Category Archives: Comedy

Movie Review: The Naked Gun

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There have been three previous Naked Gun movies made; the last one, “Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult,” was released in 1994. These movies are supposed to be ridiculous and stupid. The problem with the latest reboot, “The Naked Gun”, starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr, is that it is too stupid, too over-the-top, and ridiculous. Towards the end of these two hours, the whole experience becomes far more annoying than it is funny. I found this experience similar to the Fast and Furious franchise, which, over time, gave us special effects and stunts that were far more idiotic than they needed to be. The concept of “less is more” makes sense for movies like these, when overkill can ruin the entire experience.

The new movie “The Naked Gun” also stars Pamela Anderson as Beth Davenport, who becomes involved after a series of stupid crimes with Drebin. Early in the movie, some of the stupid slapstick was working, but the quality of the sight gags started to degrade midway through this mostly unfunny film. The positive news is that it was good to see Liam Neeson in a major mainstream movie for the first time in many years since the last of the Taken movies was released in 2014. Neeson’s career has been mired in in and out of the theater B movies for about a decade.

This is also a major movie appearance for Pamela Andersonon, who has been experiencing a career resurgence since last year’s “The Last Showgirl” (2024). Anderson was good in her role, which consisted mostly of insane slapstick and word comedy like “take a chair”, where her character drags a chair out of the police department. A scene like this might be amusing once or twice, but throughout an entire two-hour movie, it gets old around the 3rd time.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 90% are about as insane and ridiculous as this movie, which violates the comedy movie rule of an unfunny film calling itself a comedy. This movie is not funny, and I do not recommend it, with a rating of 50%, which is generous.

Netflix Movie Review: Happy Gilmore 2

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The sequel to “Happy Gilmore” (1996), this time around, is on Netflix, called “Happy Gilmore 2”. As with the original movie, this one is also supposed to be a comedy. For a movie comedy, why lead off the story with the sight of a flying golf ball hitting Happy’s wife, Virginia, played by Julie Bowen, in the head, killing her instantly? It’s hard to understand how two screenwriters, one of them Adam Sandler, would think that the start of this movie, which includes death and huge financial loss, would be considered funny by anyone. What the hell were they thinking?

Following his wife’s death, Happy suffers extreme financial loss. He has 4 sons and a daughter, Vienna, played by Sandler’s daughter Sunny. Adding to Happy’s many problems is that Vienna has been invited to attend a Ballet company in Paris, France, that costs 75K a year. To make money, Happy has to start from the bottom of the Golf profession, playing with low-level players on a very bad golf course. The best parts of both movies have always been the insane golf shots and the visuals of long drives down the fairway, with some other moderately funny physical comedy scenes. There are several flashbacks in this story, showing scenes from the original Happy Gilmore, to remind the audience of characters and situations from 29 years ago.

Due to a new crazy version of Golf, Happy Gilmore very quickly rises to the top of the sport of Golf (only in the movies) and has a chance to make enough money to pay for his daughter’s Ballet and dig himself out of being completely broke. The ending that has many scenes of the new version of Golf falls flat and results in a very unsatisfying ending to this mostly bad and surprisingly dark, unfunny movie.

There are also cameos of many long-retired gold greats, including Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino Jack Nicklaus, Fred Couples, Nick Faldo, Corey Pavin, and John Daly, who are more of a distraction and in no way save this film.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are mostly correct 65%, with my rating only 50% and a vote to miss this unfunny, too dark comedy movie.

Movie Review: My Dead Friend Zoe

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From a search on the internet “Between 2005 and 2018, the VA estimated over 89,000 veteran suicides, including those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For anyone with PTSD, due to any traumatic experience, it is almost impossible to explain what it is like. The inability to stop the constant pictures in your mind, replaying a horrible incident or injustice, leading in too many cases to insanity or for too many war veterans, suicide. Considering the large number of war suicides of recent war veterans, it has been obvious for many years that this country has not been taking care of the mental health of its veterans.

The new movie “My Dead Friend Zoe” is about two Afghanistan war veterans, Merit, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, and Zoe, played by Natalie Morales who become very close friends. Most of this movie is about the time after the war, with Merit traveling around to visit her grandfather Dale, played by Ed Harris, and attending PTSD meetings run by a therapist Dr. Cole, played by Morgan Freeman.

Merit is always traveling with her best friend Zoe, even though she died sometime earlier as Zoe is inside Merit’s imagination during this entire story. Merit is unable to resolve the fact that Zoe has died. Throughout this story, with the use of many flashbacks, we find out what happened to Zoe and why.

The acting throughout this entire production is first-rate, as well as the story, which is about friendship, loss, war, and PTSD. The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is a very high 95%, and I agree with this rating and recommend this film.