Sorry, Mr. Brooks
Added 6/23/2009
I know you have heart and you meant well, but I just have to warn anyone who watches this movie and does not find it funny within the first 10 minutes, that it will NOT pick up. Better to give up than to go another one hour and 38 minutes marveling at how terrible this movie is. As another reviewer noted, it's not even "good-bad." It's just really ... bad. The jokes are slow, simplistic, and stereotypical; I was actually cringing at times.
On the other hand, if you truly like this movie within the first few minutes, then you will certainly enjoy it; as the saying goes, "To each his own." For my part, however, I read the five-star reviews, and I am still mystified.
Again, I am very sorry to give this film such a poor review. On the other hand, after paying for it and spending the best part of my evening sitting through it, I feel duty-bound to warn others!
I should add one bright note, though: Sheetal Sheth offers the only relief here. She is charming and delivers a delightful performance that is, sadly, wasted on this film.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Alber Brooks in a mellow key
Added 10/28/2008
Albert Brooks is one of my favorites. But "Looking for Comedy..." is one of his more mellow films; he doesn't go for big laughs this time, even though there's plenty of humor. This is a good one for the serious Albert Brooks fan, but for everyone else, it's worth it to watch at least once.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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If you Like Albert Brooks, you'll like this film
Added 8/14/2008
There are some baseline criteria for liking this film (note: this also applies to Woody Allen cinema).
1) You must like Albert Brooks' nebishness (corollary: you should understand a bit about Jewish fatalism)
2) You must understand and appreciate sarcasm at its finest
3) You must not be offended by vanity scripts-- yes, alot of this is about Albert Brooks, see item #1
4) You must not be embarrassed by laughing out loud when your intellect is tickled
I would have given this a higher rating, but not everyone can meet the above criteria
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Really forgettable and unlikable
Added 7/2/2008
Well first I have to say I'am an Albert Brooks fan for the most part but this movie just had DUD written all over it. The plot about a famous comedian...alleged famous comedian since the running gag of the movie seems to be that nobody knows about him much less cares tells you right of the bat that this is far from a "thinking man's" comedy as somebody else said. Age didn't matter either in me disliking (I'am over the teenybopper age a long, long time ago).
First the film drags on and on with unfunny jokes. Why would the government trying to soften relations with Middle East send Albert Brooks why not Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien, oh well. Like somebody else the stereotypical jokes (like the Call Center well all the technical computer questions in American are received by Outsourced Pakistans) gets old quick.
Even this side story (which I guess was supposed to be romantic) with Albert and his assistant Maya I think her name is wasn't really explored though hinted at many times (like her boyfriend is really jealous at her spending so much time with Albert). The jokes Albert throws at this Muslim/Pakistan are lame, very lame. Besides the character he plays looks utterly desperate in just compiling an audience to begin with. I guess this was supposed to be funny how an alleged famous comedian can't even get enough seats to fill a gymnasium but it just wasn't funny. Deadpan humor/Dry humor whatever you want to call it isn't always funny and this movie is living proof of that.
It's just a sad, bad movie. I wouldn't even call it "it's so bad it's good" movie it just really had nothing special going for it and you'd have to pay me to watch this again. It's gotten a 5.4 rating on IMDB which pretty much is borderline average to mediocre which is about right. Again I like Albert but this isn't his best effort not by any stretch of the imagination. It probably might his worst movie to date.
1 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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"Looking for laughs" would be more apt
Added 6/8/2008
From the title and cover description, I thought Brooks was "looking for comedians." You know...we would see what was considered comedy in the Muslim world, performed by Muslims. Instead we get Albert Brooks doing a very low key (dare I say tired and lame?) comedy act and watching how Muslims respond. It's a 30 minute premise at best, but vintage Albert Brooks. If you have liked his previous work you will probably like this. I did get a couple of laughs. If you haven't...skip it. Unless, like me, you're getting it free from the library.
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Sorry, Mr. Brooks
Added 6/23/2009
I know you have heart and you meant well, but I just have to warn anyone who watches this movie and does not find it funny within the first 10 minutes, that it will NOT pick up. Better to give up than to go another one hour and 38 minutes marveling at how terrible this movie is. As another reviewer noted, it's not even "good-bad." It's just really ... bad. The jokes are slow, simplistic, and stereotypical; I was actually cringing at times.
On the other hand, if you truly like this movie within the first few minutes, then you will certainly enjoy it; as the saying goes, "To each his own." For my part, however, I read the five-star reviews, and I am still mystified.
Again, I am very sorry to give this film such a poor review. On the other hand, after paying for it and spending the best part of my evening sitting through it, I feel duty-bound to warn others!
I should add one bright note, though: Sheetal Sheth offers the only relief here. She is charming and delivers a delightful performance that is, sadly, wasted on this film.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Alber Brooks in a mellow key
Added 10/28/2008
Albert Brooks is one of my favorites. But "Looking for Comedy..." is one of his more mellow films; he doesn't go for big laughs this time, even though there's plenty of humor. This is a good one for the serious Albert Brooks fan, but for everyone else, it's worth it to watch at least once.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
If you Like Albert Brooks, you'll like this film
Added 8/14/2008
There are some baseline criteria for liking this film (note: this also applies to Woody Allen cinema).
1) You must like Albert Brooks' nebishness (corollary: you should understand a bit about Jewish fatalism)
2) You must understand and appreciate sarcasm at its finest
3) You must not be offended by vanity scripts-- yes, alot of this is about Albert Brooks, see item #1
4) You must not be embarrassed by laughing out loud when your intellect is tickled
I would have given this a higher rating, but not everyone can meet the above criteria
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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