Category: Comedy

REVIEW: Snatch [2000]

Jared Mobarak

“What do I know about diamonds?” Hot on the heels of his debut Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie‘s sophomore effort Snatch proved to be the one to cement his name into American audiences’ consciousness. A second collaboration with soon-to-be action superstar Jason Statham, the heist flick is a hilarious romp of brutally violent men propelling itself forward through quick cuts and narrative coincidence/overlapping as illegal boxing matches meet faux Jewish jewelers on the hunt for a giant diamond of which everyone wants a piece. Yes, Statham’s fight…

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REVIEW: Tug [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“I peed? In the bed?” I guess this is what filmmaking becoming easier and cheaper does for all holding the dream and passion to create. It goes back to Kevin Smith‘s Clerks proving that the depiction of the comic and mundane of slacker culture could speak to a new generation feeling the exact same angst. We’ve always had films standing as a testament to an age of rebellion, maturity, and empathetic understanding—The Breakfast Club is probably the most famous—so it’s easy to see why today’s filmmakers yearn to match its…

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REVIEW: Wild Girl Waltz [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“Have a drink whore” A self-proclaimed ‘hang out’ feature, Mark Lewis‘ Wild Girl Waltz is the kind of low budget comedy you don’t mind spending 82-minutes wading through sporadic nonsense for the laugh-out loud gems mixed within. Focused around Brian (Jared Stern), his sister Angie (Christina Shipp), and his girlfriend/her sorority sister Tara (Samantha Steinmetz) as they look to have some fun despite mundane existences caught too far away from both college and middle age, a couple unidentifiable pills of elicit pharmaceuticals can only help alleviate their boredom. But as…

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REVIEW: Lucy in the Sky with Diamond [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“Are you prepared to spend eternity together?” Written in the hopes iconic actor Lou Diamond Phillips would agree to participate, Joey Boukadakis‘ comedy short Lucy in the Sky with Diamond was born. Blindly sending the script to his muse unsure of what the reaction would be, Boukadakis found his love of the man validated once the response came back positively. Phillips loved the script, was flattered by the Being John Malkovich treatment, and graciously accepted the offer to film for two days in the San Fernando Valley and have his…

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REVIEW: Identity Thief [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“Foxhole! The safe word is Foxhole!” The words “from the director of Horrible Bosses” instilled little hope for me sitting down to Seth Gordon‘s newest work Identity Thief. Screenwriter Craig Mazan‘s name—he of too many asinine spoofs—only made matters worse. No, this road comedy’s saving grace would have to be co-star Melissa McCarthy and the level of hysterics she has unfailingly brought since breaking out in Bridesmaids. The fact her role of Diana was rewritten specifically for her after original intentions called for a man shows how high her star…

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REVIEW: Gunderson’s [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“That sounds like a supermarket” A short film inside a short film, Matt Porter‘s Gunderson’s survives as a standalone storyline from the marginally longer work Argyle. Depicting a week in the life of Max (Max Azulay) as he readies to substitute teach a 7th grade health class while the real teacher takes maternity leave, what should be a fantastic opportunity becomes ruined by an unorthodox diagnosis of a new, rare sexually transmitted disease. Saddled by a VD twitch the day before he is supposed to warn young minds away from…

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REVIEW: Warm Bodies [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“God, we move slow” Who would have thought even fifteen years ago that 2013’s nerd culture would have at its pinnacle zombies and bacon? Seriously, who? While we have Ron Swanson to thank for helping keep the latter alive recently, Hollywood has been the former’s driving force. What used to be a vehicle to disseminate political satire and civil unrest in a world slowly devolving towards a wasteland of mindless automatons has now become a million dollar moneymaking machine. They are so ubiquitous that I’m baffled none ever showed up…

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REVIEW: Wrong [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“The palm tree is no longer a palm tree” I’m not sure there has ever been a more apt name for a film than the one musician turned filmmaker Quentin Dupieux chose for his newest existentialist romp through suburbia—. Everything about this movie is just that—wrong. From the transposing of inside and out to the metaphysical impossibilities of objects changing shape and identity to the completely absurd juxtapositions of life and death or present, past, and future, nothing that occurs to the unassuming Dolph Springer () can be explained. Whether…

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REVIEW: Curfew [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“Sophia always comes back to life” If you look at Shawn Christensen‘s career and see a credit for writing the Taylor Lautner-starring Abduction as its centerpiece, confidence doesn’t necessarily run high. And yet his nineteen-minute short Curfew has earned an Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short Film. As the saying goes, never judge a book by its cover. I’m not going to say this film is great or deserves the victory or anything else overly hyperbolic. I will however admit that the feeling I had after watching wasn’t what…

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REVIEW: Hyde Park on Hudson [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“I’ll have another!” Franklin Delano Roosevelt was much more than the President of the United States to Margaret “Daisy” Suckley—she was also his sixth cousin. The two knew each other in brief snapshots from family gatherings in upstate New York where the wheelchair-bound leader of America found his old home a refuge from the political chaos of Washington, DC. If he could run the country from Hyde Park on Hudson, he would. The land gave him peace of mind through long drives along winding roads and atop fields of tall…

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REVIEW: The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“Honest Bunny Sez: You Have No Future” With it’s 25th season underway and a feature film already under its belt, I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise to see Matt Groening and James L. Brooks‘ “The Simpsons” begin a foray into animated shorts. Just as Disney/Pixar has been doing with their Toy Story franchise, I can see Gracie Films continuing to make these brief vignettes as a sort of insurance plan for if or when the long-standing television cartoon staple moves into retirement. It also doesn’t hurt that The Simpsons:…

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