Comedy Weekend
This weekend just past: My Beautiful Laundrette and Hot Shots Part Deux.Okay, so My Beautiful Laundrette is probably more of a dramedy or tragicomedy than a straight (pardon the pun) comedy. But it still had some very funny moments.
Laundrette reminded me of Monsoon Wedding in its complexity and realism - although Wedding came across more realistic, this one a little more scripted-sounding. Maybe that's a misperception, simply because Wedding is in dialect while Laundrette is in English.
It had an interesting premise: a young Pakistani guy falls (back?) in love with his ex-skinhead childhood friend. I'm sure that didn't ring any bells on the cliche-meter! It's a strange idea, done very well so it seems believable.
I think that believability owed a lot to the acting, because the script left a lot of questions unanswered. How did Omar and Johnny meet originally? Were they lovers previously, or are they getting together the first time?
Ultimately, the answers to these questions don't matter. We're just seeing this slice in the lives of these two and a whole lot of others. Good film. Didn't wow me as much as Monsoon Wedding, but that probably reflects on my tastes rather than the quality of the story.
Hot Shots Part Deux was just fantastic funniness. You enjoy it so much more when you've seen lots of other movies - let's see, Casablanca, Apocalypse Now, Wall Street... oh, and of course, Rambo!
I just wonder why they don't make movies like that anymore - stories with not an ounce of seriousness about them, yet with enough plot to keep you engaged ... rapid-fire gags, so if the foreground is slowing down, just look in the background for something funny.
When you're in the right mood for some shallow laughs, Hot Shots Part Deux is fantastic. Made me feel great.
posted by Simon @ 12:13 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home