He was the definitive George W. Bush…
Oh, yes, he definitely was. All the guys that followed him (including Darrell Hammond!) were pale imitations.
Yes, I recall the Sherlock Holmes spoof specifically. I started viewing that one, knowing full well this was not going to be a good movie. Nonetheless I had to stop after some 15 minutes when they were attacked by the bees (don’t ask), as I simply couldn’t stand it anymore.
I still believe it is a pity as I think he might make a good comedian if he would be willing to recalibrate his comedic instincts to modern society. It seems a number of old SNL alumni get stuck in the mode of body humor, gross physical jokes with ‘funny’ faces, instead of the quicker intellectual/ironic/‘meta’ kind of wit that is common nowadays.* Chevy Chase comes to mind, who did perform well in Community when reined in by a tight script, but according to commentary still prefered a cruder, body-oriented type of humor.
I always thought that 30 Rock played off on that, by showing the old SNL type of humor in the brief skits (the fart machine!), while the show itself was a different kind of comedy.
- Of course there is still a kind of ‘gross’ humor in movies like Judd Apatow, Amy Schumer, but I feel that it is somewhat different. That might be the subject of another discussion.
He just needs more cowbell.
He does a wonderful Alex Trebek.
Other than that, ecch.
Agreed.
I’ve been disappointed by most of his movies; Anchorman could have been the great satire about the 24-hour news cycle we’re overdue for, but it wasn’t. The same director also made The Big Short, which was brilliant; Anchorman should have been too.
On the other hand, Everything Must Go was a quietly great movie. I saw it on an airplane; I was otherwise unaware of its existence. He just needs a good script and a studio to promote it.
I was going to post the same thing. Sure, Anchorman, Old School, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers were hilarious. And it’s fun to see him do cameos at whatnot. A lot of his other comedies suck. He should do more films like Everything Must Go and Stranger Than Fiction.
It’s kind of the same with Adam Sandler. He has the potential to do better films. I even liked him in that Judd Apatow film Funny People where he played a kind of jerky version of himself.
I’d give high marks to Anchorman, Elf, Talladega Nights (“Thank you, Baby Jesus, for my hot wife!” “Woohoo!”) and Step Brothers. His other stuff hasn’t always wowed me.
It seems to be a common them for actors from SNL have to have the first few movies they do be good and then the quality of them just deteriorates for some reason. Will Farrell, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Rob Schneider all fit that model.
Rather than starting a new thread, I’ll post here:
I watched the Eurovision movie today and thought it was pretty good. It felt very sincere and the musical numbers were surprisingly good. Apparently there were a number of cameos for Eurovision fans (which I am not), but it was still a fun and lighthearted flick. Perfect for a streaming release.
It seemed like I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had more than a very passing familiarity with Eurovision. It was a bit weird. It was an obviously American film, and an obviously Will Ferrell film at that, but it seemed like a lot of the humor was aimed squarely at Eurovision fans, surely a tiny demographic in the U.S.
Any European (or otherwise Eurovision fan) Dopers watch it?
I’m European, didn’t watch the Eurovisiion movie for reasons discussed in this thread. There were mixed reviews over here, so maybe I should give it a try. It does also star Rachel McAdams.
As I recall, the saying is that you can pretend to be serious, but you can’t pretend to be funny. It takes guts to go out there and risk failure. But it takes brains to figure out which scripts are worth taking…maybe?
Bill Murray has made very good movies late into his career, mostly by turning down “surefire” comedies from directors he doesn’t want to work with anymore. Robert Downey Jr’s career has been quite a rollercoaster, but his “one and done” season on the show kind of shot by unnoticed. Not following Kristen Wiig’s career very closely, but the last thing I saw her in–Diary of a Teenage Girl–was pretty impressive. Also, Tina Fey. That’s four out of about 200 careers, though.
I think Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock are one concert movie apiece from being back in the game.
It’s Will Ferrell, and Colin Farrell. Please learn them. There will be a test later.
Feral actors are dangerous in the wild.
I watched it. Also not a fan of Will Ferrell, but I do like Eurovision and Rachel McAdams.
There were some cringyworthy bits, as all his movies have, but over all? I liked it.
“Ja ja ding dong” is an annoying earworm.
I thought it was one of Ferrell’s best movies in a long time. It was funny overall, heartfelt, touching and ended on a good note. Plus it had surprisingly good music for a movie of its type, and even the villain turned out not to be so bad.
Will Ferrell was on SNL during the era when they relied to a great deal on the “Annoying = funny” approach to constructing characters and sketches, which is perhaps my least favorite. They’d take someone with a trait or mannerism that would make them annoying to be around in real life, exaggerate the trait that made them annoying, and… that was supposed to be funny. Ferrell was not the only offender, but he was certainly one of them.