Tag Archives: Paul Feig

2011 Films, Comedy, Favorite Film of the Year, Romantic Comedy, Top 250 Films

Bridesmaids-2011

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Bridesmaids-2011

Director Paul Feig

Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph

Top 250 Films #216

Scott’s Review #784

Reviewed July 6, 2018

Grade: A

Despite the raunchy romantic comedy genre not being my favorite, and despite not being such a fan of Judd Apatow (famed producer of several of these types of films), Bridesmaids (2011) is easily the best of its kind.

Influential in a multitude of female empowerment-themed comedies that followed, this one is witty, genuine, and funny because of its star, Kristen Wiig, who also co-wrote the film.

It is one of the best comedies (if not the best) of the decade.

Apatow is known mainly for producing comedy films that mix in the standard potty humor for cheap laughs. He is responsible for This Is 40 (2012) and Trainwreck (2015), both of which I found moderately funny, but they are also needlessly gross-out and tired.

My point is that minus the talents of Wiig (both in front of and behind the camera), Bridesmaids would likely have been mediocre like these films. Instead, Bridesmaids is a wonderful, uproarious experience with a star who captures a moment.

My one gnawing gripe is that a woman shouldn’t direct a film about women.

Annie (Wiig) has been asked to serve as the maid of honor at her best friend, Lillian’s (Maya Rudolph), upcoming wedding. Rather than being thrilled, Annie is depressed due to an ongoing string of bad luck.

Her bakery business fails, she loses her unfulfilling job at a jewelry store, she is dating a jerk (Jon Hamm), and her car is about to die. She has difficult roommates and is on the verge of having to move back in with her mother at age thirty-five.

The story hilariously follows Annie’s rivalry with Helen (Rose Byrne), Lillian’s soon-to-be husband’s boss’s controlling wife. Helen is intent on taking over the handling of the wedding events, much to Annie’s chagrin.

The ladies compete to one-up each other throughout the film- Rose is the perfect princess for Annie’s grit and cynicism.

Annie struggles through her issues, unhappy with the state of her love life, when she meets police officer, Rhodes (Chris O’Dowd), and they begin a tender friendship. However, their attraction is put to the test because of Annie’s shenanigans.

Annie must then fly to Las Vegas with the other bridesmaids despite being terrified of flying.

Despite the story being nothing not seen dozens of times before in romantic comedy history (the setups), the film is a laugh-out-loud riot. In addition to Wiig, Rudolph, and Byrne, the remaining cast of ladies all have tremendous chemistry with each other.

Special kudos go to Melissa McCarthy in her fearless role of Megan, a tomboy misfit who somehow is part of the wedding party. With her “tell it like it is” attitude, the actress sinks her teeth into this fabulous role without taking it too far across the line into ridiculousness.

In rip-roaring fashion, multiple scenes are permanently etched in my mind.

After Annie suggests a Brazilian steak restaurant for lunch, followed by a fitting at a chic dress shop, the girls suffer from food poisoning. This results in torrents of diarrhea scenes and one unlucky character being reduced to going to the bathroom in the middle of the street.

The scene, while super raunchy, is hilarious and fraught with perfect comic timing.

Not to be outdone, the airplane scene is equally tremendous; however, the scene belongs to Wiig rather than the entire ensemble. Being forced to fly coach while everyone else is treated to first-class, Annie unwisely accepts a pill from Helen to calm her during the flight.

Instead, Annie becomes belligerent and wild when she mixes the sedative with alcohol.

As good as the supporting cast is, Wiig owns the film through and through. Every scene she is in and each line she utters is perfectly timed. The fact that Wiig did some improvisation (the scene in the jewelry store) is evident and only adds to the genuine feel of the film.

Subsequently, to Wiig’s credit, she has been careful to choose more complicated roles to avoid the risk of being typecast. And a sequel was wisely never made- this would have ruined the appeal.

Bridesmaids (2011) is an authentic story rich with hilarity and crisp dialogue. The film is enhanced in that it’s a female-centered film written by women (though the direction and producers, too, would have been better).

Because of the tremendous cast led by Wiig, the film is blazing with humor and led a firestorm of similar “girl power” films (mostly bad) well into the decade.

Oscar Nominations: Best Supporting Actress-Melissa McCarthy, Best Original Screenplay

1994 Films, Comedy

Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult-1994

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Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult-1994

Director Peter Segal

Starring Leslie Nielsen

Scott’s Review #1,104

Reviewed January 26, 2021

Grade: B-

Despite being the third and final installment in the popular Naked Gun (1988-1994) franchise, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) is my favorite of the trio, despite having a silly title.

The title of “33 1/3” is a reference to the resolutions per minute of an LP playing on a phonograph, a point that has nothing to do with the actual film.

It was also inexplicably decided to omit the “The” from the title, leaving “Naked Gun” instead of “The Naked Gun.”

Why is anyone’s guess? Nor does it matter.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a great film, but it’s better than the other two, which is shocking in a spoof/screwball comedy going for the standard gags.

But, as dumb as the film is, it’s also kind of fun and lightweight.

It’s like a needed chuckle that requires little thought after a rough day at the office.

A familiar formula is followed, and this time the events culminate at the glorious Hollywood Oscar celebration, the apple in the eye of all Los Angeles, undoubtedly the main reason this effort is marginally enjoyable.

For unfamiliar viewers, the Naked Gun films are a combination of Airplane! (1980-1982) and the over-exhausted Police Academy (1984-1994) franchises.

The films were out of gas by 1994.

The franchise is based on the short-lived television series Police Squad! (1982), a procedural comedy about bumbling police personnel and the situations they get themselves into to showcase their ineptness.

The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult was O.J. Simpson’s final role before he was damned for all eternity for his presumed role in the murder of his wife and her friend in a ritzy area of California.

Leslie Nielsen returns as Frank Drebin, retired and living with his wife Jane (Priscilla Presley).

Bored with life, they experience marital problems and seek counseling. Six months after Frank’s retirement, he is visited by Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Officer Nordberg (Simpson), who ask for Frank’s help with an investigation.

Police Squad has caught wind that mischievous bomber Rocco Dillon (Fred Ward), who is currently incarcerated, has been hired by terrorists to conduct a major bombing against the United States.

As Frank tries to keep Jane from discovering that he is dabbling in detective work again, he jokes that he is having an affair to throw her off the scent.

When she begins to suspect he is having an affair, it leads to a silly series of misunderstandings and gags, which, as is always the case in films like this, are naturally wrapped up.

Nielsen is the main draw, and he does what he does best and what makes him the king of spoof films. A serious actor before Airplane!, he became a typecast but had lots of successes ahead of him.

He embraces his role, which adds freshness. He doesn’t take himself so seriously that audiences can sit back and relax and enjoy the entertainment.

The lavish awards ceremony and the ingenious idea of planting the bomb within the coveted Best Picture Oscar-sealed envelope are delicious, especially when the bomb is set to detonate when the card is pulled from the envelope, and the winner is crowned.

This creates a good sense of suspense as the award show moves toward the big finale.

George Kennedy has little to do, but it’s the inclusion of stars like Vanna White, Weird Al Yankovic, and Pia Zadora that add zest to the production.

Director Peter Segal, famous for lightweight comedies with heart, is wise to keep the running time at a quick one hour and twenty-two minutes. If longer, any momentum the film musters would have disintegrated.

This was his feature-length directorial debut.

The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) may be the best of the trio, but that says little, given it’s based on funnier, fresher endeavors.

I champion the early Police Academy films for a needed dose of police incompetence and hilarity done up in a fun way. If one must watch a Naked Gun film and is partial to the Academy Awards, this one is begrudgingly suggested.

2015 Films, Comedy

Spy-2015

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Spy-2015

Director Paul Feig

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham

Scott’s Review #386

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Reviewed March 20, 2016

Grade: C+

Spy is a 2015 comedy spy spoof starring funny lady Melissa McCarthy as a loser desk CIA analyst suddenly thrown into the field and assigned to rescue a missing agent with whom she is also in love.

Carrying the film in every way, McCarthy is funny and adds to an otherwise formulaic, by-numbers, comedy.

As, admittedly, the “action-comedy” genre is not my favorite, I have seen much worse than Spy, and the premise is quite nice, but the second half of the film sinks into the ridiculous and is very loud and overly long.

McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a frumpy forty-year-old woman with a decent job as a CIA analyst (she tracks the field agents’ cameras and warns them of impending peril), an important job, but is deemed dispensable and a loser by the higher-ups at her job, with more important duties.

She is single, overweight, and lonely, pining after her sophisticated partner Bradley Fine (Jude Law), a field agent and stylish James Bond-type.  After a mishap with Bradley thought dead, Susan goes undercover in France, Rome, and Budapest to solve the case since she will be unnoticed.

Spy is a film with a star that completely carries the film.  Being a big fan of McCarthy’s and enjoying her performance in whatever she appears in (comedy or drama), this film needs her charisma and comic timing.

Spy contains a few laugh-out-loud moments, especially when McCarthy is forced to take on the persona of one loser after another- a divorcee with multiple cats and a wardrobe to cringe over-throw in a 1980s perm and got a great SNL-type moment.

The film itself reminds me of a long SNL skit. When McCarthy delivers her one-liners they connect and amuse.

An apparent homage to spy films and James Bond films, Spy seems closer to an Austin Powers film as it goes for more silliness, but not quite as over the top.

Still, the European locales offered added elements of Bond films pleasantly. McCarthy as an apparent female James Bond is also cute.

A noticeable negative is the unnecessary two-hour running time. With a genre of this nature, a ninety to one-hundred-minute running time is all that is necessary, and any more than that the jokes wane, become redundant, and usually go into the ridiculous.

Another problem with Spy is the supporting characters. A well-known cast including Rose Byrne, Allison Janney, Jason Statham,  and Bobby Cannavale, each of these actors are cast in cartoon-like, one-note roles.

Cannavale and Byrne are the villains (Sergio and Rayna) in the plot and they play their roles in a one-dimensional way,  as evil as possible, but perhaps also over-acting the parts.

This could be the fault of the director or simply what is accepted in the genre that this is. Janney-  as the tough-as-nails CIA director and Statham as the dumb, temperamental, field agent also overplay their roles.

Why are all of these characters loud, unpleasant, insulting, or all of the above? The answer is it might allow better comedy to have caricatures instead of characters, but that is a debate for another time.

On the other hand, Miranda Hart as McCarthy’s sidekick Nancy, a very tall, awkward woman, and Susan’s best friend is great and shares equally in the comic success that McCarthy brings.

Their chemistry is evident and a recommended second pairing would be worth exploring. Unlike the other characters, I felt myself rooting for her and wished her a love interest, though the 50 Cent’s romantic introduction was strange.

The plot is more or less trivial and unimportant in a film like this. Rationally speaking, almost everything that transpires would never happen in real life, but alas, this is the movie, so one must suspend disbelief big time.

Spy is escapist fare to the max.

A hot mess if not for the wit and comic timing that McCarthy brings, Spy (2015) has an interesting premise but doesn’t deliver anything more than the silly formula that has existed for decades in the film comedy world.

I finished the film with mixed emotions.