Well, we have exactly 20 characters. All of them is extremely funny, all of them is ruined by the stupidity of a pop culture that looks like consumer goods (TV shows, programs, songs, ads, magazines.. etc), and all of them is in one mad city, having the big rush that expresses the hidden reality of them. Actually a complete WAW. But while it was initially that ambitious, it was eventually not that good!
They intended to make it as a slapstick, a tongue in cheek, just a crazy farce. And as for the satire, it's between implied and forgotten. You can feel it with the continues cultural references / jokes, as a sarcastic line that says much about the quality of vapid modern culture which effects the characters in a bad way, making almost all of them dumb or lunatic!
So no wonder that (Tim Allen) works in a newspaper, then in the advertising business (as a low step for him!), the craziness of some characters over trivial things, without anything more important to be caring about like: the potato chips, Xena: the Warrior Princess, and the spray gun competition, yet my favorite was the lasting useless debate about football which said a lot about how hollow the radio station was, and how pointless the young men were. Add to that, the endings: the idiot thief dies because his desperate struggle was for something that he didn't even understand, the 2 hit men lose because they are too serious for that absurd city, and you'll grasp easily by now the reason why the script enjoyed exploding 3 television sets during the events!
But they made it as any other comedy. Yes, it's good comedy as it is, however after the end, somehow you'll feel fraud, or at least not satisfied. Why? Because seeing that huge number of so extraordinary characters, done by many lovable actors, without having what equals that of huge fun--is something that must affect you negatively. I thought that they relayed on the comic dialogue more than the situations. And even that dialogue wouldn't be understood fully for non-American viewers. Not to mention that while owning the serious potential, it didn't make use of it. So, at best, the movie looked like 3 episodes of one sitcom aired successively!
In the end, it's just about father and son who got together, and all of the rest is quite losers; which deepens my sadness over this movie as a wasted great comedy about mad city that's ruled by brainless values and extreme violence, so all of its humans become such a big trouble, like it's a new (It's Mad Mad Mad World) yet where the characters don't run after the money.. they run after the bomb; as if it's a society that yearns for its own destruction. But sorry, they wanted a comedy about brainless people, and they delivered a brainless one too; to become a part of the very culture which it mocks at!
They intended to make it as a slapstick, a tongue in cheek, just a crazy farce. And as for the satire, it's between implied and forgotten. You can feel it with the continues cultural references / jokes, as a sarcastic line that says much about the quality of vapid modern culture which effects the characters in a bad way, making almost all of them dumb or lunatic!
So no wonder that (Tim Allen) works in a newspaper, then in the advertising business (as a low step for him!), the craziness of some characters over trivial things, without anything more important to be caring about like: the potato chips, Xena: the Warrior Princess, and the spray gun competition, yet my favorite was the lasting useless debate about football which said a lot about how hollow the radio station was, and how pointless the young men were. Add to that, the endings: the idiot thief dies because his desperate struggle was for something that he didn't even understand, the 2 hit men lose because they are too serious for that absurd city, and you'll grasp easily by now the reason why the script enjoyed exploding 3 television sets during the events!
But they made it as any other comedy. Yes, it's good comedy as it is, however after the end, somehow you'll feel fraud, or at least not satisfied. Why? Because seeing that huge number of so extraordinary characters, done by many lovable actors, without having what equals that of huge fun--is something that must affect you negatively. I thought that they relayed on the comic dialogue more than the situations. And even that dialogue wouldn't be understood fully for non-American viewers. Not to mention that while owning the serious potential, it didn't make use of it. So, at best, the movie looked like 3 episodes of one sitcom aired successively!
In the end, it's just about father and son who got together, and all of the rest is quite losers; which deepens my sadness over this movie as a wasted great comedy about mad city that's ruled by brainless values and extreme violence, so all of its humans become such a big trouble, like it's a new (It's Mad Mad Mad World) yet where the characters don't run after the money.. they run after the bomb; as if it's a society that yearns for its own destruction. But sorry, they wanted a comedy about brainless people, and they delivered a brainless one too; to become a part of the very culture which it mocks at!