This is a pretty neat little movie. It stars Albert Brooks as himself, who embarks on a fictional project headed by the US Government to figure out what makes the muslims laugh. If anything, it is a social satire on the [ignorant] perception of muslim culture in the Western world. Or perhaps, the scriptwriter truly was unaware of the stereotypes s/he was writing up. Either way, this movie is funny.
It’s hard to categorize the humour here. Yes, the movie is funny – but at the same time it felt somewhat schizophrenic. In the beginning of the film, the laughs consist of situational comedies: funny situations that one encounters in every day life. Plausible and witty. The latter half of the film, however, has a completely different approach. Its as if it was a different scriptwriter that took care of that last portion of the movie. The comedy is less intelligent, along the lines of slapstick. It works, but it was kind of sad to see the intelligence of the humour dwindle as the movie progressed.
The quick ending especially surprised me. Somehow they go from being in the middle of an unfolding story to a complete conclusion in 3 minutes. A rushed ending? Who knows. There are also bits which were menial (Al Jazeera.) Was it necessary to remind the audience that this plot was supposed to be mildly realistic? In any case, this is a movie that is definitively worth the rental.
This is one film I wanted to see in theatres. Unfortunately, it never made it to the cinemas over here in Ottawa, Canada. I’m sure something along the lines of “Brainless Action Flick #42423” took its place.
PS. Having done standup, I can also appreciate with Brooks when he encounters a dead audience.
Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans. Storms pummelled New York, and my original flight got grounded. I quickly managed to rebook for a new flight, and a few hours later I was on my way to Montreal. This new flight was from Ottawa –> Montreal –> New York City. Well, I got to Montreal just fine, but my Montreal to NY flight got cancelled due to the storms again. I now found myself in somewhat of a pickle: I was stranded somewhere near Montreal (I didn’t know where), the next flight wasn’t until Saturday, and I had no place to stay for the night. Well, I called up Air Canada, got on a waiting list for a fully booked flight at 6:45AM, and walked to the nearest hotel I could find.
ones I had wanted to attend, and many others were cancelled.) I was able to do my talk along with Jason Scott, which went well. Well, relatively well. In the time that I did speak, I managed to blabber the utmost stupidest things. I try not to think about it.
The other thing that made the conference great was New York itself. On Saturday night, I toured around with Cypress, a BinRev member, along with his family. We checked out bits of New York that were somewhat off the beaten path (woot!) Sunday night, I was able to get in touch with a good family friend that moved over there. Both he and I went out for some NY-style cheesecake (delicious.) Fabulous. Then on Monday, during my final hours in NY, I was able to get on a Grayline bus tour and visit around town. I got to see Times Square. I got to be on Broadway street. I got to see a bit of a Late Show segment. I ate a NY hotdog. Absolutely phenomenal.
