They don’t make cast-packed comedies like The Cannonball Run anymore. That doesn’t mean it’s all good, but it is damned enjoyable. Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds were coming off Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper, and this road movie was a fun next step. Originally designed as an action film for Steve McQueen, when the…
Tag: gags
Deadpool 2 (2018) – David Leitch
Ryan Reynolds returns as the merc with a mouth in Deadpool 2. As funny and as engaging as the first film, this one also throws in a bit of a message, as it’s main villain is the Headmaster (Eddie Marsan) for a reform school for mutants, where they are beaten and abused to drive the…
The Addams Family (1991) – Barry Sonnenfeld
I remember enjoying The Addams Family from Barry Sonnenfeld when it came out in 1991, as it brought back memories of watching the original show on TBS in the evenings. I loved Raul Julia’s portrayal of Gomez, the family patriarch, and consequently, I figured it was time for a revisit. It’s definitely not aimed at…
UHF (1989) – Jay Levey
I discovered ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic with Eat It, and the first album of his I purchased was Dare To Be Stupid, which got played a lot. In fact, I know his song Yoda, better than the original on which it is based, Lola. In 1989, Yankovic wrote and starred in his only feature film to…
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) – Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks skewers the legend of Robin Hood with his 1993 film Robin Hood: Men in Tights. None of the versions created are safe, and Cary Elwes is perfectly cast as the iconic hero that from its opening moments takes shots at everything, nothing is safe. Using the classic tale of Robin of Locksley coming…
TIFF ’22: Weird – The Al Yankovic Story
Daniel Radcliffe dons loud aloha shirts, straps on an accordion, and brings parody artist Weird Al Yankovic to uproarious life in Weird – The Al Yankovic Story. Directed by Eric Appel, who co-wrote the film with Yankovic, the film is laugh-out-loud funny as it tells a twisted, dare to be stupid version of Yankovic’s life…
The Prisoner (1968) – The Girl Who Was Death, Once Upon a Time, and Fall Out
Number Six (Patrick McGoohan) is back to being a superspy in swinging London, as he matches wits with a deadly female assassin, Sonia (Justine Lord), who is looking to off him, and protect her slightly crazed father, Schnipps (Kenneth Griffith), who is planning on destroying London and establishing him as its new Napoleon-esque leader. All…
Hell House LLC (2015) – Stephen Cognetti
The found footage sub-genre of the horror realm can be hit or miss. You not only have to be willing to be swept up into the tale, and the reality it presents, it also has to be engaging enough to keep the viewer involved. Therefore it has to have an interesting story, and at the…
Meatballs (1979) – Ivan Reitman
With a script that involved Harold Ramis, a score by Elmer Bernstein, Ivan Reitman, his first major motion picture, directs Bill Murray in his first starring role in the Canadian-made summer classic, Meatballs. Does it all stand up? It really doesn’t. But is there a lot of fun to be had in the film, yeah…
M*A*S*H (1972) – Chief Surgeon Who?, The Moose, and Yankee Doodle Doctor
Larry Gelbart who developed M*A*S*H for television pens Chief Surgeon, Who? which first aired on 8 October, 1972. The episode features the first appearance of Jamie Farr as Cpl. Klinger, a soldier intent on being sectioned out of Korea by dressing in women’s clothing. The character became so popular he shortly became a series regular….
The Mind Reels 