Steve Martin is always a delight, even when the films he is in don’t work as well as they could. The Man With Two Brains seems like a bit of a hybrid between sex comedy, romance, and an homage to the B-movie horror films of yesteryear. And a couple of the things in the film…
Tag: physical comedy
Get Smart (1968) – The Return of the Ancient Mariner, With Love and Twitches, and The Laser Blazer
The marriage of Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) and 99 (Barbara Feldon) is only days away at this point, but duty constantly calls. The Return of the Ancient Mariner first aired on 9 November, 1968 and was written by Allan Burns, Chris Hayward, Arne Sultan and Leonard Stern. An enemy agent known as The Chameleon is…
Get Smart (1967) – One of Our Olives is Missing, When Good Fellows Get Together, and Dr. Yes
Siegfried (Bernie Kopell) is back in One of Our Olives is Missing. And also along for the ride this time? Carol Burnett! She plays country singer Ozark Annie in this episode written by Jess Oppenheimer (the creator of I Love Lucy), who also served as the director. First premiering on 4 November, 1967, the story…
Get Smart (1966) – Back to the Old Drawing Board, All in the Mind, and Dear Diary
Back to the Old Drawing Board introduces a fan favorite character to the series. Hymie. Played by Dick Gautier, Hymie is a humanoid robot, with super strength, a computer for a brain, and he’s bulletproof. Sure, the idea is silly, but this is Get Smart right? The episode was written by Gary Clarke under the…
Death at a Funeral (2007) – Frank Oz
Frank Oz directs this uproariously funny film that puts the ‘fun’ in funeral, and amps up the hilarity by setting it in England. There’s just something horrendously funny about things going wrong around Brits, as they try to maintain some manner of decorum, dignity and civility. Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen) is mourning the loss of his…
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) – Charles Lamont
We’re now moving into the later years of the Universal Monsters and that means they tried to revitalize it and inject some new life into the series by leaning into the addition of the comedy team Bud Abbott and Lou Costello to the series. This time out, the classic comedians are a pair of newly…
Family Ties (1989) – They Can’t Take That Away From Me: Part 1 and 2, and Rain Forests Keep Fallin’ On My Head
Marc Lawrence pens this two-parter, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, the first installment aired on 2 April, 1989. Lauren (Courtney Cox) has to go away for a conference for a few weeks, and Alex (Michael J. Fox) is teaching an economics class to complete his degree and graduate. While Jennifer (Tina Yothers) wrestles…
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021) – Patrick Hughes
Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, and Salma Hayek return to cause problems, violence and dole out colourful language in the sequel to The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. Director Patrick Hughes remains in the big chair and delivers a fast-paced sleek tale, that feels a little tighter in its storytelling, and its runtime. Michael Bryce…
Family Ties (1987) – A Tale of Two Cities: Part 1, Part 2, and Battle of the Sexes
Alex (Micheal J. Fox) is going to a banking seminar in Chicago with his boss, Rebecca (Melinda Culea) in A Tale of Two Cities: Part 1. Written by Marc Lawrence and Alan Uger, this episode was first broadcast on 5 February, 1987. The b-story follows Elsye (Meredith Baxter) thinking about redesigning the Keaton kitchen, something…
A Shot in the Dark (1964) – Blake Edwards
The second film in the Pink Panther series could be argued to be the best, it puts all the familiar players on the screen with Peter Sellers, returning as Inspector Jacques Closeau. Herbert Lom is his long-suffering boss, Dreyfus, Burt Kwok is Kato, Closeau’s manservant and sparring partner, and Hercule as played by Graham Stark….
The Mind Reels 