I couldn’t decide if this was a pit thread or not. But I’m going to keep it nice for the Cafe.
I’ve been to see Starsky & Hutch, the film and the word on the street is it is bad. And I mean that in the traditional sense. Very bad.
Just how many things can I list that’s wrong with this movie?
[ul]
[li]Nothing at all like the original. Fair enough, it it wasn’t also nothing like it and bad.[/li][li]Ben Stiller. Once I was indifferent to him. Then I didn’t think much of him. Now I hate him. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something disturbing about this man.[/li][li]Snoop Doggy Dog. Why didn’t they just put a coat of varnish on the man, and no-one would catch any splinters off this wooden performance?[/li][li]The plot. I know the original wasn’t exactly deep, but the plot here was a puddle by comparison.[/li][li]They swapped the characters around. Starsky was like the original Hutch, Hutch was like the original Starsky. Why?[/li][li]Except they weren’t much like them at all. Hutch robbing stores and dead bodies as a sideline??[/li][li]Did Huggy Bear’s character make any sense to anyone? First he’s a local gangland leader likely to kill them both, then he’s a willing informant, then he’s happy to go on an undercover mission in golf slacks? [/li][li]It thought it was riotously funny throughout. It wasn’t. I laughed once, about the hand towels. The rest of it just wasn’t that funny.[/li][li]What in the name of Zebra Three was going on with Glaser & Souls’ guest appearance at the end?? Pointless, confusing and a sign of a film that simply didn’t care anymore.[/li][/ul]
Safe to say I hated it. I’m now going out to buy the original series on DVD, in the hope it will scrub from my memory this travesty. They may have been lightweight nonsense, but they were good lightweight nonsense!
Oh, and they didn’t have the original theme tune either. This is inexcusable.
The two movies were exactly the same in one very important way: The only time I laughed during either of them was when I was thinking of something else.
I’ve actually never seen the original series; I saw the movie purely for the Wilson/Stiller synergy. I just love the way they interact with each other. I do believe that Owen Wilson is not much of an actor. Stiller, too, for that matter, as they both play the same exact character in all their movies. I believe they act like how they are, which is what makes their movies enjoyable for me. I don’t see how you don’t think Zoolander is funny, though. Will Ferrel did absolutely nothing for you?
I think Stiller is funniest when he plays it “straight”-- like in ‘Meet the Parents’ or ‘Something About Mary.’ When he does “character” comedy like S&H or ‘Zoolander,’ he’s lame.
That said, I thought S&H was okay. Tried way too hard at times.
Question: Was one of the Bay City Kitties also in ‘Swingers?’ I’m thinking I saw one of the blonde Vegas girls Trent and Mike hooked up with.
Sickening, no? Ferrel has got to be one of the funniest character actors (for lack of a better term) to come out of SNL, and in both S&H and Zoolander they even managed to make him…be not funny.
I went with my sister after 2½ Long Islands, and I’m a light weight, and the guy taking tickets insisted that Wilson & Stiller were always a bad match, and that the movie would suck just like Zoolander. On the way out as I passed by him taking tickets, I said, “Zoolander.” He exclaimed, “I told you so!” We laughed.
Why does Hollywood keep doing this to us? Why has Hollywood creativley dried up so severley that they keep churning out these stupid movies based on one old television series after another? Charlies Angels, Lost in Space, Brady Bunch, Scooby Doo, this movie…and a bunch of other crappy wastes of film.
It used to be that a sucessful movie occasionaly spinned a series (Odd couple, etc.), which makes more sense to me. You take one interesting story about a group of people and continue their adventures in a series. But doing it the other way around is ridiculous. It ends up being a single two hour episode and nothing more…and most of these shows can’t hold your attention that long, which is why the episodes were half that long when they orginally aired. I hope and pray that Hollywood moves past this pathetic phase.
Are you guys kidding? I loved this movie. Stiller’s not bad, IMHO, but the combination of everything together was just wonderful.
For the rest of my life, I will never forget this immortal life:
“I’m not gonna lie to ya, it’s gonna get weird… two dragons”.
And c’mon, a jewish drug lord? Snoop was perfect for the role of Huggy Bear. I’m not sure I’ll get it on video, but I consider it a matineee well spent.
[li]Snoop Doggy Dog. Why didn’t they just put a coat of varnish on the man, and no-one would catch any splinters off this wooden performance?[/li]
[li]Did Huggy Bear’s character make any sense to anyone? First he’s a local gangland leader likely to kill them both, then he’s a willing informant, then he’s happy to go on an undercover mission in golf slacks? [/li][/QUOTE]
IMO Snoop doesn’t have to act or make sense. He just has to stand there and look sexy. I’d happily watch a film of Snoop reading the phonebook, particularly in a nice suit. I haven’t seen this film yet, but I will probably agree with the rest of your views as this isn’t my kind of thing at all, but I will go and drool all the same. Guys watch films on these kind of terms all the time, so why shouldn’t I?
P.s. Mr Dogg has drooped the “Doggy” part from his name a while ago.
The criminal thing here is that they haven’t taken an old tv series at all. All Stillers has done is produce a film exactly like all his others, and stuck the label of an old tv series on it in the hope that’ll boost its earnings.
Really, if you changed the car this could have been any 3rd rate comedy-cop film. Starsky & Hutch and all the other characters have only a passing resemblence and the whole style of the film is totally different.
Stiller, for all I care, can spend the rest of his life making trash like this. I simply won’t be watching it. But this time he’s stolen a childhood memory, pissed all over it and then sold it back to me. :mad:
Stiller, OTOH, just ruins everything he is in. ( Mr. Ujest liked " Meet the Parents" but he likes ABBA, too. So I’ve divorced him in this area already.) The flick that he was in with Elizabeth Hurley was so bad and so depressing and so unfunny it turned me against him forever. He is riding on his parents fame, and that ain’t saying much.
The reason why Hollywood does this to us is simple: ** They Hate Us ** and The Idiot Factor. Why invest into plot, characters, sets, acting when idiots will pay to see a bad parody of a TV show?
Idiots will go to see these brainfarts of a movie and pay for it. If they really hate us, they wait until we are most vunerable and release them in the summer where the idiots flock to see crapfests, like Charlie Angels Two ( or one, for that matter, but at least One wasn’t nearly as horrendous.) because then they release the the depressing Oscar-bait movies in the fall-mid winter and those are usually depressing or deep and the Mullets cannot handle either. And the stuff they release from late summer to early fall is the equivalent of dog poo on your shoe.
If I were you I’d call the police and report the person who held a gun to your head and marched you into the theatre.
FWIW, I thought the movie was pretty amusing. I won’t buy it for home consumption but it was a fine way to spend a Saturday afternoon with my bf and $11 well spent.
No, the only cast member the two films has in common is Vince Vaughn (although I was surprised I didn’t recognize Amy Smart, the blond cheerleader they go out with).
Personally, I thought the knife-throwing bit was riotously funny. Hi-lar-ious. The rest was only so-so, though I prefer Stiller in his repressed rage mode (like in here or Mystery Men) than his lonely schlub shtick. The guy can be really funny (his TV show was great), but he seems willing to make anything right now.
Is it possible for one of you bastards to realize that not everyone’s tastes are the same and what I liek may not be what you like and neither group has to be bad? Or should I just join in and say that you are obviously morons who with no taste?
There is no way I will see this movie, so would someone please tell me about the cameo appearence of Glaser and Soul? What do they do? Do they have actual parts or do they just do a “drive-by”? How are they holding up these days?
