By Geno McGahee

The TruTV’s hit show IMPRACTICAL JOKERS have hit the road and came to the Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut.  It’s been quite a while since I covered an event and I was happy to attend this show, which was one of back to back shows this past Saturday night.

The show began with Mike Finoia and he got the audience laughing immediately.  Despite the crowd wanting the Jokers, Finoia was warmly received and very entertaining.  His commentary about marriage and politics was very funny.  It led to the moment that the crowd was waiting for, the introduction of the Impractical Jokers.

James Murray, Sal Vulcano and Brian Quinn hit the stage and were very funny.  It would have been great if Joe Gatto was still involved, but the show was hilarious despite that.  Murr came out wearing a very bad wig from Party City after forgetting to bring the wig made out of Q’s natural hair.  The three worked well off each other, taking jabs at each other throughout the show. 

There were so many funny stories, including how Murr scared off advertisers after discussing his mother’s lady parts during a zoom meeting.  Sal would discuss his own screw up when he went on the Kelly Ripa show, drunk, and taking a shot at Denzel Washington, unprovoked.  The show was just story after story and laugh after laugh.  These lifelong friends understand how to tell and story and how to deliver punch lines, especially Q.  

Q noted that he recorded the meows from his dead cat and he recorded over his grandmother’s dying words.  When pressed for what her words were, he made some erection jokes and it was very funny.   It was also very funny when he was screaming “eat the rich” and “USA” despite being rich himself, which Murr called him on.

A lucky 12-year-old was allowed on stage to shock poor Sal during his story about Jaden Smith and his tattoos.  It was another funny spot.  The show concluded with a new skit where the four Jokers, Joe Gatto included, tried to show who could be the creepiest, and Murr with his fake mustache and 1970’s creepy tight clothing easily won.  There was no surprise there, but Sal demanding people get into his van and Q getting roughed up at a baseball game deserved some props.

I’ve always been a fan of Foxwoods, but it’s been many years since I’ve covered an event and I’ve never been to the Premier Theater.  It was a great venue and the way it’s set up, there wasn’t a bad seat in the house.  Prior to the show I took a walk around the building, checking out the shops and grabbing some food.  It was a good time.  

IMPRACTICAL JOKERS: THE DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE TOUR was such a good time with my only complaint being the mediocre wine at the bar.  You can’t win them all, but despite the wine, it was a great show at a great venue.  The next time, I’ll make sure to hit the tables. 

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By Geno McGahee

In 1984, GHOSTBUSTERS was released and became a huge hit and it was only a matter of time before a remake or reboot would happen.  In 2016, the reboot was released and it didn’t do the business or leave the impression that they had hoped for and there were many reasons for it.   The top complaint seemed to be the casting with the all-male cast being replaced by an all-female cast, but there were bigger issues than casting.

Erin (Kristen Wiig) is a college professor hoping for tenure , but she has a past she’d like to hide.  Years before, she co-wrote a book about the paranormal with her old friend, Abby (Melissa McCarthy), and it has the potential to ruin her aspirations.  She goes to visit Abby and her partner, Jillian (Kate McKinnon), and this is where the biggest problem is on display.  

Kate McKinnon is not a comedian.  She has no clue.  She has this whole “look at me, I’m being funny,” thing that Adam Sandler does from time to time, and it never works. It’s never funny.  McKinnon apparently thinks that making funny voices and faces will make the crowd laugh, but it doesn’t work on SNL and didn’t work here.  Wiig and McCarthy both have great talent and can be very funny and we see it here at times.

After being fired, Erin decides to team up with her old pal and her friend to create this incarnation of the Ghostbusters.  They hire a secretary named Kevin, played by Chris Hemsworth, and I heard a lot of negative things about him in this.   I thought he was one of the funniest parts of the film.  He is an intellectually challenged guy and they add some funny moments to make it work.  Every time there’s a loud noise, he covers his eyes.  That was pretty funny.

Erin, Abby and Jillian get a new team member with subway employee, Patty, played by Leslie Jones.  Jones really does well in this role and adds to the team with her one-liners.  There still isn’t much to work with here as far as a comedic screenplay, but Jones, McCarthy and Wiig are using every tool in their toolbox to make it work. 

The Ghostbusters are dealing with a lot of paranormal activity and there is a reason why.  Rowan (Neil Casey) is a man that is sick of being bullied and wants to release all of the ghosts on the city and destroy all the people that were cruel to him over the years.  He becomes aware of the Ghostbusters and the war has begun and so as the really bad CGI, which is another issue we have here.

Watching GHOSTBUSTERS, I kept thinking about the SCOOBY DOO live action movies with the CGI.  It’s the same complaint that most people have about modern films compared to classic films that used practical effects, but the CGI in the 2016 GHOSTBUSTERS wasn’t very good and the film is loaded with it. They really wanted to make this action-packed and they did, but much of it feels green screen with the actors not having anything to work off of. 

The film is nearly 2 hours and it runs out of steam less than half way through.  It’s easy to see why this is the ignored entry in the GHOSTBUSTERS series and it has nothing to do with the casting as much as it has to do with the mediocre screenplay.   There is so much over explanation and wasted time in this film and the jokes linger. 

The good outweighs the bad here and the film isn’t an insult to the 1984 film, but it does nothing to stand out and is not a foundation for a sequel.  I only recommend it if you loved GHOSTBUSTERS and are curious to see what they do with the source material.  Other than that, it’s not worth two hours of your time.

Rating: 5/10

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By Geno McGahee

Eddie Murphy can be really great and has proven himself time and time again with movies like BEVERLY HILLS COP, LIFE, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR and COMING TO AMERICA, but then he makes really shitty movies too like COMING 2 AMERICA (especially) and NORBIT.  I didn’t know what to expect, but considering that the last direct to streaming film I saw was COMING 2 AMERICA, I wasn’t overly optimistic about CANDY CANE LANE.  When the trailer was launched, my optimism did not grow.

Chris (Murphy) is a Christmas enthusiast that is involved in a yearly competition with the neighborhood for who has the best decorated house.  Everything that Chris makes is handmade and wooden and he’s taking on his neighbors but he doesn’t like his chances to win when he sees all of the décor that the neighbors have purchased.

After getting fired from his job, Chris focuses solely on the Candy Cane Lane contest and with 100K hanging in the balance, he needs to win.  He goes to a shop and meets Pepper (Jillian Bell), the shop owner, and purchases a ton of impressive decorations, but they come with a price. Pepper is an elf that has been misbehaving and anyone that makes a deal with her will eventually become a decoration themselves.

The first 30 minutes of this film was pretty good.  The relationship between Chris and his neighbors was funny at times and I began to have some hope for this one, but it died shortly after and this film began to feel less and less like a Christmas movie.  It became a bad GOOSEBUMPS knockoff.

To avoid becoming a decoration, Chris teams up with his family to get 12 rings from various characters in the 12 Days of Christmas song.  The family goes around chasing around geese, drummers and more but the film was really dragging at this point.  The emphasis seemed to be on CGI more than anything else at this point despite it trying to put forth the message the best part of the holiday is family. I appreciate that, but there is a lot of wasted talent here in this one.

I am happy that I’m not stuck with just Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies this year to review, but the two Amazon Prime entries are far from impressive despite the amount of talent that they had to work with  CANDY CANE LANE and GENIE are both very forgettable and neither really captures the Christmas feel.

Santa (David Alan Grier) shows up and basically fixes everything, but I had lost interest at this point.  The inclusion of Grier backs up my point.  They had so much talent here and it just died after 30 minutes.  I have to say that it was good to see Grier again, but I’m sure most of the audience shut off the movie before they got to see him.

CANDY CANE LANE is a major disappointment.  It’s not as bad as COMING 2 AMERICA.  I don’t think a movie exists that can say that, but this film had all the elements needed to be a good holiday film.  It just misses the mark, runs too long and does not feel like a Christmas movie despite all the lights and bulbs.  I don’t recommend it.

Rating: 3/10

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By Geno McGahee

In 1964, the TV show “THE MUNSTERS” was launched and despite it not going for many seasons, it grew a following and led to many returns in many forms.  One of the returns was a 1996 made for TV movie, “THE MUNSTERS SCARY LITTLE CHRISTMAS”, and it definitely did not have a lot of money behind it.  

Eddie Munster (Bug Hall) isn’t happy with the move to Los Angeles that his family has made, and I have to say that most holiday films that take place in California I do not like.  I’m a New Englander and one of the things that we have is a snowy cold Christmas.  I hate paying for heating and shoveling snow, but it feels like Christmas here, dammit.  California Christmas is just not Christmas to me.  It’s my problem, I know.  I’ll try not to hold it against the Munsters too much.

Dealing with bullies and a new home, Eddie is depressed, but his parents, Herman (Sam McMurray) and Lily (Ann Magnuson), are determined to make it right.   The family gets together and comes up with some ideas to make Christmas feel like a Munsters Christmas and they all have ideas.   Marilyn Munster is played pretty well by Elaine Hendrix, but one of the strange casting choices was Sandy Baron for Grandpa Munster.  He was not right and I guess he did his best, but he just wasn’t good.  The makeup wasn’t good either.  They forgot his neck.

The idea to invite all of the family to big holiday party is agreed upon and they have some awesome family members, including a mummy and a werewolf.   Another idea that Lily comes up with is to team up with Eddie and compete in a house decorating contest, but Mrs. Dimwitty (Mary Woronov) won’t let them win easily.  She has won for the last five years and wants to win again, for some reason.  Woronov is one of the best things about this film.  She puts everything into this one.

I typically hate Christmas movies with Santa involved.  I know, it doesn’t make much sense, but it takes a really good film for me to say “I’m glad they brought in a Santa character.”  Not only do we get Santa in this, but we get two REALLY annoying elves.  Grandpa puts out a snow spell but it backfires and is transports Santa and the elves to the Munsters’ home.  We do get some humor, mostly due to Herman Munster insisting on sitting on his lap.

The elves want to stop working so much and make it with some California babes, even noting that they have fake boobs.  It brings up a good point though that isn’t often touched upon.  Who do elves fuck?  I would hate to think that their entire lives are making presents for children and nothing more.  As much as I hated these elves in this movie, it brought up a good point.  Let the elves go and get some Santa!  I guess the assumption was that elves have zero sex drive.  That was my assumption.  Don’t act like you don’t think about the sex drive of elves.

As with most movies like this, the point is to save Christmas and the film races to that attempt.  Santa teams up with Herman and the elves to deliver gifts and we get a couple of funny moments thanks to McMurray’s performance. 

One of the best moments of the film is the family party at the end with all sorts of horror characters including the Mummy, Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera and some weird guy with bad hair and long arms.   The star of the show was the Mummy.  This film might have been a 10/10 if they kept him in it the full time, especially if he was dancing. 

THE MUNSTERS’ SCARY LITTLE CHRISTMAS is better than I anticipated.  With such an obviously low budget and big shoes to fill, I was ready to say there are two hours of my life I’ll never get back, but it did OK due to the performances of the cast.  Most of the cast put their hearts into this film and it shows. 

Overall, you could do worse and if you like THE MUNSTERS, you might enjoy this one.  It tried to stay true to the source material and do its best with limited resources. 

Rating: 4/10

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By Geno McGahee

In 1992, Pauly Shore would have the hit ENCINO MAN and follow up with the equally popular SON IN LAW in 1993.  He would have less success with IN THE ARMY NOW in 1994 and would totally crash and burn with the box office failure JURY DUTY.  I hadn’t seen JURY DUTY since it was first released and it is pretty obvious why it failed and it’s not just because it was poorly written and acted. 

In previous movies, Shore was focused on as a very different sort of person but his heart was in the right place.  He was likable.  In JURY DUTY, that is all gone.  He is a self-serving unfunny character that is impossible to support.  I’m not sure what the filmmakers were going for.  I guess they thought that Shore doing silly voices and expressions were enough to make it a hit and they were way off.  This was rough to get through.

Tommy (Shore) is a guy that can’t keep a job and doesn’t seem to mind.  He is sleeping in the afternoon when his mother wakes him up and celebrates that he got jury duty.   She informs him that a big trial would pay him five dollars a day and put him up in a nice hotel.  That appeals to Tommy and he begins disqualifying himself from every trial in hopes to get on the biggest trial available.  He wants to get on the jury of the serial killer and drag it on as much as possible so he can get some easy living.

I usually really like Shore, but he was so freaking annoying in this thing.  From the opening scene, it kept getting worse.  On the bus, on the way to the courtroom, he grabbed the microphone and began doing this odd impression of a celebrity tour guide.  You’d think the director would have jumped in here and said “THAT’S NOT FUNNY SHORE,” but it went on for far too long.  It continues when he is getting kicked out of various trials.  It was very unfunny.  I don’t get why they went this direction and nobody said anything.  Perhaps Shore was too big of a star at the time to even challenge.

The trial is on and the cast is very good with Monica (Tia Carrere), Harry (Brian Doyle-Murray), Beasley (Richard Riehle) and Rose (Billie Bird) making up some of the jury.  There were some things here that should have been made for a good film, but it cannot overcome Shore. The whole film is Tommy trying to drag the trial on and help himself and it doesn’t work.  I kept watching, hoping that it would come together, but it never happened.

There are a couple laughs here but there is no charm.  Had the filmmakers just gone with what works…Shore playing the social misfit with a big heart.  Had he been thrown into a jury with that sort of character, there would have been room for laughs and he’d be easy to support, but this is a mean-spirited character that Shore plays from time to time and it has never worked. 

JURY DUTY failed because it’s not good.  There were certainly the ingredients for a good film, but the filmmakers didn’t learn anything from the success of ENCINO MAN and SON IN LAW.  They went in a different direction and paid for it.

Rating: 2/10

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By Geno McGahee

Melissa McCarthy is a very talented comedic actress, but sometimes she picks bad films that don’t showcase her skills.  That is the case with the 2023 holiday film “GENIE”, which was a Peacock exclusive.  I didn’t have high hopes going in by the trailer and considering the fact that it didn’t have any theatrical run.   This was straight to streaming and there was a reason for it.

Bernard (Paapa Essiedu) is having issues with his wife and child as his job is overtaking his life.  When he works too many hours and misses too many family events, he finds himself alone and without a job.  With his job being in the antique field, he got his hands on a jewelry box that holds a secret.  After rubbing it, the box erupts and knocks Bernard back.  When it settles down, Flora (McCarthy) arrives and notes that she is a Genie.

Even though the box exploded in a very supernatural way, Bernard is convinced that she is not a Genie.  What evidence does he need?  The box’s behavior alone should have given her some credibility but he keeps dismissing her initially.  This didn’t make much sense.

As with any Genie, Benard is entitled to some wishes and he starts making them with most concerning methods to get back into his wife and daughter’s lives.  McCarthy does a good job trying to salvage this movie with her natural charm and comedic physical delivery, but she wasn’t given much to work with.  This film just isn’t funny and isn’t really a holiday film.  It takes place during the holiday, but it feels like this screenplay wasn’t written as such and they just said fuck it and crammed in Christmas.

The biggest issue with this film is that none of the characters are developed very well and are very forgettable outside of Flora.  McCarthy is the reason why the role even meant anything.  Had it been another actress, this film would have been unwatchable, but I kept watching and hoping that she would bring a laugh or a good sentimental moment.   She is able to muster up a couple laughs and a couple warm moments, but Essiedu is just not flexible enough of an actor to make this role work.  At no point was I hoping that he’d reunite with his family.  I just didn’t care.

The film dies completely about an hour in and it’s pretty repetitious.   This film turned out to be very disappointing considering just who they had.  McCarthy can steal the show in a film and when given good material, I don’t think there’s a funnier actress, but she signs on to so many bad films that the odds are against you finding a good McCarthy film. 

GENIE isn’t a good movie and isn’t a holiday movie at all.  If you are a fan of McCarthy, it might be worth a watch just to see her attempt to make this film work and she does have a couple of moments where she signs, but this film was written poorly all around and the pacing was bad.  I can’t recommend this one. 

Rating: 3/10

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By Geno McGahee

I am beginning to think that I’m wasting my life by reviewing the live action films of Disney.  I don’t know what possessed me to start this journey.  I guess I blame Disney Plus and my tendency to scroll, but whatever the case, here we are and the latest title I sat through was the 1997 box office bomb, MR. MAGOO. 

Immediately, there is a warning for those easily offended.  Mr. Magoo is a cartoon character that had issues with vision and this was very common.  It was a cheap way to make cartoon characters.  Porky Pig stuttered, Elmer Fudd had a speech impediment and Sylvester the Cat had a lisp.  Now my vision isn’t the best and is getting worse by the year, but Mr. Magoo and his antics did not offend me, but I don’t blame Disney for posting the warning.  They don’t want a shitload of emails from people that are eager to be offended and bitch about it.

Mr. Magoo was short and bald too.  I’m just throwing that out there.  I have friends that are short and bald.  I’ll need to ask them if they are offended and if they are, I will amend this review with an apology and may even start with a warning before you even begin reading it just to be careful.

Disney pounced on a lot of popular or somewhat known characters in the 1990s and made some live action stinkers.  Granted, GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE 1 and 2 fucking ruled, but beyond that, we don’t have a lot of good stuff that I’ve seen so far.  FLUBBER was shit.  INSPECTOR GADGET 1 and especially 2 were not good.  THE SHAGGY DOG blew too. I hoped with Leslie Nielsen that the film would be decent considering his comedic work in THE NAKED GUN and AIRPLANE, but some things cannot be saved.

Magoo (Nielsen) has bad vision.  That’s the entire film.  It was also the whole cartoon too, but at least the cartoon wasn’t feature length.  After watching Magoo on screen for about five minutes in live action, I wanted to cry or go home, but then I realized I was home.   Nielsen wasn’t the right actor for Magoo either.   He didn’t mimic the voice. He didn’t replicate the character.   He was basically just Leslie Nielsen and he wasn’t bald either. 

There is a museum with a precious gem and Magoo is being honored as well.  None of it made much sense.   Much like the other live action Disney flicks of the time, there are bumbling villains.   Bob (Nick Chinlund) and Luanne (Kelly Lynch) are planning to steal the gem and sell it for a lot of money at a bad guy auction.  I have to give credit where it’s due. Lynch and especially Chinlund did well in their roles and were responsible for some of the very few laughs to be had.

Poor Jennifer Garner.  She was stuck playing a foreign character with an accent of some sort and she tried her best.  It was one of her first Hollywood opportunities and it was under the Disney banner.   It’s like getting a job at a restaurant.  At first, you’re cleaning the shitters.  Once you establish yourself, you are telling people to clean the shitters.   Well, MR. MAGOO was her shitters.

A forgettable character and I want to mention him before I forget was Waldo Magoo (Matt Keeslar), the nephew of Mr. Magoo.  He has a thing for Stacey (Garner), but that’s about it for his character.  I must say that this film doesn’t have much going for character development, pace or story.   Don’t watch this if you want a comedy either.   Watch THE NAKED GUN instead.

A waste of two talents in Stephen Tobolowsky, playing Agent Stupak, and Ernie Hudson, playing Agent Anders, was bothersome.  How can Disney fuck up a film this bad.  I’ll give Tobolowsky and Hudson some credit.  They tried to make it work and they did work well off each other, but the material was so bad that they couldn’t make it work and I’m just going to say it now.  Leslie Nielsen stunk up this film.  I enjoy most of his other work.  He can be extremely funny, but his work here was so far from funny. 

Magoo and Luanne became a couple but she’s only in it for the gem.  The two agents are also watching Magoo to see if they can recover the gem.  We get a scene where Magoo is making a chicken dinner that goes on forever.  He’s following a cooking show but his dog keeps changing the channel and he’s following whatever he hears, leading to him using a drill, sander and also doing exercises with the chicken.  It was not funny.  It was painfully unfunny.  

MAGOO is a wretched film. I could go into the finale, the eggplant truck and more, but the film ruined me. I understand that people knew of MR. MAGOO, but it’s not a good title to make into a feature.  I can understand INSPECTOR GADGET.  You got shit you can do with that and the same with GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE, but I can’t imagine being the writer and having Mr. Magoo plopped on my lap and having to come up with a storyline that can expand on the limited cartoon.

The film failed for many reasons.  One of the biggest was Nielsen.  He was not Mr. Magoo at all.  They should have gotten an actor that could do the voice and then they should have taken the writer of this screenplay and thrown him off a bridge and got another writer that remotely understands comedy.  

Damn you Disney. Damn you.  I hate you.   Sadly, there are more worlds and live action Disney films to conquer/review.  I’m not out of the woods yet.

Rating: 2/10

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By Geno McGahee

I’m a big fan of Tim Allen.  Well, not a fan of his standup or HOME IMPROVEMENT, but his movie run has been good.  He’s got great comedic delivery.  I never get sick of WILD HOGS and CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS and always laugh, but when you deal with live action Disney movies, you can’t go into it with high expectations even when the cast is solid.

Now, was there one person excited when they heard that Disney was remaking the 1959 film THE SHAGGY DOG?  I would bet money that the phrase “I need to see THE SHAGGY DOG movie” was never said.  How could a movie with that name be good even with Tim Allen and Robert Downey, JR?  It couldn’t be.  It wasn’t.

Dave (Tim Allen) is the DA and is prosecuting a guy that burnt down a lab in protest of animal testing.  This leads to tension between Dave and his daughter, Carly (Zena Grey), who is supporting the defendant.   This PETA animal testing stuff must’ve been super popular at the time. 

The big boss at the lab, Dr. Kozak, is played by Robert Downey, JR., and thank god for that.  Downey, JR., really tried to make this role work and it did.  Any time he is on the screen, it’s amusing stuff, but he’s not in this film very much.  Danny Glover is in this too but he’s in a role that is very forgettable.  How the hell do you fuck up a movie with Disney’s money behind it and talent like Allen, Downey, JR., Glover and Kristin Davis? 

With the case taking up the majority of his life, Dave is losing touch with his family.  His wife, Rebecca (Davis), has all but given up.  His son, Josh (Spencer Breslin), is hiding that he’s part of some GREASE stage show instead of playing football like his dad.  Now, I didn’t think Breslin could be more annoying than he was in CAT IN THE HAT, but he proved me wrong.  Why the fuck did I have to see that guy again AND this role concerns a kid that can sing and Breslin cannot sing.  Tim Allen had to pretend to be super impressed by it.  Terrible cringy shit.

So there is a dog that Dr. Kozak stole that has lived for hundreds of years.   He hopes to do experiments and figure out how to create the fountain of youth.  That’s the idea, but I have to admit I was really annoyed with the scene of the dog in the Buddhist temple meditating.  I didn’t find it offensive, but seeing the badly done CGI dog sitting there bothered me.  It was in the first ten minutes of the film too. I knew I was fucked but I’m a trooper.  You start a movie, you finish a movie.

Carly steals the magic dog from the lab and brings it home.  Dave hates dogs and tries to drag him out of the house but gets bit and now the movie kicks into gear.  It’s not a good gear.  Dave now goes from a human to a shaggy dog and back again.  I hate movies where animals talk.  Fuck that shit.  That’s why I tried to get DR. DOOLITTLE canceled for the last ten years.  I’ve not given up yet.  I’m sick of live action animals having their mouths fucked with with bad CGI to give them voices. 

Tim Allen’s heart is not in this film AT ALL.  I’ve never seen him so disinterested in a role and it’s not surprising.  I’m guessing he just grabbed the big paycheck Disney was offering and then saw the screenplay and was like holy shit, I got to make this work?

The stuff was that supposed to be funny WAS NOT FUNNY.  Allen acting like a dog wasn’t funny, but I’ll give them some points for when he’s chasing things as a human but is doing it on all fours.  That was a funny visual, but it is not enough to make up for the pure shit that this film is.

Dave is kicked off the case and goes after the lab in hopes of fixing himself and this dog problem he has.  In one of the brighter moments of the film, Kozak is put on the stand after being bit himself and does some very funny stuff.   Downey, JR., was very funny and did everything he could here.  The back and forth with Allen and Downey, JR., at the end was the best stuff this film had to offer.

I had this film rated at a 3/10 and that was generous but then the ending happened.   At the very end, Dave’s son throws a Frisbee and Dave jumps up and catches it in his mouth and it’s fucking hilarious.  At least there was that.  It was worth watching it a few times and I did.

THE SHAGGY DOG never had a chance to be good.  How do you make a movie with that title good?  I can’t imagine having a producer tell me to write a movie called “THE SHAGGY DOG” and expect good stuff.  Had Allen had the energy that Downey, JR., brought, maybe this film would have had a chance, but probably not.  It’s just not good at all. 

So, it’s a 3/10 but I’m giving it a couple extra points for the ending. 

Rating: 5/10

The post The Shaggy Dog (2006) – Tim Allen Disney Film Review appeared first on SCARED STIFF REVIEWS.

By Geno McGahee

Robin Williams is impossible not to like, but his comedy can be an acquired taste.  I speak highly of Williams often but my focus is always on one movie, MRS. DOUBTFIRE.  That movie was so tremendous that I tend not to think about the rest of the movies that he’s done and how terrible they truly are.  The comedy of Williams isn’t very funny for the most part either, as he relies on physical comedy and funny faces.  Sometimes it can work but, for the most part, I have a hard time finding any amusement from it.

My spree of1990’s live action Disney films continues with FLUBBER, which broke about even at the box office.  It seems that Disney was really banking on this one being a big hit and I remember the CGI flubber thing being showcased in advertisements.  CGI was a tool that was being used more and more at this time and in FLUBBER, they decided to use it a lot.

Brainard (Williams) is an absent-minded professor that keeps forgetting to attend his wedding to Sara (Marcia Gay Harden).  He gets tied up too much in his work.  When he misses the third ceremony, another professor, Croft (Christopher McDonald) moves in and does it with a lot of bravado.  When Christopher McDonald is involved in a film, you know you’ll get something good out of it and when he’s on the screen, the movie is a lot of fun. 

There’s an annoying female-voiced robot that flies around Brainard’s house named Weebo (Jodi Benson).  They were probably assuming the audience would love this character as it played out reactions through old Disney films on her little screen, but it wasn’t good.  I hated that character and the interactions between Williams and the CGI robot seemed off. 

With John Hughes being one of the writers, having some HOME ALONE stuff in here is not a surprise.  Having John Hughes being one of the writers and this film sucking horse balls was a surprise.  Chester (Raymond J. Barry) is a bad rich man that is trying to shut down the college that Brainard works at and he turns it up when he finds out that Brainard is failing his son.

Chester sends two goons, Smith (Clancy Brown) and Wesson (Ted Levine), to Brainard’s home to rough him up but they stumble upon him experimenting with Flubber.  This leads to bouncing bowling balls and golf balls hitting the bumbling duo over and over again.  This is right out of HOME ALONE.  I don’t blame the producers.  People love that shit.  I love that shit.  HOME ALONE was the bomb.

In one of the most difficult scenes to get through, Brainard fixes a basketball game by adding Flubber to the feet of all the players to give his team an advantage.  I swear this scene was 19 hours long.  It just went on and on and didn’t add anything to the film, but the CGI guy probably insisted because he got to add some really bad stuff to the scene. 

We get the final showdown with Brainard taking on Chester and Croft and it’s tough to get through.  There are some laughs thanks to McDonald, but it can’t save the scene.  I wish they used McDonald more in this film.  Every time he is on the screen, he’s funny. 

I want to mention that I fucking hated the never-ending “Flubber Mambo” scene.  I don’t know what I’d rather sit through again, this shit or the basketball scene. They were so proud of the dancing Flubber scene that they mentioned it in the opening credits.  It blew.

The enjoyment of FLUBBER will depend on the enjoyment of the physical humor of Robin Williams.  If you find Robin Williams making funny faces and throwing himself around, you may enjoy this.  I don’t find that shit funny at all and this film just drags on with a few laughs here and there.

I am pretty shocked that John Hughes is part of this, but he was only a part of it…so maybe the good stuff was his and the rest of the shit, 80% of this film, wasn’t. 

They missed humor opportunities here as well. Williams does not react normally when he gets hurt.  For example, he puts Flubber in his back pocket to show that he will bounce back up as he falls out of a window.  As he drops, the Flubber jumps out and he lands hard on the ground, but he doesn’t sell it.  He is just there smiling.  If he was there moaning or screaming in pain, that would have been a much funnier scene and that goes for a lot of the hits he takes in this film.

When it comes to live action 1990’s Disney films, you can do worse than this, but this one isn’t very good.  The potential was there for this one but it stunk it up. 

Rating: 4/10

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By Geno McGahee

In 1997, GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE was released and I recently reviewed it and it was surprisingly awesome.  Never underestimate how great a gorilla getting hit in the nuts is.  I wouldn’t want to live in a world without gorillas.

Disney, in the 1990s, made a series of notorious live action films based on popular titles.  Remarkably, I really enjoyed the first INSPECTOR GADGET, but hated the direct to video sequel and thought that I might be in the same boat with GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE 2.  Much like INSPECTOR GADGET, the majority of the actors and actresses were replaced.  Brendan Fraser was gone and Christopher Showerman was now in the role, but to the film’s credit, it addressed it in a funny way.  When George is introduced, the narrator said “who are you?” 

The sequel does pay close attention to the original and picks up where the last left off. George and Ursula (now played by Julia Benz) are living in the jungle with their son, George, JR., (Angus T. Jones).  To the credit of Julia Benz, she does closely resemble Leslie Mann and her portrayal of the character was very good.  Even though I knew she wasn’t Mann, I saw her as Ursula.

Ape (John Cleese) is still in Las Vegas and it was really funny how they attacked Kenny Rogers for some reason.  As Ape sat at a poker game, Rogers kept singing his gambler song, annoying everyone.  I bet Kenny Rogers was annoying in real life.  He had country music.  He had rotisserie chicken.  He had it all and he knew it.  That probably led to an ego like no other.

Beatrice (Christina Pickles) is teaming up with Lyle (Thomas Haden Church) to get Ursula away from George and back into the arms of her ex, Lyle.  Now, there was one loose end here that they didn’t address.  What happened to Lyle’s gorilla wife from the first one?  I guess it didn’t work out. Church is amazing as Lyle.  He is awesome in every scene.

The plan is to get ownership of Ape mountain and use it as leverage to get Ursula back and it almost works.  It leads to many fun moments.  One of the funniest was watching Ape and George in Las Vegas, running from the cops.  Keep in mind, I love gorillas and I might not be objective here.  If there are gorillas in films doing silly things, I will most likely really enjoy it and this film has no shortage of gorillas being silly.

As the film went on, I accepted Showerman as George.  He did a good job becoming the character and owning it despite the odds being against him.  It’s an uphill battle when you assume a role from a popular actor that had a hit film.  Showerman was the character in a straight to DVD sequel.  That’s a losing deal but this film was way better than it had a right to be.

The final showdown with Beatrice, Lyle, George and Ursula is a lot of fun and it includes many laughs.  The gorillas team up to flame fart on construction workers the narrator takes Lyle away with a wedgie to the heavens.   It was very funny.

GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE 2 didn’t have the budget of the first for sure.  The CGI was pretty bad, but the gorilla suits were great and the humor worked in this.  If you can look beyond the recasting and bad CGI, you might get some laughs from this.  I did.  I wish they had more Lyle in this one. 

Shockingly, this movie is good.  It’s not as good as the original but it’s a lot of fun.  I wonder if FLUBBER is funny too.  I think that’s next on my Disney live action film review run. 

Rating: 7/10

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