WHAT WOULD TOTO WATCH? » Judd Apatow

‘Bridesmaids’ – Girls gone wild, Apatow style

cftoto — Fri, 13 May 2011 13:58:43 +0000

Guys shouldn’t have all the grossout fun, right?

“Bridesmaids” fuses the standard rom-com template with comedy producer Judd Apatow’s signature humor. The result is a Frankenstein’s Monster of a movie crafted from disparate parts that somehow combine to be an absolute hoot.

It’s also the best showcase yet for star Kristen Wiig, the “Saturday Night Live” star who could become the first female A-lister to graduate from the sketch comedy show.

Wiig stars as Annie, a failed entrepreneur stuck in a dead end job with a jerk of a beau (Jon Hamm). Her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudulph) just got engaged, igniting a cascade of emotions in Annie. She’s delighted for her friend, naturally, but she’s a bit jealous and concerned with how the bridal obligations will play out.

Annie sees a real threat in Helen (Rose Byrne), Lillian’s gorgeous new pal who seems eager to strip Annie’s maid of honor status away. It’s all a pretext for some serious female bonding, a grossout scene for the ages and an uncomfortable fusion of comedy genres.

“Bridesmaids” isn’t “The Hangover,” as much as the pre-release buzz suggested. It’s Wiig’s movie gussied up as an ensemble comedy, and for all the promised shenanigans we see little of the titular Bridesmaids in action – at least en masse. Wiig’s character is suitably pathetic, but when her jealous streak flares the movie wobbles. Wiig, who co-wrote the script, risks losing our sympathies in the process. Good thing the actress’ natural grace makes sure the bond between actress and audience bends but doesn’t break.

That said, it’s hard to see why Lillian would want to stay pals with Annie. The same holds true for the new man in Annie’s life, played by comic actor Chris O’Dowd. The “Gulliver’s Travels” co-star turns in a vulnerable performance that makes it hard to believe he’s smitten with a train wreck like Annie.

Melissa McCarthy anchors most of the bad girl humor as the loud and proud Megan. She may be Rubenesque, but she’s mentally healthier than any other Bridesmaid. Byrne is one seriously overlooked actress, and she can handle comedy when given the chance. But her character isn’t written well enough to matter. She’s there to prod Annie into a near-emotional breakdown, nothing more.

Wiig is firmly in control here, and there’s not a reaon on earth why she shouldn’t be the next “SNL” alum to make it big at the movies. She’s beautiful, too, clad in short-short skirts as if audiences wouldn’t otherwise embrace a female comic.

Director Paul Feig (“Freaks and Geeks”) stages the comic antics as well as any of his peers, never pulling any punches simply because it’s a bunch of gals getting gross.

“Bridesmaids” won’t go down as a comedy classic despite some super-sized laughs. It might just be the movie to introduce audiences to Wiig at long last.

(Photo: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy and Ellie Kemper stars in “Bridesmaids.” In the comedy, Wiig plays Annie, a maid of honor whose life unravels as she leads her best friend, Lillian (Rudolph), and a group of colorful bridesmaids on a wild ride down the road to matrimony. Universal Pictures)

2010 offered few laughs for film fans

cftoto — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:23:08 +0000

Judd Apatow, where are you?

2010 was such a lousy year for film comedies that “The Tourist” just picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Comedy/Musical.

“The Tourist” wasn’t even a comedy – unless you count unintentional laughs of which there were plenty. But what else could the selection committee have chosen?

Screen comedy has been on a roll for some time now, what with the Apatow Army working near-nonstop and other films racing to catch up. WWTW will stack up films like “The Hangover,” “Wedding Crashers” and “I Love You, Man” against any comedy from the late 1990s/early 2000s.

This year, “Get Him to the Greek” proved amusing but not worthy of the far superior “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” And “Due Date” with It Comedian Zach Galifianakis was more mean-spirited than riotous.

This year’s other Best Comedy/Musical Golden Globe nominees include a few other head scratchers. “The Kids Are All Right??” Terrific movie, but I don’t recall any pratfalls or verbal gags.

The best movie-related joke this year might be Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie picking up a Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical nomination for “The Tourist.” Depp seemed asleep half the time, and Jolie looked like a fashion model who stumbled in front of a movie camera.

Let’s hope 2011 brings the funny – fast.

(Photo: The 2010 comedy “Due Date” underwhelmed those expecting another laugh riot from star Zach “The Hangover” Galifianakis. Warner Bros.)

‘Funny People’ – Tears of a dying clown

cftoto — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:48:06 +0000

After two hours and 20-odd minutes of Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” it’s hard not to ask, ” … and your point is?”

Apatow, the comic maestro behind “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” injects a deadly serious note into his third comedy.

Adam Sandler plays a famous movie star who beats back a potentially fatal disease and tries to win back the girl who got away.

But the character is a tough sell, a tag that equally applies to Apatow’s latest comedy.

“Funny People” stars Sandler as George Simmons, a stand-up comic turned blockbuster star who seems to have it all, except he’s dying. Not at the box office or with the ladies. He’s doing great with those. He’s diagnosed with a fatal blood disease leaving him speechless – for a moment.

But the show, and the laughs, must go on, so he hires an unknown comedy writer named Ira (Seth Rogen) to flesh out his act.

George is understandably distraught by his condition, but his biggest fear is that he’ll never reunite with his former flame (Leslie Mann).

“Funny People” feels like a self-loathing project, a commentary on how dead the comic soul tends to be in modern Hollywood. It’s the tale of a clown making money hand over fist on the outside but weeping on the inside, intensified by a robust performance by Sandler.

So why don’t we care about George’s life and death battle, let alone his fractured love life?

The meandering story doesn’t help. The film’s first half concentrates on the George/Ira dynamic, but the rest of the movie details George’s attempt to win back Mann’s character, a lovely woman who seems to ignore the fact that she has two little girls with her current husband (a whacked out Eric Bana).

Rogen, freed from his surly “Observe and Report” role and that of the stoner action hero, is immensely appealing here as the audience’s surrogate, a fly on the wall watching how a megastar like George lives.

The film packs plenty of gut-busting lines as well as comic cameos, including a revealing scene featuring Eminem as himself, and Apatow delivers a crush of great comic lines. Yet for every truth telling moment, like George describing why his generation of comics will always outperform the new cut-ups on the block, we get ham-fisted ones which telegraph the emotions we’re meant to feel.

Much of “Funny People” feels fresh and bold, and it never takes the maudlin turn you feel from the opening sequence. But Apatow’s latest ultimately can’t decide if it’s a warm and wise dramedy or a cynical look at the modern showbiz mindset.

(Photo: Adam Sandler, Leslie Mann and Seth Rogen star in writer/director Judd Apatow’s third film behind the camera, “Funny People”, the story of a famous comedian who has a near-death experience. Photo Credit: Tracy Bennett Copyright: © 2009 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved)

Top 5 signs you’re watching a Judd Apatow comedy

cftoto — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:20:48 +0000

Love him or hate him, Judd Apatow has had a major impact on movie comedies.

Hard to think of another talent whose impact was anywhere as vital to the funny genre as Apatow, who has written and directed three films (“Funny People,” “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”) and produced plenty more over the last five years (“Pineapple Express,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” Drillbit Taylor”).

But if he was a poker player his tells would be obvious even to a neophyte.

So here are five clear signs you’ve bought a ticket for a film Apatow has had a hand in.

The Man Child Cometh: Most of the males in an Apatow movie reached their emotional peak in the 10th grade, leaving them partial to sugar cereals, message T-shirts and sloppy housekeeping – to say the least.
The Mann Effect: Actress Leslie Mann, aka Mrs. Apatow, has a role in the movie. Hardly a bad thing. The beautiful Mann is a sharp comic actress.
It’s All About the Penis: Apatow’s films are obsessed with male genitalia. Obsessed. Let your inner shrink do the psychological math here.
Gay-apalooza: A go-to gag in many Apatow films is heavy “gay” references. Take the famous running gag in “Virgin” – “You know how I know you’re gay …” In “Funny People, Adam Sandler repeatedly uses the word “Fag” in a derogatory manner.
Readers’ choice: What Apatow tic have you noticed in his films?

Three great films out of the gate?

cftoto — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:32:28 +0000

If “Funny People” comes anywhere close to matching the greatness of either “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” or “Knocked Up,” writer/director Judd Apatow has pulled off a pretty neat trick.

How many directors can say their first three films were insta-classics?

Some of today’s most notable directors took a circuitous route to fame and fortune, while others hit the ground running with their first three features.

Martin Scorsese is a modern-day genius to many, but he didn’t score his first major film – 1973’s “Mean Streets” – until he shot seven previous movies.

Wes Anderson’s first film, the overrated “Bottle Rocket,” paved the way for “Rushmore” and “The Royal Tenenbaums.” Anderson hasn’t been the same since, but what a nice way to kick off a career.

Steven Spielberg gave us “The Sugarland Express,” “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” after laboring for years on television projects.

The Coen Brothers win the triple crown, delivering “Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona” and “Miller’s Crossing,” in the earliest days of their career.

WWTW isn’t necessarily comparing Apatow to the aforementioned directors, who work in far more prestigious genres. But if you’re gonna make film comedies for a living, it’s hard to imagine a better one-two punch than “Virgin” and “Knocked Up.”

(Photo: Adam Sandler plays a comic superstar diagnosed with a fatal illness in “Funny People”/Universal Pictures)

Not so ‘Funny People’

cftoto — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:08:34 +0000

I‘d wait in line, “Star Wars” prequel style, for only one director’s movies.

Judd Apatow.

Sure, he produces barrels full of features these days from the mediocre (“Drillbit Taylor”) to the sublime (“Superbad”).

But please name a one-two comedy punch better than Apatow’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up.”

It’s why the just-released trailer for “Funny People” left me flustered.

First, it commits the movie trailer cardinal sin — it gives away the whole story arc.

Secondly, it’s just not funny. Not Apatow funny, at least.

I’ve never hopped aboard the Adam Sandler bandwagon. His best films either pair him with Drew Barrymore or edgy directors looking to tap his popular zeitgeist (“Punch Drunk Love”).

And it’s hard to forgive him for “Eight Crazy Nights.”

But judging by this trailer, Apatow hasn’t drawn a new kind of funny from his leading man.

“Funny People” hits theaters July 31. Until then, I’ll wait for a better trailer to restore my faith.

‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ – Stuffed with DVD extras

cftoto — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:27:34 +0000

The scenes from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” which didn’t make the final cut certainly deserved their fate.

It’s one of the lessons gleaned from the extras-laden DVD package of the hit spring comedy.

“Marshall,” the best of the recent films from the Judd Apatow assembly line, actually improves on second viewing.

The supporting players register better, and you can marvel anew at both Russell Brand’s take on the addled rock archetype as well as Jason Segel’s terrific lead performance.

As for the extras, well it’s a case of sifting through the clutter to find the gold.

The deleted scenes feel as if they were stripped away from another, inferior comedy. Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) is an unsympathetic love interest in the theatrical version, but watching her rant and rave while astride a runaway in one deleted scene reduces her to a pure villain. Glad the scene got left behind.

Far better is a featurette on Brand himself. His role was originally conceived as a British intellectual, but Brand’s screen tests forced Segel and co. to completely re-imagine the character. That’s the kind of juicy info we want in our DVD extras.

The bonus material also include snippets of the lead characters’ audition reels as well as a faux children’s TV segment featuring Aldous Snow (Brand) extolling the virtues of the letter “U.” Good stuff.

(Photo: Kristen Bell and Russell Brand make life miserable for our hero, Peter (Jason Segel) in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”)

‘Run Fat Boy Run’ – Pegg’s dash for leading-man status

Let the Groupthink begin

cftoto — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:49:37 +0000

Critics are an easy target – you can start your rant by saying, “why don’t you create something instead of mocking what’s out there?”

An unfair assault, but a common one all the same.

Here’s a critique that hits closer to the truth. Critics tend to think too much alike. It’s the reason why every new Bob Dylan album gets rave reviews even though his voice currently sounds like he was shot, stuffed and brought back to life by Dr. Frankenstein. Acoustic albums are always better than the plugged-in versions, and even the worst Woody Allen movie will find a steady stream of defenders.

I fear the same is happening with “Pineapple Express,” the new Judd Apatow produced comedy starring Seth Rogen. The early reviews are mostly glowing – it’s like what I expected to write about the film before I actually saw it. But the finished product deserves a spanking, not a victory lap.

So what gives? Why are supposedly sophisticated movie critics tripping over each other to praise the “Pineapple?”

Two forces are at play. One – it’s a highly buzzed about Apatow project, and everyone expects it to be a late summer smash. And two – critics aren’t the coolest cats in the room. I should know – I’ve got the Dungeons & Dragons battle scars to prove it. But trashing a cutting edge stoner comedy would leave them feeling like the old guy who tells his neighbors to keep that darn music down.

Admitting the film just isn’t funny leaves them open to ridicule. It may not be a conscious decision to grade “Pineapple Express” on a curve, but I suspect it’s there all the same.

How else can you explain such a massive misfire drawing critical love?

(Photo: Seth Rogen and James Franco hide out from a vicious killer in the stoner comedy “Pineapple Express”)