Review: Extreme Movie


Despite its title, this 2008 comedy from directors Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson is not one of the countless unfunny ‘Movie’ spoofs ala “Disaster Movie” or “Epic Movie”. Instead, it’s a sketch-based comedy about sex-related movies, unsurprising given that five of the film’s whopping ten (!) writers (which include the directors themselves) are “SNL” alum; Andy Samberg, John Solomon, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Will Forte. Forte and Samberg, of course, have also appeared on “SNL” as performers, though I’ve rarely seen either of them contribute something funny. Needless to say with so many cooks in the kitchen, the results are scattershot at best.
 

The funniest skits are a bit involving a horny puppet, Andy Milonakis’ ‘relationship’ with a prosthetic vagina (!), and the wraparound story involving horny teen Ryan Pinkston’s attempts to ask a girl out and his seriously unhelpful teacher (who is the funniest thing about these scenes). Strangely, it’s the biggest stars who appear in the weakest skits; Frankie Muniz (“Malcolm” himself) dealing with a girlfriend who constantly wants to take their bedroom antics to ‘the next level’ isn’t nearly as funny as it should have been, mostly because it’s never believably raunchy. The faux PSA announcements warning youngsters about sex would’ve been a whole lot funnier if the ‘celebrity’ involved were someone better known and less sleazy than Matthew Lillard. Where’s the joke in that casting? And whilst seeing dorky “7th Heaven” co-star Beverly Mitchell dressed up like Abe Lincoln for a sexual fetish sketch might sound funny, it’s not in the slightest. There’s an African-American spin on “Weird Science” as well, but its one joke isn’t all that funny, really. I mean, as soon as you see that it’s an African-American “Weird Science”, you just know it’s gonna go down the Big Momma route. And don’t even get me started on Jamie Kennedy’s appearance as a gay hobo/hippie in a raunchy “Candid Camera” spoof. That was weird, badly acted and totally unfunny.
 

This isn’t awful, but it’s also not necessary for you to see it, and I’ve probably wasted too much time already writing about it.


Rating: C

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more