Best in Show (2000)

An old review of mine, still feel the same way about the movie, but adjusted the rating slightly.

Brought to you by the same creative team that created Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show is a “mockumentary” of the dog shows that audiences everywhere seem to love. It shows you the lives of the dog’s owners and how they made the cut for the Mayflower Dog Show, an annual tradition that is eagerly looked forward to. Sadly, the main focus of the film is on the cast of humans and not the cast of dogs. Oh well, maybe someone will make that brilliant idea into an actual movie.

The inherent problem with the “mockumentary” genre is that despite how committed everyone is to making everything seem as realistic as possible, everything that’s shown seems to have a very staged, pre-conceived feel to it. Nothing that happens will strike you as completely surprising, and that’s simply because of the structure of the film in relation to the nature of the genre. The film doesn’t stray it’s focus from the main ensemble cast at all, meaning you can pretty much figure out for yourself how everyone’s going to place at the competition. Regular documentaries will actually give airtime to your regular everyday Joes, but not mockumentaries. Nooo that would disrupt the delicate comedic balance it attempts to maintain.

Well, I might be getting a little harsh there, considering this is my favourite of the current trilogy (which became four movies with the addition of For Your Consideration) of Christopher Guest mockumentaries. I mean really, there’s no comparison between small-town community theatre, a celebration of folk music or dogs. Anyways, much like Guffman, Best In Show has an enormously talented ensemble cast, much of which is comprised of many of the same cast members as Guffman. Thankfully the additions of Jennifer Coolidge and the hilarious Jane Lynch didn’t upset any of the chemistry between everyone. The same can be said for Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins’ fantastically clichéd gay couple. I could have done without Will Sasso, though that usually goes without saying.

The cast completely buy into Guest’s project and deliver some truly fantastic and layered performances, mostly because these are characters that they’ve been given the briefest of outlines on, and just created themselves. Larry Miller’s role is once again far too brief, but it’s quite possibly the highlight of the movie for me. That is if Fred Willard didn’t completely steal the show with his commentating during the dog show. The best way to describe it is that it comes across as very Mystery Science Theatre 3000-esque, but with a much lower common denominator. It’s smart dumb, basically.

Guest’s movies will never be perfect, simply due to the limits of the genre he’s chosen / created for his pictures. Once again, there’s no charismatic host going along on the journey with us, guiding us through (mostly) small-town America. Guest’s role in the movie is much less overbearing than his Guffman role, but the tone of the movie can definitely have an “acquired taste” feel to it.

3.5 / 5

The Three Stooges (2012)

The year is 2012.  The Farrelly Brothers – who arguably peaked with There’s Something About Mary back in 1998 – are still making movies, and you know, that’s fine.  However, someone keeps paying them to make their movies, and they somehow attract decent and famous actors for their movies.  This is of growing concern to me, because their films are becoming increasingly difficult to sit through.  So for this movie, they decided to give us The Three Stooges except in modern days.  A trio of men whose heyday was probably about 60 years ago (and just reading through their Wiki entry has depressed the hell out of me), whose chief claim to fame was physically assaulting each other to an alarming extent, reinvented for a modern audience.  How could that be a bad idea at all?

I don’t want to unnecessarily crap all over this movie, but I hated it.  The bright spots are the fairly accurate impersonations of the Stooges by Chris Diamantopoulos (Moe), Sean Hayes (Larry), and Will Sasso (Curly), as well as Sofia Vergara’s completely over the top performance, and her wonderful wardrobe.  I will also give points for Moe physically assaulting the cast of “Jersey Shore”.  Well, not many points, because I didn’t give this movie even a full point.

It didn’t work.  The entire movie, as a whole, while yes, it might be a loving accurate tribute to The Three Stooges, does not work.  I can sit down and easily watch old Three Stooges shorts because they were funny and very of their time.  When you have those characters in a modern day setting with a story borrowed from the 1987 Three Stooges video game, NO, so very much NO.  Did not like, would not sit through again, for all the scenes of Kate Upton in a bikini in the world.  Truthfully, there is not a good Stooges movie to be made in the year 2012 or beyond.  No gritty reboot, and even a biopic would be a hard sell.

0.5 / 5