Posted by
Desert Blue on Friday, October 10, 2008 2:24:07 PM
Sigh. I really wanted
to like
An American Carol, but the
writers and editors made it very hard. Comedy about a serious subject is always a difficult balance, but
apparently first-rate talent was somehow unwilling to attempt it. Three possibilities exist. The first is simply that scriptwriters and
editors are so divorced from reality as to be unwilling to participate. The second is that scriptwriters and editors
are too afraid of being blacklisted to participate. The third (and sadly most likely) possibility
is that first-rate comedic talent simply no longer exists in Hollywood.
I mean, really, when was the last good movie you’ve
seen? When you did see one, was it by Pixar? We know that Pixar makes authentic Disney
movies, because real Disney movies make us cry. Of course, they also make us laugh, but such is a balance found in great
drama, and certainly not a balance found in slapstick comedy, which relies
rather on one gag after another, keeping the audience from catching its
breath. Too much breathing room was left
in this movie; An American Carol is
simply not paced as well as earlier films. Let’s face it, Airplane! and
similar previous works by the producers are only ‘classic comedy’ by comparison
to the other clunkers the movie-going public has had to endure since the demise
of the old Hays code. I considered a
detailed analysis of the plot and jokes, but since the producers didn’t bother,
why should I?
The past always seems better than today, because that
which was ugly, useless, or immoral has generally been discarded. This does not mean that evil, foolishness,
and bad taste were absent, nor does it mean that such things are acceptable
because they have always been. Some eras
of history just seem thinner than others because there was little worth
preserving. So far, the 21st
century seems more notable for its technology than its culture.