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Reviews
Black-ish: Bloopish (2015)
Simply unwatchable, unfunny, and terribly edited
Ugh. This episode/special is nearly unwatchable.
The largest problem with this special is the editing and pacing.
It feels as though it was put together by an editor who was doing a combination of Ritalin and cocaine. It has no focus whatsoever, tells no cohesive story, and many of the "bloopers" are clearly staged. Worse, the actual non-staged bloopers are cut together so tightly that they lose all their comedic value entirely. It seems as though the editing for this one was outsourced to someone who normally cuts together car commercials, where you have to jam as much in 30 seconds as possible. Imagine watching that for 21 minutes, your brain just explodes after minute four.
As an example of the terrible editing, two of the characters volunteer to take the audience on a tour of the set. So they go to the first room for all of fifteen seconds then cut to commercial... Back from commercial, and oh, guess we're done with the tour. No wait, EIGHT MINUTES LATER they come back and go to another room for another 30 seconds. This fractured and extremely disjointed storytelling doesn't work whatsoever, it's just annoying, repulsive, and borderline vulgar.
I genuinely feel dumber and less informed after watching this special, and genuinely wish not only that I had never seen it, but that it never was made in the first place. (...and I like the regular show!)
Hits (2014)
Decidedly mediocre, desperately needs to be edited down
Ahhh, Hits. It's one of those movies that you want to like going in more than you actually like after seeing it.
I think the main problem with this movie is that it suffers tremendously from "my first film" disease. Cross wrote and directed it, and because of that doesn't seem to be willing or able to throw anything away.
For example, Michael Cera plays a drug dealer and has two scenes. In those scenes we find that another character really likes a particular type of weed. That character's liking that particular type of weed is never referenced thereafter. (Nor is weed itself!) In other words, the two scenes with Cera are entirely superfluous to the story, they don't have us gain any insight into the characters (other than weed choice), and in general are just a waste of the audience's time. They don't make the characters any more relate-able, they don't draw you into the story, they just sit there like giant boxes on a storyboard taking up time and space but not advancing anything.
In a similar vein, we learn that another character's wife is baby crazy. This character being baby crazy is not used for comedic effect, it doesn't affect the actions of the main characters in any way, and again just takes up time. The movie would be exactly the same (the characters would still have motivation and do exactly the same things) if that entire character was excised from the script! So if that character is a giant GNDN, why are we wasting time learning about them?
Both of these scenes really typify the problems that Hits has; it has the genesis of a lot of funny ideas but few are seen through to completion and payoff. Baby crazy lady could make an unexpected entry into the final train wreck scene, adding tension and zaniness. Instead she attends safe and sound via teleconference -- no zaniness or tension there. The other character's choice of weed (or even tendency to smoke weed!) could have been used to play off the cops that are around town. Nope. Even one character who is caught peeping in a window is never brought to justice nor is said peeping ever referenced again. What a waste!
The giant train wreck at the end is a proved winning formula for a movie, but unfortunately comes very late. Moreso, it isn't a large enough train wreck payoff to satisfy the journey getting there. It needed more characters' threads coming together rather than only three to be a really satisfying payoff. More to the point, the great reveal is handled fairly ham-handedly and is formulaic.
There are some funny scenes in Hits, but as Cross' own introduction says you'll laugh more than three times but definitely less than ten. The movie itself isn't a train wreck, but I really wish it was more (and paradoxically, less) than it currently is.
Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed (2002)
It'll spoil you for magic acts, so tread carefully!
If you're the kind of person who likes to know the how of magic is done, don't miss this show! Once you watch a few of these shows, it becomes fun to try watching the show then pausing and figuring it out before the reveal. You'll start to notice a pattern and start thinking more like an illusionist. I definitely don't get all of them, but a fair number after the demonstration I can pick out how it's done.
Really this is B-level camp. The show doesn't take itself too seriously, and as a viewer you shouldn't take it super seriously either. (I think that's part of the show's charm.) Yes at times it makes fun of magicians (especially the assistants), but there is usually a valid thought behind the criticisms.
The show is well shot considering how dark many sets must be for the illusions to function. Occasionally they'll completely blow the explanation for a trick, but the vast majority (95%+) are understandable on the first pass. Thoroughly enjoyable if you really *want* to know how a trick is done!
One thing that watching this show regularly does is kind of destroys the mystique (for the viewer) for common magicians. My local TV station used to show "Masters of Illusion" directly before MBSFR, and the two in rapid fire didn't work well. MBSFR survived, but Masters of Illusion was dropped from the schedule, mainly because I think MBSFR shows how many of the performers on MOI were just complete hacks.
I suspect working magicians have a similar reaction to this show. But if you're part of the howdy-do-dat crowd, it's fun to see the curtain pulled back!
Root of All Evil (2008)
Strangely, not enough of Lewis Black!
I like Lewis Black. I REALLY like Lewis Black. So it seems strange that I'd say "there's not enough Lewis Black in Lewis Black's show", but that's EXACTLY the problem with "the root of all evil". It FEELS like LB is phoning it in!
OK, so we have Lewis Black, and two guys who take each side of the debate. (Catholic Church vs. Oprah in this case.) That's all well and good, but most of the show is THE TWO OTHER GUYS! While they weren't bad, I didn't tune in to the show called "two other guys: the root of all evil", I tuned in to "LEWIS BLACK: the root of all evil". If it has your name in it, YOU SHOULD HAVE THE MOST LINES AND SCREEN TIME, PERIOD!
Was it funny? In spots I genuinely laughed. But I couldn't help but feeling that this would be SO much more funny if Lewis Black just got up there and riffed the way WE KNOW he can riff on a subject. That's what I wanted to see, what the title PROMISES I'll see, and the show just doesn't deliver that.
So if you're expecting something along the lines of LB's stand up routines, or a long form version of LB's rants on The Daily Show, you'll be soooooooorely disappointed. On its own without preconceived notions (just pretend it's called "two other guys with a special appearance by lewis black"), it's OK... not stellar, but not awful, either.
Carpoolers (2007)
Awful, not even worth stealing
All I can say is thank the lord I didn't watch the commercials. That would reward ABC for putting this trash on the tube.
There should be no such reward; this show blows and blows HARD.
I tried to like/watch the show, but after fifteen minutes I gave up entirely. It's just not possible. The plot line was drop dead BORING and recycled quite literally from The Cosby Show. Except when Cosby did it, the actor the plot revolved around was six -- not TWENTY SIX! This isn't a case of simply the old "adults reverting back to childhood" type plot line, but more of a "oh, this character is simply unbelievable even for a microsecond" type plot line.
Every single character lands flat, without exception. Granted, they don't have much to work with, but the guy who plays the obvious Napoleon Dynamite ripoff may as well be acting with his rear, as his head surely lacks the capability to extract any funny lines whatsoever.
Fifteen minutes, not a single laugh. Not a chuckle, not a guffaw, not a snort, *nothing*. EPIC FAIL as a comedy.
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (2007)
Even WORSE than Tom Goes to Who Cares
I never thought Adult Swim could drop any lower than Tom Goes to Who Cares. I was wrong. I was robbed of twelve minutes by the most boring, unfunny pile of... well, you get the idea!
Truly sketch comedy at its worst. Yay, two guys standing in front of a green screen with a hacky sack ball superimposed. I produced a movie like that in EIGHTH GRADE using *BASIC* video editing software! THIS IS NEITHER FUNNY NOR NEW! If you think it's either, you really need to stop watching Adult Swim and turn the dial once in a while.
Like that other awful show they produced, this show is far funnier when compressed to a thirty second commercial than it is expanded to the full twelve minutes. And that's where they have you; the show does look mildly interesting in their teasers. But watching TAEAS is exactly like going to a movie where ALL the funny lines are in the trailers -- you feel ripped off after watching it.
Yes, twelve minutes is not much to devote to a show, but in the case of this pile, it's eleven minutes and thirty seconds too much.