Michael Gallagher
The Silhouette
“Laughter is the best medicine.” This phrase is more than just a common saying, as an increasing amount of evidence shows that a good sense of humour strengthens your immune system and reduces stress. When you find a movie that gets you laughing, it is often just what you needed to forget your problems.
One of the quickest ways to get a laugh is watching a great comedy film. When it comes to comedy, everyone’s different. Some prefer the over the top antics of comedians like Jim Carrey, while others appreciate the unbearable awkwardness of Michael Cera, or the witty sarcasm of Bill Murray. Regardless of who is your favourite, viewers know what to expect when their favourite stars appear on the screen, and are ready to not take them too seriously.
Unfortunately, it is not just the viewers that don’t take comedians seriously, but the acting and filmmaking community as well. The best example of this is the lack of Oscar nominations and awards given to those involved in a comedy.
Despite how laughter positively affects one’s health, the Academy rarely recognizes its importance. In fact, the last comedy to win Best Picture was arguably Woody Allen’s Annie Hall in 1977. Is that really the only comedy that can compare to the many dramas that have won over the last 35 years?
Similarly, few comedic actors have received even a nomination for an Oscar, let alone win one.
It seems the only way to do so is when a comedic actor attempts to enter the world of drama, hoping to finally gain recognition for their talents, something that is frequently met with its own negative stigma and complications.
Consider Bill Murray, someone who despite considerable success in films like Ghostbusters and Caddyshack, was only nominated for his performance in Lost in Translation. Or think about Robin Williams, who hilariously portrayed an irresponsible husband looking to win back respect by dressing as a British nanny in Mrs. Doubtfire. Why did he only receive attention for Good Will Hunting or Dead Poets Society? Even Jim Carrey, who achieved commercial success in Dumb and Dumber or Ace Ventura: Pet Detective seems to only get respect for his work in The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Don’t get me wrong, well-crafted dramas are great, but aren’t movies that leave you with a smile on your face just as important? Are we truly living in a culture where the only respectable piece of art is something that leaves you emotional? Why is it that there are so many more dramatic actors than comedic ones?
The time for handing out an Oscar for a comedy is long overdue. It is time to recognize just how difficult it is to make a person laugh, and how truly talented some of these performers actually are.
Jason Scherer
The career in comedy of Manolis Zontanos, a Hamilton native who is now a veteran in the business, began as a child when he rented Eddie Murphy’s Delirious against his parent’s wishes, and would turn it off whenever they came downstairs.
As Manolis grew into adulthood, his love for comedy flourished but he hadn’t developed the confidence to go on stage. Manolis decided to go for it when none other than Russell Peters approached him and told him he would make a great comic.
Inspired and confident about his new career choice, Manolis told his girlfriend that he wanted to do stand-up comedy. She responded with, “do you really think you’re that funny?” But he was confident. Manolis took Peters’ words to heart and made a decision. Long-time friend Jason Rouse booked Manolis for his first show. “It was good that he put my feet to the fire,” Manolis explained. “The only way to learn comedy was to get out and do it.”
From his own Comedy Network special to performances in front of Gene Simmons, Manolis’ rise from Hamilton into the comedy scene was a combination of luck and talent. “I remember being 19 and thinking, ‘I got this,’” he said. “I remember being 24 and thinking, ‘I don’t know anything,’ but eventually I realized it doesn’t matter, and you’re just up there to have fun and win the crowd.”
To aspiring comedians at McMaster, Manolis said to step up to the microphone and try out your set. Soon enough, the scene will pick you up.
Manolis stressed the value of having supportive friends. “Sometimes you can have a bad set. The Hamilton crowd is tough and if they aren’t amused they simply won’t laugh. Your friends are sometimes the only thing holding you up.” Manolis added that supporting other comics is importance, because you share your victories and ride out the hard times together.
But in the end, he said, upcoming comics need to give the audience what they’ve paid for. “I’ve worked all my life, I know how hard people work for their money, and I’m going to do my best to make them laugh.”
Simon Marsello
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
Directed by: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Kal Penn, John Cho
Harold and Kumar should have quit while they were ahead.
The original Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, while not quite worthy of the “classic” stamp, was a downright hilarious tale of two stoner-buddies’ epic journey to mini-hamburger heaven, while Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the second installment, was markedly less inspired but still good for a few cheap laughs.
Unfortunately, our culture continues to demand third helpings of every marginal film franchise in existence, so movie-goers worldwide must endure mind-numbing drivel to the tune of A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.
The title says it all. Forcing the cultural hot button of the 3D-movie onto a B-comedy insults the innovation of the former and piles a layer of superfluous cheese on the latter. A new Harold & Kumar movie might have been a welcome addition to the fall film lineup, but prematurely jamming it into the Christmas-movie mould adds “unseasonal” to H&K 3’s heap of dubious accolades. Needless to say, my expectations entering the theatre weren’t too high, though the possibility of a pleasant surprise still lingered. No such luck.
The premise is simple: a few years after the events of the previous film, the movie finds Harold Lee a successful, married businessman, desperate for the approval of his father-in-law, and Kumar Patel still a shiftless idler whose marijuana consumption shows no signs of slowing down. A mysterious package reunites the separated duo, and when Kumar unwittingly torches Harold’s father-in-law’s perfect Christmas tree, the old friends are forced to work together to procure a new one, which, for notorious stoner-slackers Harold and Kumar, proves no easy task.
Laughs, which should abound along such plotlines, were few and far between. Lowlights include a small typecast role for Amir Blumenfeld, who is nearly impossible to separate from his character on CollegeHumor’s Jake and Amir, numerous shameless meta-references, an unnecessary claymation segment, and a short-lived tangent in which Santa Claus takes a shotgun bullet to the face.
As expected, the film’s saving grace was the Harold and Kumar universe’s fictionalized version of Neil Patrick Harris, who reprises his role from the first two films and delivers an outrageous Christmas-themed musical number as only NPH can.
If your inner adolescent tells you that the Harold & Kumar 3 box must be ticked off on your to-see list, treat its viewing as a shout-out to the Ghost of Comedy Past and nothing more, and you won’t be disappointed. Expect comedic gold, and you will. As NPH bows out of his refreshingly funny segment, he takes a hammer to the next wall in proclaiming, “See you in the fourth one!”
One can only hope the franchise cuts its losses before then, allowing its fans to remember a glorious time when sophomoric penis-and-boob jokes still made us laugh.
Jack and Jill
Starring: Adam Sandler
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
1 out of 5
Sean Hardy
I went to see Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill this week. Sadly, I must conclude that it fell somewhat short of my expectations.
Take a moment to make sure you fully understand what I mean when I say this, because I’m being completely serious. If after careful consideration you still don’t follow me, take a gander at Jack and Jill’s current Metacritic rating, as I did for curiosity’s sake. Seriously, take a look. Last I checked, it was a 24/100. That’s what I was expecting, and do you know what? It was worse than that. I didn’t bloody get it, and I want my money back. But it’s not coming back. It belongs to Adam Sandler now.
Given that you’ve read at least one disparaging film review since Your Highness flailed its way into theatres not so long ago, I’ll try to spare you the usual fire-and-brimstone treatment and provide only the essentials. First, the extent of the damage: Jack and Jill is so bad that it actually made me physically anxious.
I wish I were kidding, but I’m not. I’m almost surprised I didn’t break out in hives, so emotionally battered was I in the wake of Hurricane Sandler and his painfully limited repertoire of silly voices and lifeless, uninspired gags.
If nothing else, though, we can at least say that the man is consistent; arm him with a shitty premise (the ol’ twin-brother-and-sister-played-by-the-same-actor shtick, in this case), you know he’ll do everything in his power to ensure that the result is an equally shitty movie experience. Bravo, sir. Bravo.
Given the totality of its awfulness, at times the details as to why Jack and Jill misses the mark so completely seem to bleed together into one sprawling, intricate mosaic of suck. It’s what I imagine a great work of art would be like if any of the great artists had lived in a trailer park and painted with Cheez Whiz and children’s tears.
Still, some of the most problematic elements are so blatant that they can’t help but jump out at you: the plot is razor-thin, the acting is virtually nonexistent, the funniest character by a generous margin is someone’s pet bird and most of the situational gags are uncomfortable and nothing more.
As if this weren’t bad enough, what’s left when these essential components have been stripped away is little more than a hastily thrown-together assemblage of product placements, bizarre cameos (Al Pacino plays the sex-offender version of himself for some weird reason), overtly racist humour and scenes that often begin or end without any real context. “Why is Adam Sandler driving a Jet Ski around a swimming pool?” you might, for instance, find yourself asking.
The answer to this and a multitude of other, similar questions is that we simply don’t know. Indeed, we may never know; in more ways than one, how the Sandler and Co. creation could even have been conceived or put in motion is a complete enigma.
In the end, what we are ultimately left with is a version of comedy gone awry. Too crude to be considered a children’s movie and too painfully unfunny to appeal to adults, Jack and Jill is left to occupy a lonely middle ground indeed. Pass.
