Dick With Fun And Jane

I am the other contributor to this blog, you might know me from the ever successful and extremely popular Vehicle Blog.

I am going to start with what this blog is all about: an actual film review. It isn't a new film and it isn't a good film.

Sunday night rolls around, unsurprisingly, once a week. Once a week on a Sunday night the family and I sit down to watch something on the telly. At the moment we are half way through the third series of what is probably the best comedy show ever, Boston Legal. This week was disrupted as Anna was skiving off and Jack was pretending to have a social life. It was just me and the 'rents and as per usual, as it was Sunday, we had the paper to hand... The Sunday Times (that also comes round once a week, on a Sunday). The Sunday Times is probably the most scathing publication known to man (that is only because I can't really call myself 'published' yet, one letter about what a monumental twat James Martin is in Octane apparently doesn't count). Their one-word or one-line summaries of films in the TV listings usually consist of a smattering of "Unimaginative", "Dull", "Tepid" and "longwinded". So when a film review is suffixed with "Barrel of laughs" and it is actually a Comedy and not a period drama or Vietnam war film you get the impression it is going to be extraordinarily funny.

Well all I can say is that the writers for The Sunday Times Culture supplement are trying to do the world a favor by using sarcasm in their review and giving so called comedy films at least something that people can laugh at. Fun With Dick And Jane is the film that I endured on Sunday. Barrel of laughs it was not. All we could count were three laughs, a dog being given a mild electric shock and two falling over gags. All of which were pretty well executed, so good you see two of them in the trailer (below). Lets be fair though there were three good, albeit a little puerile, gags which is more than can be said for some other so called comedy films.



The rest of the film I don't think I can actually tell you about, I wasn't asleep but I don't think I was fully conscious. I was completely sober just not really... well, paying attention. It is an odd state to be in but it wasn't the first time. There has been three other occasions I can think of where I have slipped into this slightly hypnotic state, all when I have been watching films. Sideways, Lost In Translation and Little Miss Sunshine were the three other films. Coincidently, from memory all of these films were given good reviews and as all these films were actually shit (I don't mean violently shit like The Notebook or American Pie just so amazingly boring) I can only assume this hypnotic state these films induce effects people differently. What it does to most film reviewers is it fools them into thinking these films are good. Whatever it is you can rest assured it doesn't happen to my younger brother Jack or me. So as we both contribute to this blog I think that means this is the only place you can come to for honest advice about what films to go and see communicated through bad punctuation and inconsistent capital letters (well at least from one of us, see previous post.)

Greatest Must see films (personal favourites)

1. The Italian Job (the original of course)
Simply because it has something for everything, a bit like "con air" except actually good. Best film ever

2. The departed
Not such a wide appeal, more aimed at the gangster mob movie fan.

3. Apocalypse now
My brother will disagree but I am a little worried about him. Drops off towards the end but still the best 'nam film.

4. Die hard
Hilarious, Gripping and action packed! Can't ask for much more

5. Alien/Aliens
I am not sure which of the 2 is better so I am just going to consider them as one film, defiantly the best Sci-fi

6. Black Hawk Down
Probably not one the best films ever but easy one of my favourites so it had to be in.

7. Pulp Fiction
I know, I know bit of a cliche but every time I watch it I think "wow"

8. Nothing to lose
The best comedy film ever made

9. Lock Stock and Two Smoking barrels
Watched it again the other day and it made me laugh (laaugh) so much.

10. No country for old men
Amazingly tensious (I invented that word, it mean suspenseful but sounds better) throughout