Category Archives: Comedy

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

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Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy            4 ½ stars

It’s 2025 and Bridget Jones, the confused and lovesick English woman is back for a fourth installment of the series that audiences love. It was back in 2001 when we first met Bridget starring Renee Zellweger in the title role, when she was trying to manage relationships with two different men: Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). Now in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, only available by streaming, Bridget finds herself single with two children after husband Mark died four years earlier. Bridget, the widow, has gotten back into TV production work and is successful and has surrounded herself with supportive friends. Some of them are encouraging her to get back on the market, as she should not be alone at this point in her life. Her charming and bumbling behavior is still there as she is constantly second guessing her own decisions (such as hiring a new nanny who looks like he could be a fashion model). Then she meets Roxster (Leo Woodall), a young man of 29 who is some sort of tree trimmer, under very amusing circumstances. Bridget decides to pursue the relationship, claiming she is 35 when it is obvious to all that she is over 50. She meets him for a date that immediately leads to sex, (of course) with all the amusing scenes and sexual references that are familiar to audiences of the earlier movies. The comedy necessarily sets a more serious tone than the previous editions since this is a woman dealing with the grief of losing a husband as well as being a single mother. So, there is a lot of emotion on display including an appearance by Daniel due to a scary health issue, who we have not seen since 2004. Nevertheless, there are still plenty genuine rom-com moments such as when Bridget has to be rescued from trying to climb a tree by the tree man. The movie manages to keep its comedic energy that we remember from the previous films while reminding us that Bridget is moving on and learning to deal with the things that life throws at her. Be sure to stick around through the credits as a few film clips from the earlier Bridget Jones movies are shown, including that memorable fight between Mark and Daniel.

Death of a Unicorn

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Death of a Unicorn          3 stars

Death of a Unicorn by first time director Alex Scharfman combines two genres of movies that I really like to see: the skewering of the rich and the comedy horror creature feature. So, if you think you might enjoy seeing some greedy ultra-rich bastards get what they deserve thanks to a murderous monster, this one could be for you. As is the case with most monster horror movies, there are some bad choices made by the characters that lead to unfortunate results for them. It features a few well-known stars and despite some unconvincing special effects, it is entertaining to watch. We meet lawyer Elliot (Paul Rudd of Ant-Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Knocked Up) and his teenage daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega of Wednesday) who are on their way to meet with his client, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant of Salt Burn) at their isolated mansion in the mountains, so that he can get him to sign a new contract. (Remember one of my first rules from the movies: If a billionaire invites you to their isolated mansion/compound, DO NOT accept!) Leopold and his family are major players in the Pharma industry and even have a live in security force and access to some top pharmaceutical researchers. On the drive to the mansion Elliot collides with an animal on the road that looks like a young horse like creature with a long horn on its forehead, injuring the animal. Not wanting to get caught by local authorities, Elliott bashes its head with a tire iron, spraying the animal’s blood all over poor Ridley and loads the dead animal into the back of the car. Later, during the meeting with Leopold (who is dying of cancer), his privileged wife (Tea Leoni of Tower Heist and Fun with Dick and Jane) and screw up son (Will Poulter of Midsommar and The Revenant) the unicorn in the car is discovered since it’s not really dead, so it is killed again. The group is fascinated by the fact that Ridley’s acne has cleared up after coming in contact with the creature’s blood. Naturally, the thing to do is to have the creature’s blood analyzed by Leopold’s scientists. They soon discover that it has mysterious healing powers so Leopold volunteers to consume some of the samples (as you do) and of course, his cancer is instantly cured! So, the greedy family must find a way to capitalize on this amazing discovery and make a ton of money. Ridley does some online research of her own and discovers some dangerous aspects of the legend of unicorns dating from the Middle Ages and tries to warn Leopold and family, but they aren’t willing to listen, since that would interfere with their plans to make more money. Things go predictably bad when Mama and Papa, two very large unicorns come looking for junior and aren’t at all pleased that these humans have killed him. What follows is a prolonged killing spree as the creatures hunt down their prey in quite violent and bloody fashion. Of course, most of the characters make one bad decision after another resulting in their being skewered and ripped apart by the pair of hooved parents. The animals are even smart enough to cut communication and power to the mansion. The writing for these ultra-rich idiots wasn’t the most convincing and the special effects creating the unicorns had a cheesy look to it. Better movies attacking the ultra-rich would be The Glass Onion and The Triangle of Sadness. For more entertaining comedy monster movies look for Werewolves Within, Shadow in the Cloud, The Dead Don’t Die and of course, the ever-popular Cocaine Bear. The movie is far from perfect but does provide a fun time for comedy horror fans. We will have to wait for a later attempt at combining attacks on the ultra-rich with a killer monster for something even better.

Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

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Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths       3 stars

This film by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu, with its long title is a very ambitious project in scope as well as being quite long at 159 minutes. It has some basis on his own life, which is a departure from his earlier award-winning films including Birdman and The Revenant. The main character, named Silverio (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is a renowned activist and filmmaker of documentaries from Mexico, who is about to accept an award in Los Angeles for his latest film. He has a troubled relationship with his family including his wife, grown daughter and teenage son. And he is haunted by the loss of an infant son years earlier, who in the film didn’t want to be born, preferring to stay in the womb. Yes, you read that right! Much of the film deviates from reality, taking on a surrealistic tone such as when Mexican soldiers from The Mexican War appear pretending to be fighting, a commuter train suddenly flooding with water or with Silverio meeting Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortéz on top of a hill of human flesh. It’s all meant to show how Silverio is wracked with guilt. His time is split between two worlds, that of America where he is praised for his films and that of Mexico where he is from. Silverio both loves the beauty of Mexico and its people and hates it for its poverty and corruption. There are some people, including some of his own family, that despise him for this duality of his life. The film has some very artistic merits to it and has some masterfully done cinematography, especially when the camera does extremely long continuous takes gradually transitioning location and mood. The movie is grand in scale and Iñárritu has a lot to say, but it is probably a bit much for most audiences to take in. By the end of it I felt exhausted.

Never Goin’ Back

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Never Goin’ Back                              3 ½ stars

Much in the vein of Superbad and Bridesmaids, Never Goin’ Back brings us Angela and Jessie, two teenage girls who are living on their own glide through various bizarre hijinks in their small world in a Texas town. The two girls are without parents and are best friends who work as waitresses in a local restaurant. Angela has a plan to spend a week at the beach to celebrate Jessie’s seventeenth birthday and has spent the rent money on a hotel room. Thus, the girls must scheme to come up with the rent money while dealing with drug dealers, a few days in jail and getting high on some “cookies”. While often vulgar and crude, the movie has a very comedic core made genuine by the talents of the stars, Maia Mitchell and Camilla Morrone who portray the girls as strong women who would die for each other. The movie is loosely based on the memories of writer/director Augustine Frizzell who apparently spent her teenage years in endless mischief with her best friend in a small Texas town. If you can stomach the bathroom humor, projectile vomit and frequent drug use you may want to give Never Goin’ Back a look.

Onward

Onward                                4 stars

Last year’s addition to the Pixar library of films, Onward, takes us to a new fantasy world, one where magic has given way to use of technology and comfort. The creatures that inhabit this world are less skillful and out of shape versions of their ancestors that lived long ago. Director Dan Scanlon who also co-wrote, gives us a story of two elf brothers who lost their father at a young age and still miss him. Through unusual circumstances Ian and Barley have the chance to bring him back for one day through the use of magic spells, but first must go on a quest for an enchanted stone. Barley, who is into role playing magic games sees it as a great adventure that he is prepared for, but Ian, who is only 16, is more nervous about the whole proposition. Together they face the challenges and comical situations as they solve riddles and flee from the cops on their great quest. (They are accompanied by the lower half of the reincarnated dad who can only be restored upon completion of the quest.) The movie has much in common with other Pixar productions like Toy Story including the messages of human relationships and how we rely on one another. It doesn’t quite measure up to the standards set by the best Pixar creations, but is worth seeing for the younger audiences. Scanlon (who also directed Monsters University) took the idea from his own life experiences as he and his older brother lost their father when they were very young. Onward is nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award.

Mickey 17

Mickey 17            4 stars

Six years ago, Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho brought us his award-winning movie, Parasite, a social satire about the haves vs. the have nots. Before that there was Snowpiercer, about a futuristic train traveling the world where the passengers were divided up based on social status. In Mickey 17, Ho’s brand of dark comedy and social commentary extends to outer space and alien worlds. Early on we meet Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson, an actor more known for his good looks than for comedic performances) who has just fallen down an icy crevice on an alien planet where he is sure to die. Mickey then proceeds to narrate his backstory to us in his whiney poor schlub of a voice. In this future reality, Mickey and his friend, Timo (Steven Yeun) owed money to some nasty mobsters who aren’t friendly with those who can’t pay their bills. Their best chance out was to sign up for an interstellar journey on a spaceship on a mission to colonize a distant ice planet called Niflheim. Only poor Mickey unwittingly also signed up to become an Expendable. It seems that in this time, human printing has been realized. It’s a way to reprint a person’s body after they have died and then restore their consciousness which has been stored in a bricklike hard drive. Thus, an expendable can be sent on dangerous lethal missions where they are certain to die and then be “reprinted” so the cycle can be repeated. So, Mickey is routinely exposed to radiation, deadly viruses and the like so that researchers can study the effects on humans, have his body disposed of, then reassembled from organic waste on the ship. Our Mickey is number 17, so he has already died 16 times, and is often asked “what’s it like to die?”. Now, this colonization mission isn’t being done by any government. It is headed by Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a narcissistic politician who acts like the leader of a cult and demands total loyalty but has lost his last two elections. (Sound like anyone you know?) Marshall is not above killing someone to make a point. His wife is Yifa (Toni Collette) who is as self-absorbed as they come. The practice of human printing has been outlawed on Earth, but Marshall was only too glad to use it as part of his mad scheme in space. Returning to Mickey, his story takes a turn when after falling into the crevice he meets up with the local alien lifeform on the ice planet, a sort of giant bug species who may be intelligent. Upon returning to the ship, he is shocked to find there is another Mickey, this one is number 18, who has been reprinted based on the assumption that 17 has died. Only this version of Mickey is a sociopath, lacking in empathy, as opposed to 17’s quiet and pathetic demeanor. Thus, we get to see two roles played by Robert Pattinson, a challenge for any actor. Pattinson makes them both look believable. Tensions rise dramatically through the rest of the movie as a showdown occurs between the psychopathic cult leader and the aliens in a high stakes game risking total annihilation, with our two Mickey’s caught in the middle. Mickey 17 may or may not be a commentary on the current state of affairs, but it is something of a showcase for the two versions of Pattinson. Plus it presents some interesting ideas from Bong Joon Ho.

Tyrel

Tyrel                      3 ½ stars

Tyrel, by director Sebastian Silva can be called a subtle horror movie with a racial twinge. It doesn’t have the sci-fi mind bending elements of Get Out, but is none the less full of racially related moments of tension. Tyler (Jason Mitchell of Mudbound), a young black man has taken up his friend John’s (Christopher Abbott) offer to join him for a guy’s weekend in update New York since Tyler’s girlfriend has taken over his own apartment for the time being. Tyler is surprised to learn that he is the only black person among the eight or so young men at the isolated house in the woods where there is to be an alcohol fueled weekend of reckless games and other foolishness. Upon meeting, one of the white guests mispronounces Tyler’s name as Tyrel, but we are not sure if the act was intentional leaving us to wonder what is to come. The evening proceeds with a silly game where each person takes a turn imitating a voice of different ethnicities with Tyler being asked to imitate a black New Orleans woman. This is awkward to say the least. Although nothing overtly racist is said to our black guest, we are made to feel uncomfortable as many of the remarks said could be called insensitive. I was wondering throughout the film (less than one and a half hours) just how bad things would get for Tyler. He has to constantly stay on the defensive and be careful about how he reacts to various indiscretions such as when one drunk member decides that he should burn a religious painting because it would be funny. Fortunately, it did not descend into full horror, but things are bad enough that we feel for him and hope that he will emerge from a dangerous situation unscathed. The movie is set in the days immediately following the Donald Trump inauguration. (Any movie that involves destroying an effigy of Trump adds a half star to the rating.) Jason Mitchell plays his role well making us believe the fear that he is experiencing. I hope to see more of him in future movies.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl             5 stars

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl by the British team of Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham continues the tale of these two close buddies in the second feature film of the series. There are many short films featuring these lovable characters though that are masterful in their use of stop motion animation. This time inventor Wallace has fallen on hard times as he can’t pay his bills, though he keeps on inventing gadgets that help him with his morning routine. He has come up with something new in the form of a robot that looks like a gnome called “Norbot”. Norbot is fully automatic and is programmed to do the chores around the house, something not very welcome to Gromit, Wallace’s canine friend, who sees Norbot’s work in the garden as an intrusion, not something helpful. The constant happy look on Norbot’s robot face is also disquieting. Soon Wallace starts a business renting out Norbot to neighbors doing their yardwork. There is another disturbing character in this story and that is the master criminal Feathers McGraw, the penguin who was sent away to prison long ago thanks to Wallace & Gromit. So, when McGraw finds out what Wallace has done with his gnome robot, he comes up with his own very inventive plan to get revenge on the pair. He is able to access Norbot’s programming via the internet and change its setting from Good to Evil. Norbot then sets about creating duplicates of himself to form an army of robot gnomes that are themselves programmed to create havoc in the neighborhood. The resulting crime wave gets the attention of the bumbling chief inspector Albert Mackintosh and his sidekick PC Mukherjee who trace the troublesome gnomes back to Wallace, just as the evil Feathers McGraw has intended. Of course, this leaves the solving of the crimes up to the faithful, but silent Gromit who must identify McGraw as the real criminal and find a way to stop him. Poor Wallace just can’t imagine that Norbot, his creation, could do anything wrong. There is plenty of action and comedy in this animated tale, that has more than a few references to the James Bond and Mission: Impossible movies that adults will enjoy. McGraw’s manner and master plans will remind you of the supervillains in these movies. Besides being fun and cute, the movie raises questions about the place of automation in our society and whether it is preferred to have that human touch of doing things ourselves. The movie is a short 79 minutes making it very easy to go through it in one sitting. Of course, there are certain things that will appeal more to British audiences, but it’s fun for everyone else too. Wallace & Gromit was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award, which is well deserved.

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon                              4 ½ stars

That most mischievous animal on the farm, Shaun the Sheep is back for another full length animated picture, but this time around he is battling wits with a new visitor, the kind that arrives from outer space. The production company Aardman Animation has made this new stop motion animation movie using the lengthy process of photographing the clay figures one frame at a time, with wonderfully entertaining results. Shaun is up to his usual fun playing all sorts of pranks on the Mossy Bottom farm to the chagrin of poor Bitzer, the dog who must keep order. Things change one day when the visitor from space arrives in the form of a cute little alien with special powers who seems to just want to have fun too. Thus, Shaun and the alien get along quite well whether they are sampling the candy at the local store or navigating the alien spacecraft. The farmer in the meantime gets the idea of constructing a theme park on the farm with the name “Farmageddon” to take advantage of the craze about aliens that has taken ahold of the locals, only his herd of sheep are the ones that have to build the park. As you might guess there are obvious flaws in this plan. At the same time there is a government agent who has been sent to the town to track down the sightings of a mysterious UFO. All of these events combine to form a very amusing movie that will appeal to all ages. Be sure to watch for all the references to past science fiction movies and TV shows.

One of Them Days

One of Them Days           3 ½ stars

I took a break from seeing the Oscar worthy films to take in a much talked about comedy set in South-Central Los Angeles, One of Them Days, starring two funny black women, Keke Palmer and pop star Sza. This is one of those all-in-one day comedies like Ferris Buehler’s Day Off where all sorts of crazy things happen over the course of a single day. Dreux (Palmer) and Alyssa (Sza) have been best friends since childhood and share an apartment in a complex in The Jungle. Dreux works in a restaurant and has an interview scheduled at corporate for consideration to run a franchise. Alyssa is a struggling artist. Early in the morning the landlord knocks on the door for the rent money surprising Dreux because she thought it has been paid. After some comic inquiry she discovers that Alyssa’s freeloading boyfriend has taken the rent money and spent it on t-shirts. The friends are told that if they don’t pay the rent by 6:00 that day they will be forced onto the street. Thus starts their adventure to find a way to come up with the rent money before time runs out. Plus, Dreux must make her interview a well! So we follow the pair through various spots in LA as they track down the boyfriend, and try various schemes to get the much needed money as the clock is ticking as we watch via the strategically placed graphics on the screen. The pair work well together and have good comic timing and handle all the physical comedy too. I’ve seen Keke Palmer in a wide range of movies going all the way back to Akeelah and the Bee in 2006, then Joyful Noise, Hustlers and then Alice. She always has a cheerful presence on the screen. Sza shows promise of comedic talent as well. Don’t take anything seriously in this movie. It’s strictly for laughs and the violence leans toward the slapstick variety. It is interesting to see the many places in Los Angeles and wonder what it looks like now in the wake of the recent fires.