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My Super Sweet 16 (2005)
Should be called "Rich and Rude"
Paris Hilton has made being rich and rude fashionable, I guess, because that's all MTV is now. This show is without a doubt the worst offender- who in their right mind wants to watch spoiled, rich teenagers throw temper tantrums and insult their parents? I'd rather watch a dog take a crap and then eat it. Anything would be better than this garbage- live child abuse, Nascar, I'd even watch "Reba" if "Super Sweet 16" was the only other thing on. Who is the target audience for this show? Other rich, spoiled teenagers looking for ideas for their next trendy bash? Self-loathing suburban kids? Stoners? Another reviewer said they thought this show would be MTV throwing a ritzy party for a teen who doesn't have a lot of money, which is a much better concept. MTV has always been bad, but this is just mind-numbingly awful. This is bad taste taken to an extreme even "Pink Flamingos" can't top, and that movie ended with a drag queen eating feces off a sidewalk. Un-freaking-believable.
The Aristocrats (2005)
Eh
There is nothing wrong with "The Aristocrats" that time travel couldn't fix. Here is a movie that professes to be shocking and unspeakably obscene and, according to Penn Jillette's liner notes from the DVD, "funny, funny, funny". It is none of these things.
The movie's main problem is that the joke its centered around, "The Aristocrats", just isn't that shocking any more. Maybe when Phyllis Diller first heard it (apparently she fainted). Maybe when George Carlin first heard it. But today? Every teen comedy that comes out is full of jokes about incest, feces, and the ingestion of bodily fluids. It's old hat.
The movie skirts around offensiveness. Several performers note that adding racism to the equation is the only way left to keep the joke's shock value intact, and while they may be right, only two or three comedians care to demonstrate. While normally I wouldn't recommend racism in any form, when the intent is simply to shock (and isn't that the entire point of the joke, let alone the movie based around it?) I say go for broke. The "South Park" boys, in a clip made exclusively for the movie, cut the deepest with their version, which throws September 11th into the mix to come away with the film's only "I can't believe they just said that" moment (except for, perhaps, Sarah Silverman's confession that she was raped by Joe Franklin- but that wasn't even part of her "Aristocarts" contribution).
What I find most interesting is that the DVD release of the film contains bonus material that was funnier and more shocking than anything found in the final cut of the movie. The extended segments with Bob Saget, Gilbert Gottfried, Jon Stewart, Pat Cooper, and Sarah Silverman are all fantastic, and there is an amateur animated version of the joke that made me laugh so hard it literally hurt.
Bottom line: This movie works more as a testament to the desensification of mainstream American society. The Aristocrats (the joke) used to make people blush, squirm, blanch, faint. Now it elicits a minor chuckle, if that. What happened?
The League of Gentlemen (1999)
Brilliant
I remember seeing a few episodes of "The League of Gentlemen" on Comedy Central a few years back.
It came on after "Strangers With Candy", one of my favorite programs, on Monday or Tuesday night. I remember being confused and a little freaked out. And I remember laughing so hard it hurt.
Unfortunately, Comedy Central, in their infinite wisdom, canceled "Strangers" and ceased showing "The League of Gentlemen". I was hooked, however, and was excited when I found out Series One was available on DVD. After waiting forever for the other two series and the Christmas special, I finally broke down and bought an all-region DVD player online. A few weeks and steep shipping fees later, I had the entire series, the Christmas special, and the live show on disc- just about a month before BBC wised up and released region-1 versions. The point is, patience is a virtue and good things come to those who wait.
Actually, the real point is "The League of Gentlemen" is so good, so funny, so unique and bizarre, so totally in a class of its own that I went out of my way, and spent a fortune, just to get my greedy little paws on every black, wretched episode. And I'd do it again. "The League of Gentlemen" has long since surpassed even "The Kids in the Hall" as my favorite television program, an impressive feat if you're familiar with the Kids' work.
If you haven't seen "The League of Gentlemen" (and if you're an American, you probably haven't), the show centers on the bleak town of Royston Vasey, and the people who call it home. The first and second series were presented in a traditional sketch/sitcom format, with a laugh track. Even as early as then, however, you could see a streak of cinematic flair- there were the sitcom studio sets, and then there was the filmed location footage; the epic, sweeping score; the subtle, quiet, clever jokes that flew entirely over the heads of even the enthusiastic audience (there are long stretches during the second series when you can even forget they're there). There were the characters, so freakish, so mind-bendingly different from American sitcom characters. Instead of Rachel or Chandler you had Pauline, the egregious forty-eight year old lesbian restart officer, and Mickey, the retarded monkey, her prized pupil. Will and Grace? Not in Vasey. Instead there was Tubbs and Edward, the inbred, murderous shopkeepers. And the Dentons? The Dentons- toad-obsessed Harvey and Val, their twin daughters Chloe and Radcliffe, and Benjamin, the token normal one- make the Munsters look like the Waltons. And I'm not even going to mention Papa Lazarou.
So we've established that the show is brilliant. But then came the Christmas special, and it took "The League of Gentlemen" to a higher plane, a level above brilliance that simply must be seen to be believed. For the Christmas special the Gents ditched the laugh track (perhaps Tubbs and Edward were dispatched to "take care" of the audience) and the sketch format. The special, and the third series after that (which is, to me, their masterpiece), were darker, scarier, bleaker than anything that had come before. When something can frighten you beyond words (Keith Drop ripping off his skin to reveal Papa's sinister face), make you shudder in revulsion (amatuer magician Dean Tavalouris getting his hand singed with a lit cigarette) and yet still make you laugh uncontrollably (Judith and Alvin's ludicrous rendezvous at the appropriately-named Garden Center)- and when that something is a half-hour television show...well, that's just special. "The League of Gentlemen" gets my nomination as the funniest, most striking series television has ever produced. I Can I Can't.
The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005)
Awesome
As an American fan of The League of Gentlemen I had to wait months to finally see this film when it came out on DVD, but it was well worth the (excruciating) wait. "Apocalypse" is fantastic- funny, freaky, clever as hell, full of in-jokes and cryptic references to the television series; basically everything you'd expect from the Gentlemen.
The plot has already been discussed in other reviews, so I won't bother re-capping it, although I will say when I first read it I was a bit hesitant. Obviously this device- fictional characters entering the real world to confront their makers- has been used before, notably in Wes Craven's underrated "New Nightmare" and Stephen King's "Dark Tower" books (where King himself was a character). The Gentlemen have fun breaking the fourth wall, though, and even add a new element: a second fictional world ("them days"). Soon all three realities have weaved together, and the result is exhilarating: Geoff Tipps being knighted in the middle ages (and trying to court Queen Victoria Wood); the real League of Gentlemen in Royston Vasey, being confronted by characters like Pauline and Dr. Chinnery; David Warner summoning an homunculus outside of Bernice's church. I've heard that some people disliked the "King's Evil" sub-plot, but I found it hilarious, especially Reece's character (who seemed to be channeling Judith the "Witch" from series three).
Speaking of the characters, I was relieved to find that, although Hilary Briss, Geoff, and Herr Lipp were planted firmly in at the film's core, other, more familiar characters were given their due. Bernice's confessional in the beginning was hilarious, hearkening back to the quicker, more sketch-oriented feel of the first series. Pauline and Mickey have cameos (no Ross though- strange), although I would've loved to've seen more of Ms. Campbell-Jones. Papa Lazarou is accounted for, as are Tubbs and Edward. All three are used very sparingly, giving their meager screen time an almost magical feel (and just what the HELL did Papa hack up, like an obscene hairball? According to the DVD commentary, a "wad of greasy pubic hair").
The film looks incredible, but then, what's new? The music, as always, is breathtaking. I was thrilled to hear Joby Talbot's new interpretations of the theme music, and his slight re-working of the majestic, lovely piece that closes out both "Apocalypse" and the last episode of series three.
I have some minor complaints- it would have been nice to see more of the old, familiar Royston Vasey, and I felt the stop-motion creatures (beautiful, by the way) were a bit underused. Both of these issues, however, can be justified by the film's budget, so they're understandable. Still, as much as I loved Bernice's new church, it would have been cool to see the final battle in the high street (the Gentlemen's original vision, according to the commentary).
Overall, "Apocalypse" is astounding, especially if you're a fan of the series. I can't recommend it highly enough. 10/10.