(no subject)

[deckardcanine]

I was thinking of choosing my favorite movies of the last decade by genre, so as to avoid (to a point) comparing films too terribly disparate. But I quickly ran into a stumbling block: selecting a favorite comedy. I haven't seen many outright comedies from the Aughts, and the ones I have seen didn't excite me.

Truth be told, my biggest laughs tended to come from movies you probably wouldn't find in the comedy section of the video store. I suspect that this connects to my growing liking for Web comics that aren't pure comedy. They have the advantage of being unpredictable in terms of when they try to be funny, and they don't feel that a cheap joke is better than an extended lull in the humor.

But the same isn't as true of comedy films in other decades. I have to wonder: Were comedies in the last decade less likely to amuse me, or did I just not see the right ones for fear of more dreck? It's a safe bet that I wouldn't think highly of Wedding Crashers, but they weren't all like that. Maybe I just have to wait and see what apparently stands the test of time.

Incidentally, today I read this good article against snarking what we haven't seen. I plead guilty to watching very little TV, hearing very little music, and assuming that there was practically nothing in either medium in the last decade that I'd like. I shouldn't be a fogy at my age.

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

I'll be 40 soon, so I get to be crotchety in a few days.

My main complaint with the "don't knock it 'til you've tried it" philosophy is that you end up with a lot of very bad experiences and contribute a lot of your money to people who don't deserve it, just for the sake of saying that you actually saw it and are now morally justified in critiquing it. There's enough suffering in the world without making room in my life for bad or unpleasant movies.

As for comedies of the last decade, they seemed to largely take a turn into crude territory that I consider juvenile or stupid rather than funny. Most of them lacked sophistication, style, and cleverness. Like you, I found a lot of good comedy buried inside dramas and other genres of film, sometimes a small dose of laughs works better than a full-court press.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

My main complaint with the "don't knock it 'til you've tried it" philosophy is that you end up with a lot of very bad experiences and contribute a lot of your money to people who don't deserve it, just for the sake of saying that you actually saw it and are now morally justified in critiquing it.

The third option is to avoid what you don't think you'll like and then not speak against it.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

Then when someone says "Hey, this Republican-bashing movie is the greatest movie ever!" I either have to shell out money to Michael Moore or shut up and let the Democrats have free reign, sigh....

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Hating the message is a special case, because you could find out all you need to know indirectly.

[thatcatgirl.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the article yet (heh), but I would consider it an exception if you've seen the ads and those alone made you want to head for the hills. In that case, you *have* seen *part* of the movie, and, you're entitled to snark about the part you know about. (this can be a little skakey with some trailers being deceptively cut, but for the most part, I would think it enough).

Living in the past

[akktri.livejournal.com]

My dad says I live in the past and listen to old people's music. But I have my limits.
The jokes they used to have on radio programs are really corny. The censorship rules back then were too tight, so there was lame crap like Fibber McGee and Molly (and boy was that a racist program!...Guess we didn't have racism back then!) Groucho was considered the bad boy of comedy back then, but Groucho's movies were really corny, too. Too much of the comedy from the golden age of radio you can find in the back of Boy's Life these days. Not sure if the jokes got old, or if they weren't funny to begin with.
I am blissfully ignorant of Bakugan, the Kardassian television program, and several other things people are raving about these days. I sell Kardassian clothes, but aside from that, I have no clue why they're popular or what's so great about them.