The year 2009 would have been my 25 wedding anniversary, so these are movies of my married and widowed life.

Well, Entertainment Weekly published their 25 favorite Comedies of the past 25 years. I was sure that some of my favorite comedies would make the list. Strange thing is, most of the comedies they mentioned, I never saw. Some of the ones I saw, I didn’t really like. Some that I didn’t like are liked by some friends of mine…. I must have a weird sense of comedy. Of Their selection, the number 1 and number 3 were on my list of top comedies. Mel Brooks produced three comedies in the past 25 years, and none of them are on this list. I guess I’m just out of it.

Given time, I will come up with my own best comedies of the past 25 years. I’ll have to dig out the dates of the comedies I enjoy. Just so you know, I imagine both Space Balls and Robin Hood: Men in Tights will be on my list. Also included would be Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters, the two movies I like that made Entertainment Weekly’s list.

Oh yes, I know I should be doing my civic duty and watching election coverage on one of 899 channels… I will wait until tomorrow to find out who the new owner of America country will be.  Instead, I caught another film that I missed out on last summer.  I believe that my introduction to the television series Get Smart
came in the 7th grade.  My cousin (whose last name is Maxwell) became a favorite target of our junior high phys ed instructor.  He was known as Maxwell “Get” Smart and I was known as “Get Dumb.”  It was about this time that reruns were playing on Nick at Nite (whatever happened to the “classic tv” that was promised on this channel and its sister channel TVLAND).

The movie, starring the always brilliant Steve Carell as wildly inept CONTROL agent 86 and Anne Hathaway as the capable agent 99 was very fun.  A total update of the series while retaining much of the original.  Clippings in the opening credits of past villains such as “The CLAW” (NOT CRAW… THE CLAW) and Mr. Big (who was not so big after all).  The series of doors that led to the telephone booth that dropped agents to headquarters.  Agent 13 (Bill Murray) hidden in the most ridiculous of places and Fang. Plus a brief cameo by an original series cast member.

I will not dwell too much on the plot because like the series it is just silly, mindless fun.  However as always Max and 99 are hot on the trail of KAOS’ own Ziegfried and (no… not Roy) Shtarker.  Some of the villains had an almost Bondian quality.  There was an 8 foot behemoth whom I almost expected to have a mouthful of steel teeth.  I could have sworn that it was Richard Kiel, the same actor who played Jaws (of The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) as well as Mr. Larson from Happy Gilmore, but alas it was not.  Shtarker also bore a similar appearance to Oddjob (from Goldfinger).

All I can say is that if you enjoyed the original or if you enjoy Steve Carell’s work, go out and rent Get Smart.  There are enough in-jokes from the series to keep the fans pleased and enough fun and excitement to keep the new entertained.

Yes, yes, yes… anyone who remembers the tagline from one of the top box office draws of 1984 knows the answer to that question. The announcement that a Ghostbusters III is being planned made me scratch my head wondering when enough is enough and how old actors need to be before a franchise that was created in their prime needs to be shelved. Although successful back in the day, the original films (the sequel especially) were nowhere near as iconic as say… Indiana Jones. However, two writers (Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky) from the wickedly entertaining series The Office (season 5 begins September 25) have been assigned to develop the story that will pick up 20 years after Ghostbusters II. It also promises to reunite the four leads: Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, and OF Course Bill Murray. At this early date, it is uncertain whther or not Rick Moranis (who has all but retired from movie making) or Sigourney Weaver would be included. But I suppose that if the story was worthy enough, I might consider going out to see it or renting the DVD.

Try Blockbuster Free for Two Weeks

The advice in the title of my blog post sounds obvious in retrospect.  Mike Myers‘ new movie The Love Guru did not look funny, nor did it look like a good movie…  But date night this week found us in a neighboring town whose movie theater has a card club – you earn points every time you see a movie and earn rewards with the points – free popcorn, drinks, candy, movie tickets.  We were lucky enough to have earned movie tickets the other day, and when we realized this would probably be one of the last movies we’d see without a newborn baby along, we decided to make it a double feature with our earned tickets.  We had gone to the theater to see Get Smart, the latest Steve Carell movie.  Since the times lined up well and we wouldn’t have much time to kill between the movies, we chose The Love Guru (regrettably) for our second movie.

Get Smart
There is one reason why I would want to see this movie after never having seen the ’60’s tv show: Steve Carell.  The guy is a good actor who is always fun to watch, so we couldn’t resist checking out his latest work.  It wasn’t the best example of Carell’s talent, but it was exactly what I was expecting, plus entertaining and amusing.  The fictional gadgetry was clever and the action was plentiful; there were also some funny jokes thrown in (Bill Murray‘s cameo is one of the best parts), and overall it was a good time.  Anne Hathaway was good as Agent 99, but it makes me wonder what the character was like in the tv show…  And I wonder what else I missed since I’ve never seen an episode of the tv version of Get Smart?  Maybe I’ll some across one someday, but for now, the movie wasn’t good enough to make it a priority.

And because I don’t want to waste any time talking about The Love Guru, I’m just going to copy and paste someone else’s review from imdb.com which I think sums up the movie perfectly:
R.I.P. Mike Myers Career
I saw this film last night in a advance screening. I can say without a doubt it is the worst movie I’ve ever seen in the theater. It is simply a terrible movie. For every joke that’s funny (which are few) there is about dozen that are not. Then there’s all the jokes we’ve seen in previous Myers films that aren’t so funny the 4th time around when they appear in this flick. Many moments in this film will having you looking around the theater wondering if anyone else finds this movie as stupid as you do.
That’s really the bottom line. This movie is stupid. Take every fear you’ve had watching the trailer, times it by 10 and you will get an idea of how bad this film is.
By the way, the hockey in this movie will leave any one who loves the game sick to there stomach. The hockey portrayal left me in tears. Its brutal ! The film is a HUGE slap in the face to hockey. Thanks Mike Myers !
On a positive note though, Justin Timberlake and Stephen Colbert are hilarious. The only time i enjoyed the movie at all was when they were on screen. I never thought in a million years I would leave a movie saying ” Thank God Justin Timberlake was is it.”
In short : this movie is terrible ! Don’t believe me ? Then throw your money away and see for yourself.

HAHAHA – I especially like the part in the review, “I never thought in a million years I would leave a movie saying, Thank God Justin Timberlake was in it.”  So true…
At least we got in for free, though the movie was so bad, it was almost a waste of reward points!  But it was a short movie and any time together for husband and wife away from the kids is priceless by itself, so I can’t say it was a total waste – but seriously, don’t see it! 🙂 

In almost every film made, there are casting issues. The actors seen in the final product are not necessarily the people originally chosen to fill the roles. Well known to most trivia buffs, Shirley Temple possibly would have been Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz had she not been under contract to MGM rival Fox at the time. Buddy Ebsen was cast as the Tin Man until he discovered that he was allergic to makeup used in the costume.

-Imagine how different Gone with the Wind would have been if Lucille Ball had been cast as Scarlett O’Hara or Groucho Marx as Rhett Butler.

-Moving forward a few decades, the Bruce Willis starring action movie Die Hard was originally planned as a sequel to that fine Arnold Scharzenegger masterpiece, Commando. However, after the Governator turned the role down, the film was changed and eventually starred Mr. Willis after four other casting attempts.

-Speaking of Ah-nuld, could you possibly imagine O.J. Simpson as The Terminator? Seriously, it could have happened.

-Bill Murray was considered for the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in the 1989 film. Has Mr. Murray ever done a non-comedic movie? Or maybe, the movie was originally supposed to be lighter in tone and closer to the ’60s television show. Robin Williams was considered for the role of the Joker in both the original Tim Burton directed movie and also for this summer’s The Dark Knight (which will be Heath Ledger’s swan song).

You can view other possible casting choices for your favorite movies at notstarring.com.