Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Movie of the Week: The Jerk


"An idiotic man struggles to make it on his own in St. Louis."IMDb

This Jerk is one of those movies that I'd always heard about, but I'd never gotten around to watching myself.  Well the other night, I'm trying to find something to watch, and my pizza is getting cold.  I'm scrolling and scrolling through on On Demand menu well I come across The Jerk.  I see the tagline, "He was raised a poor black child..." and I'm like, "Sold!"  Just that idea alone gave me somewhat of an insight into what this movie is gonna be like, and I wanted to see where it goes.  So I did...it was ok.

The plot of this movie is very basic.  It's honestly a rags to riches story.  But instead of an endearing character that the audience can really identify with...he's just an idiot.  Now in a raucous comedy like this, it doesn't really matter that we identify with the character.  We just know he's an idiot, and we're gonna sit here for an hour and a half watching as much funny idiotic stuff that they can shove into our faces as possible.  It's just that kind of movie.  However I'd like to point out that it is possible to both identify with a character, and have the comedy being shoved in your face part as well.  Pretty much take any one of Jim Carrey's comedies (other than the Ace Ventura Movies, or Cable Guy...Ok, so I pretty much mean just Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, and Yes Man).  Those movies have a main character you care about, and the movie is also full of hilarious slapstick.  We can have both!  But I digress...

This movie just didn't knock it out of the part for me as far as what I'll call, "bringing the funny."  And it's not because of the movies age I don't think because there are plenty of movies that are older and hilarious.  I just don't think this movie could make up it's mind on what it wanted to be.  It's clearly a farce, but not to the extremes of say Airplane.  Then again, Airplane was technically a spoof of the movie Airport so I guess it's unfair to compare the two...along with all the Mel Brooks films I was just gonna mention, but now can't...damn.  I don't know really how to describe why I didn't think this movie worked as well as a full on spoof.  They left it somewhere in the middle between having a character you care about, and not giving a shit because everything is just ridiculous.  Maybe I just don't dig on Steve Martin's style...But then again, I loved Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which is a movie with characters you can identify with, but also has a scene where Steve Martin is wearing an eye patch and then wet's himself at the dinner table...So I dunno.  Maybe there just wasn't enough comedy to fill out the length of the movie, cause the trailer looks hilarious!  You've stumped me movie.  Good job.  2 stars. 

Wait!  Blazing Saddles!  Not a spoof...characters you root for and care about...total zany farce!  Boom!  Take that Jerk!


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