reviewsSUMMERCOMEDY


		Summer Comedy
By Anthony Kusich				Main Page





		*Napoleon Dynamite* Director: Jared Hess I had to see this movie twice to get it. The first time, I thought it was a so-so comedy about a buck-toothed loser in Idaho who will never (and never have any aspirations to) climb the social ladder. The second time, I stopped thinking so hard about it and laughed almost the entire way through. Jon Heder's perfect line delivery of such milquetoast exclamations as "Yesssss!" and "What the flip?" just doesn't get old; it's always off-the-cuff and hilarious. A couple of minor plot developments (La Fonda's visit, the time travel machine) are a little confusing as to how grounded in reality we're supposed to understand the characters, but if you go in with an open mind, expect to laugh more than you'd think. My grade: B Screened: June 29

			*The Stepford Wives* Director: Frank Oz Some print reviewers said they couldn't tell where the reshoots of this film were spliced in, but that the overall tone was one of amusement but not hilarity. Reports of trouble on the set were no secret -- and I couldn't tell which scenes were reshot, either -- but I was far from amused by "The Stepford Wives." Each scene was played for a punchline that almost never came, and too much of the pic was expository as opposed to fluid. (Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler kept rushing into rooms and making declarations and suppositions without ever appearing settled in their characters.) And what was the message of the film? That women like controlling men as much as men like controlling women? That most females inherently prefer '50s values to '90s ideals? The script isn't deep enough to answer these queries, and after Matthew Broderick's already underdeveloped character went through a ninth-inning change of heart, I said to hell with this. My grade: C- Screened: June 12



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Short Reviews as of July 8th, 2004

Dodgeball
  Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
It just doesn't get any funnier than Vince Vaughn. He's the most deadpan of all Hollywood's
deadpan deliverers, and can make any casual aside or curt observation a gut-buster. Ben Stiller, in
"Zoolander" mode, is familiar but still highly laugh-inducing, while Christine Taylor again plays the
foil in a romantic triangle with wit and sass. Apart from these three main characters, there are few
odd elements in this admittedly absurd film that don't jell well (a pirate?), but when you have
something as ludicrous as "the Ocho" covering squirrel surfing, it's not worth resisting.
   My grade: B+
   Screened: June 21

Shrek 2
  Director: Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon
The most that can be said about "Shrek 2" is that it's just like the first film, only a little less funny and
a little more familiar. I didn't laugh out loud too many times during the film, but I wasn't groaning
either. If anything, "Shrek 2" is geared more toward children than its predecessor, possessing a
subdued innocence that won't offend people over 12 but definitely won't satisfy them the way that
the characters' adventures did in their initial outing. I probably won't see Part 3.
   My grade: B
   Screened: May 31

A Day Without a Mexican
  Director: Sergio Arau
This California-centered "comedy" is a mockumentary that poses this question: If every Mexican in
the state just disappeared, would everything collapse? It's definitely a topic worth discussing, as
border patrol, immigrant licenses, health care, bilingual education, and workers' rights are issues
featured on the news and embedded in political conversations every day on the West Coast. But "A
Day Without a Mexican" uses such broad strokes to makes its case that it reduces any serious
pondering to a series of cornball, flat jokes. One running gag is that of a Senator who can't make his
breakfast after the housekeeper vanishes. This pompous, arrogant legislator is hardly representative
of the 30 million+ people who live in California, but the filmmakers insist that everyone is helpless
without the aid of a Mexican. Perhaps that's true, but I didn't witness a convincing argument.
   My grade: D
   Screened: May 22