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Did Albert Brooks knock it outta the park with LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD'
SPOILER ALERT !!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a look at Albert Brooks' newest, LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD. Now, when Brooks' comedies work they work so well... when they don't, they feel so empty. It looks like we're in for a good time come next January when we lowly mortals get exposed to this flick. It sounds fuckin' great from the below. Hopefully it'll be the first Albert Brooks directed flick I truly love since DEFENDING YOUR LIFE! Enjoy the review!
Hey Harry – here’s:
My two cents (i.e. a brilliant review. Seriously,
you’re going to want to hire me. Do you pay?)
Okay, so I went to a screening in Pasadena of the new
Albert Brooks film. I love this guy’s movies, but I
wasn’t crazy about The Muse (I’m with Moriarty on that
one). However here’s the truly excellent news: The
Albert Brooks I know and love is in fact back!
The title is indeed: Looking for Comedy in the Muslim
World and the premise is essentially the title. Albert
Brooks, playing himself again – brilliant! (For any of
you who haven’t seen Real Life, first, you’re lame.
Second, run, don’t walk). So he gets called up by the
powers that be, i.e. real life ex-Senator, and current
day Law & Order cast member, Fred Dalton Thompson –
who too is playing himself, to go to India and
Pakistan and find out what makes the Muslims laugh.
This is a late in the game attempt by the government
to try something other than the “usual methods of
spying and fighting” to figure out what the hell is
going on on that side of the world.
Mr. Brooks appears somewhat incredulous. He even stops
the meeting to point out that India is largely Hindu,
not Muslim. To which the one of the suits responds
that there are 150 million Muslims in India, and Fred
Thomson says, “Is that enough for ya?” Hilarious.
DANGER DANGER SPOILER AHEAD!!!
So much happens once he’s in India, but so much
doesn’t too, I mean this is really the brilliance of
the movie, but let me save that for a minute. Albert
spends the whole movie asking people what they think
is funny and never gets any real answers. It turns out
that Muslims (and Hindus) are pretty much like
Americans; their sense of humor is completely
idiosyncratic and doesn’t tell you jack shit about
what the country as a whole might consider funny. But
this doesn’t stop Mr. Brooks from trying. In a moment
of sheer audacity the Albert Brooks character decides
to go back to his standup roots and put on a concert
as a way of finding out what people think is funny. He
is so cock sure that people will think he’s hysterical
that it’s more of an intellectual exercise just to see
what exactly people will find funniest about his
material. Turns out that it’s nothing. He bombs.
Totally and utterly. (Which is an important set up for
the end of the movie). He has the balls to put himself
back up on stage and then to not get one goddamned
laugh. It’s awesome!
Meanwhile, his presence in India, and his sneaking
over the border illegally into Pakistan (the Pakistani
campfire scene is so fucking funny) get the interest
of both governments going. Pretty soon they are
watching him, then each other, sure that there is
something afoot. Albert ramps up the tension between
these two already on edge countries and when he is
eventually made to leave the country and goes back to
the US – America the Beautiful playing away as his
plane lands - he receives a celebratory party from his
wife and is totally unaware that he has started a war.
It is essentially an allegory for the way certain
governments (i.e. oh, ours) go blithely into
situations that we have no fucking grasp of,
completely screw it up then walk away patting
ourselves on the back with a feeling of a job well
done, leaving the rest of the world to clean up our
mess. It works on about 100 different levels but
really the movie’s best comedy is subtle with a sting
in its tail. You have to think about this one a little
bit folks (as you do with all Albert Brooks movies)
and thank god for that.
Faithfully yours, Margaret “dirty pillows” White.
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+ Expand All
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I want to see this soooo bad...
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We're just gonna have an entire talkback where the conservatives who get ignored by the politics blogs act indignant and racist. Sweet!
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Jul 27, 2005 4:30:21 AM CDT
is this the guy that wrote the theme for the Golden Girls?
by the ghost of marcus brody
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Jul 27, 2005 6:26:47 AM CDT
Ahoy Quint! Regis here with some Albert Brooks tidbits!
by regis travolta
Did you know that Albert's real last name is Einstein? That's right it is! And his brother is none other than Super Dave Osborne aka Dave Einstein! How about that?
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I swear Modern Romance is the funniest movie ever. Every line is gold..gold, Jerry. Super Dave is in it, as is Bruno Kirby. Albert on Quaaludes has got to be one of the funniest moments in film.
Also, try to find his two comedy albums. On one of them, you get to be his partner in a comedy routine. Hilarious. -
...or maybe the children's production of _death of a salesman_. _snl_, yes. even the imperfect _mother_ sums up the 90's tidily: "it's fancy jam time!" someone as unique as himself was bound to have a couple shots out the park up his sleeve -- i mean, is this not the greatest title in western civilization as of this talk back? go ahead on, albert! let us know if you find any. laughter, not carbombs...
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Jul 27, 2005 10:27:17 AM CDT
SHOCK! Something original comes out of H'wood?! Thanks, AB.
by buck turgidson
Can't wait.
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Anyone else remember him as the asshole ad man in "The Odd Couple" TV show who gets shown up by Felix and pushed over a chair? Also great is his role in "Taxi Driver" playing basically himself as a low level political wonk (they should put THAT character on the West Wing today!) in a role no one else could've written for him, not possible. In fact, he may have invented the "urban logorrheic" character that is so familiar to us now with that part. Brooks is an original.
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"You're all runnin' around like a bunch of WEASELS!"
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his song "Thank You For Being A Friend" peaked on the Billboard charts at 25 in 1978, many years before Golden Girls hit the air
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As has been pointed out (by me too) this sounds reminiscent of Real Life. I like Albert Brooks. I think all of his movies have been good, except for The Muse, which wasn't awful, but just didn't quite click. Mother was actually quite a good movie, except for the baffling first 20 minutes which probably should've been edited down.
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That movie is too funny and great nude scene with a hot chick.
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Brash over-confidence is only an effective selling point if you're actually a good writer.
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i was also at the screening last night.
i have 3 words for this movie:
funny, funnier, funnyest!
we couldn't stop laughing.
loved the movie. great to see a master in comedy improving with age.
i don't want to give anything away, but, albert i hope that you get your medal. -
I saw that movie on cable the other day and thought what is Albert doing in this crap. He had never sold himself out before. But now I get it, he had to fund this movie, which I bet was hard to convince a studio to put any money up for. Albert Brooks is so awsome. Lost in America is so great, I love when he is the crossing guard and he starts smelling the guys car. And in Real Life when the black guy says to him, I've never met someone so terrified of black people then goes "ooga booga" and Brooks jumps. I wish I could get some of his SNL skits or his comedy albums.
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first thing is first, there should be no movies about muslisms because they are subhuman anyways. extremely subhuman.
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Jul 28, 2005 11:41:26 AM CDT
Malcolm, what's actually subhuman is pathetic whiny troll cu
by cameron1
Fuck off you cowardly, shit for brains, turd.
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suck it long and suck it hard you huge faggot.
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You come on a fucking movie tb and start shooting your mouth off in a desperate plea for attention. Well looky here you got some you dumbass motherfucker you should be grovelling at my feet that I responded to ya. You biggoted arrgant son of a cunt.
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Is it a popular saying in the Islamic community? i.e. Mohammed was always calling Akbar 'the suicide bomber of love.' That was his muslism for Akbar, who was quite popular with the christian women around Hoboken, when their husbands were overseas fighting the war against terrorislism.
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Now that is a funny comment Weedy.
Albert Brooks is one fucking funny bastard, I'm looking forward to this. I saw that movie where he dies and has to review his life, that's actually pretty funny. What was it called? -
thanks for the lesson u queer, who do you think you are gary stringer
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Aww you little fucking cry baby, someone wont stand for your biggoted bullshit so you call them queer. Hahaha. Your such a boring clich
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Fucking inbred jerk. See, clich
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Give it a rest girls.
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