET THE FOCKERS, despite the titular double entendre, really isn't the funniest film--the Stiller/De Niro rivalry is continually ridiculous, but unfortunately not ridiculously funny like in MEET THE PARENTS; however, as a sequel, it most certainly is not pointless (see 2010's LITTLE FOCKERS if you want a pointless threequel). To add to our all-star cast, this time around we have actor Dustin Hoffman and singer Barbara Streisand as Bernie and Roz Focker, respectively; while we still keep Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, and Owen Wilson--tell me I didn't forget anybody.

A lot of Adam Sandler's comedies seem to be given bad reviews, and I can see that for some of his newer stuff, especially his two newest films, JUST GO WITH IT and GROWN UPS. On the other hand, there is no reason to give such poor feedback to BILLY MADISON. I'm not saying that because it's one of his earlier films, and that makes his acting and humor better--really, it doesn't. But to tell you the truth, this movie really isn't all that terrible. It tells the hysterically funny story of a man (the title character himself, played by none other than Adam Sandler) whose father, a millionaire, needs somebody to take over as CEO of his hotel chain. When Billy, the original person to inherit the job, wrecks the formal dinner, his millionaire father decides to hand his career over to somebody else. At this, Billy becomes frustrated, so he decides that he will, within one year total, repeat grades one through twelve to prove that he's NOT an idiot as he made himself look. So it's a predictable film--honestly, ask yourself: would it really be a spoiler if I told you that throughout the movie Billy ends up making a fool of himself, and his maturity level never, ever raises?--but as for predictable, isn't every Sandler movie? So far, this is the funniest Adam Sandler picture I have seen. It is truly his definitive work.

This is truly Jim Carrey's masterpiece. It's not the film itself that is dumb; it's just the two main characters. In fact, if there was an Academy Award for Best Comedic Actor, Carrey would have won in 1994 because of DUMB AND DUMBER. If you see the prequel, DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD, don't expect that to be anything like this. The original, from beginning to end, is abundant with original humor and many laughs.