Once again a concept that makes a modestly funny three minute sketch on Saturday Night Live has been turned into a feature movie. Underrated actor Tim Meadows will be bringing the Ladie’s Man to a theater near you.
Why?
We all loved The Blues Brothers and even bothWayne’s World flics but there were far more express train to video disasters like Stuart Saves His Family, It’s Pat and Superstar. Al Franken is a terrific writer and I still have a wicked bad crush on Julia Sweeney but their SNL characters weren’t worth a feature.
I think the solution is to make one SNL theatrical movie every two years that will Include most of the recurring characters. Each person currently in the cast gets one or maybe two in exceptional cases. It might last a week or two in theaters then straight to video.
I don’t know. The previews make it look–get this–FUNNY! I know it is unlikely to be, but the Ladies Man has so much potential to take on all the current crop of blaxploitation movies like “Bootie Call” as well as the '70s funk look and sound if it’s handled well.
Oh, and let’s not forget “Night at the Roxbury”. A feature film built on a three minute sketch that was tiresom after the second time it was wheeled out…
And as I recall Mike Meyers is in a spat with the studio on the subject of a movie anout that “Dieter” character from the “Sprockets” sketch…
And diddn’t I hear they were shpping around a “Mango” script?
Whoa, whoa, back up the truck there! I have to stand up in defense of poor old Stuart. That movie was great! We’ve made all our friends see it, and they agreed that it’s a funny, yet eerily true representation of how screwed up our dysfunctional “families of origin” can be. His mother is creepily similar to my mother, and Mr. Scarlett sees a lot of his dad the drunk in Stuart’s dad. I think that despite his many quirks, Stuart works as a multidimensional, real person, and it’s great to see him interact with other people out in the world, without his wingback chair and mirror. Al Franken shoots and scores! I’d love to find out how he came up with this character and the associated book and movie.
The tagline for the movie is spot on: “You’ll laugh because it’s not your family. You’ll cry because it is.” Perhaps those who don’t “get” Stuart had that rare experience of growing up in a “functional” family, with no personal demons.
Scarlet said, “Whoa, whoa, back up the truck there! I have to stand up in defense of poor old Stuart. That movie was great! We’ve made all our friends see it…”
Then both of them ran away screaming horribly about their eyes. hehehehehehe In all honesty, I can’t say that I have seen a SNL movie recently that I have truly liked. That included Wayne’s World which I tolerated and had a few funny scenes but nothing that kept me going.
I think the SNL movies that fail so badly are the ones that are based on one-note characters. For example, Pat: You can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman. Ha ha ha. They exhausted that on the show. I liked Pat at first, but it got old quickly. Other characters, like Mary-Whatever (Superstar – sorry, but I haven’t watched the recent shows), might have potential, but seem to be poorly executed. Recurring SNL “characters” were designed for sketch comedy and most can’t sustain an entire movie.
hehehehehehe In all honesty, I can’t say that I have seen a SNL movie recently that I have truly liked. That included Wayne’s World which I tolerated and had a few funny scenes but nothing that kept me going.