Let's just say this wasn't the cinematic comedic conclusion I expected.
At the end of my weekend comedy experiment, the funniest movie I saw was, er, um, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
Yes, the stoner comedy. No, I was not stoned, drunk or even loopy from movie-watching yet. It did prove my theory, though: Comedies come across much funnier when viewed in a large group.
That’s a bit of a lie. I should say “comedies come across much funnier when viewed in a large group at Manhattan’s Union Square theater” because my screening the night before of Baby Mama in Bayonne, N.J., didn’t provoke the laughter I thought it would. In fact, I laughed more when I was by myself the day before while watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
That proved surprising for a number of reasons, not the least of which is my documented dislike of things Judd Apatow. (I read in last week’s Entertainment Weekly that the man has been involved in 13 projects over the past three years. Judd, take a vacation. Please.) Many reviews suggest Forgetting Sarah Marshall isn’t as strong as Knocked Up and Superbad. Still, I liked the awkwardly endearing Peter (Jason Segel, who also wrote the screenplay) and his Dracula musical, the Owen Wilson-esque Paul Rudd, and especially a rare fleshed-out Apatow female lead (Mila Kunis). The titular character remains an underdrawn cipher, but I guess I can’t have everything. Most of all, I guffawed shamelessly, even though I was one of only seven people in the theater.
While my Sarah Marshall experience blew half my theory out of the water, I figured Baby Mama would redeem the other portion. After all, I think Tina Fey is great, and I like Amy Poehler well enough. Yet I came away disappointed with the pleasant but predictable story of uptight yuppie Kate (Fey) and her “white-trash” surrogate, Angie (Poehler). Picture a 100-minute sketch between Liz Lemon and Amber, the girl with one leg (except here she has two). What’s more, people in my audience didn’t really laugh - they giggled politely in spots, their amusement escalating only with the DMX-spouting doorman (Romany Malco).
How, then, did I end up at Harold and Kumar the next afternoon? Well, I was on a date, and the documentary we’d planned to see was canceled, and Union Square was the nearest theater, and H&K was at the most convenient time, and … oh, who am I kidding? Sandra knows the truth: The trailer made me laugh like a loon. We’re led to believe in a North Korea/al-Qaeda terror cell! The official Duyba impersonator appears! Neil Patrick Harris plays himself and imagines unicorns! I seriously doubt this flick would work for me on DVD, but in a theater with 200 other hysterical 20- and 30-somethings, it’s pretty close to comedic bliss.
Segel and Harris co-star in the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother. Maybe that should be the next comedy breeding ground. When can we look forward to Let’s Go to the Mall: The Robin Sparkles Story?
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2 comments:
"How I Met Your Mother" is sooooo under-rated.
While none of the films you mentioned is one in which I have any interest, I am SO glad that you saw something not-depressing! I can breathe easier now.
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