It depends. Pun-based humor, humor that comes out of absolutely nowhere, themes in fictitious works (books, television, movies) that resound well with me, and I’ll admit humor directed against certain groups that really displease me (but definitely not that which truly triggers me, since I’ll admit as an autistic, I don’t find certain things funny at all).
Based on the 1951 Lerner and Loewe American Western musical of the same name, the 1969 adaptation of Paint Your Wagon stars Lee Marvin as a prospector, Clint Eastwood as an amnesiac whom he recruits as his business partner, and Jean Seberg as one of a Mormon’s wives that he decides to sell to the highest bidder. I first saw this film as a rental in my town’s Blockbuster Video when that chain was still a thing, the title alone piquing my curiosity, the fact Clint Eastwood was in it being one of the sole things I knew about it. The following knowledge I would get about the film came from a brief spoof in The Simpsons episode “All Singing, All Dancing.”
Despite the title, the musical has nothing at all to do with literally painting wagons, with “paint your wagon” being a (very) dated expression meaning “to get things done.” Marvin’s character, Ben Rumson, dubs Eastwood’s “Pardner” as he recuperates, with a new tent town, “No Name City,” emerging when they discover gold. The male inhabitants become lonely from no female companionship until the mentioned Mormon husband comes and sells his wife Elizabeth to a drunken Rumson. A love triangle quickly emerges when Ben leaves his fiancé under Pardner’s care.
The latter portion of the movie involves Rumson and his men scheming to tunnel beneath No Name City to collect gold dust precipitating through the floorboards of saloons from paying customers, the only notable plot detail of which I had heard, courtesy my high school economics class, before I streamed this film. A zealous parson also comes to town in futile attempts to get its residents to abandon their sinful ways. Of course, many musical numbers abound, and while Marvin and Eastwood have never been known for their singing abilities, they did decently, with the former’s “Wand’rin’ Star” probably being the high point of the film’s songs.
While I know this film gets its share of criticism, much justified, I found it an entertaining watch, with some initial themes like Rumson putting his business partners first and his apathy towards humanity resounding well with me. Mature content like references to venereal disease and prostitution also get some spotlight. Religious themes are front and center as well, given Rumson’s indifference towards God, the references to Mormonism and polygamy, and the ultrareligious preacher. Much of the film likely didn’t fly well with 1969 moviegoers (though modern audiences would probably find it less offensive than, say, Blazing Saddles). However, I think that time has vindicated it somewhat, and don’t regret seeing it.
This 1993 fantasy comedy stars Bill Murray as a snarky, cynical weatherman tasked with covering the annual Groundhog Day festival in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, who becomes entrapped in a time loop that makes him relive the day endlessly. As he does so, he accustoms himself to the various situations in town that recur and discovers that he can make some good of his apparent supernatural situation. The film melds comedy and philosophy well, having some religious allegory and qualifying as iconic, the title and holiday becoming synonymous with unpleasant and repetitive situations. Some of the technology dates it to the first half of the 1990s, but it’s still a bucket-list movie.
A prequel series to Seth MacFarlane’s film franchise of the same name, Ted follows the eponymous plush bear, whom MacFarlane voices (in a performance highly resembling that of his character Peter Griffin from Family Guy), is set in 1993-94, following sixteen-year-old John Bennett, Ted’s owner, and his family in Framingham, Massachusetts, with the stuffed ursine joining John in high school. The tone of the series is raunchy and profane, with tons of gratuitous swearing, along with endless crude humor, some being misogynous (but as a male, I find that kind of comedy funny, and a clever term for female-written books will forever live rent-free in my mind). Some political banter about events of the time also occurs, chiefly in the sixth episode, but is even-handed, with some fair points made. Overall, I enjoyed this series with its offbeat, if crude, sense of humor (which somewhat appeals to me as an autistic) and would happily check out the films.
When I first started watching this live-action science-fiction dramedy on Fox the last decade, I assumed it would be a knockoff of the Star Trek series, but given the repertoire of showrunner Seth MacFarlane, responsible for animated series such as Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show, I knew it would be a more lighthearted take on the sci-fi genre. The series opens with up-and-coming Planetary Union officer Ed Mercer, portrayed by MacFarlane, catching his wife, Kelly Grayson, having an affair with an alien, which leads to their divorce. A year later, Mercer receives command of the eponymous spaceship, with Grayson, to his shock, becoming his first officer.
The Orville isn’t shy about its Star Trek inspirations, beginning with its music. The opening credits theme takes inspiration from “Life Is a Dream,” Jerry Goldsmith’s central composition of the first and the fifth Star Trek Original Series films as well as The Next Generation, a similarity more so apparent in the season three remix. The Planetary Union is a nod to the United Federation of Planets from Trek, along with the various alien races, with sundry conflicts erupting throughout the series, chiefly with the Krill, a vampiric and ultrareligious society. The robotic Kaylons, with one of its members, Isaac, serving as a neutral ambassador aboard the Orville, also come into play later.
Other notable crew members include Bortus, a member of the Moclan race with deadpan speech patterns that make for some occasional humor, who mates with Klyden and has a child named Topa, born female, which is rare among their species in their male-dominant society. The episode “About a Girl” focuses on the couple’s decision to change Topa’s gender to male to conform to Moclan society, which hit home to me as an autistic and receives a follow-up in the third season. Another first-season episode, “Majority Rule,” focuses on a twenty-first-century society reigned by upvotes and downvotes, touching upon themes such as the role of social media and public shaming, which parallels modern cancel culture.
The Orville has a pretty good selection of stars, both guest and recurring, aside from Seth MacFarlane. Brian George, who played the Pakistani restauranteur Babu Bhatt in Seinfeld, and various other Indian or Pakistani characters in other media (despite being Israeli), plays a researcher in the first episode. The late Norm Macdonald plays Yaphit, an amorphous blob with a crush on Doctor Claire Finn, and briefly appears in human form thanks to the ship’s Environmental Simulator (which Isaac also uses when he tries to woo Finn). Patrick Warburton plays a long-nosed alien in a few episodes, and Ted Danson recurs as an Admiral in the Planetary Union throughout the entire series.
Overall, I had a great time watching The Orville, which largely avoids the pitfalls of MacFarlane’s animated shows, such as the drawn-out gags and topical references (but there is some sound sociopolitical commentary that never becomes ham-fisted) and strikes a balance between being humorousness and seriousness. I found it an excellent homage and even rival to the various Star Trek series (and it did semi-compete with Discovery upon its original release), which evokes Trek’s feel (musically and aesthetically) while standing well in its own right. I would happily watch future seasons should the series continue and consider it a capstone among Seth MacFarlane’s television productions.
The first Home Alone sequel, and the only one to feature a majority of the cast from the original film, starts similarly to its predecessor, with the McAllisters preparing for a Christmas trip to Florida, preceded by a school performance that goes wrong thanks again to Kevin’s older brother Buzz. This time, Kevin joins his family on the trip to the airport. However, circumstances divert him to a flight to New York City, where he stays at the Plaza Hotel, briefly meeting a future U.S. President and an adversarial concierge and bellhop portrayed by Tim Curry and Rob Schneider. Afterward, he again faces the fugitive Wet Bandits by boobytrapping his uncle’s residence-in-renovation. It’s structurally identical to the first film but decent in its way and likely better than its myriad sequels.
The first installment of the Home Alone film series, directed by Chris Columbus, stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, part of a sizeable family planning to spend Christmas in Paris, although a scuffle with his older brother Buzz and consequential cleanup leads his father to throw away his ticket and passport accidentally. Coupled with a power outage in the middle of the night and a miscount of heads the following morning, Kevin is left stranded at home, which he must defend from a pair of thieves known as the Wet Bandits, portrayed by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. It rightfully stands as a holiday classic, with great music by John Williams, and has aged well.
Adam Sandler voices the eponymous septuagenarian tuatara, who fears he may be dying and thus reveals his talkative nature to his fifth-grade class’s students when each, at the behest of their strict long-term substitute teacher (due to their main teacher’s pregnancy), takes him home as a pet for the weekend to bond with them, with Leo’s turtle friend Squirtle occasionally helping. Sandler’s daughters Sunny and Sadie also voice two of the fifth-graders. It’s basically a (mostly) family-friendly musical comedy, with occasional Aesops in the mix and character transformation (in terms of nature, not physical form). It has some decent laughs but is more or less on par with Sandler’s prior films.
A significant improvement over previous DnD films in that it’s canon to the Forgotten Realms and is a good mixture of action, comedy, and fantasy, more enjoyable than playing the tabletop game and whatever DnD video games I’ve played (with my experience limited to Baldur’s Gate, but it was the original PC version that hasn’t aged well). A shame it underperformed at the box office, so there probably won’t be any more films, and I’m not sure if the planned television series will go through, either.
Remy's Ramblings 