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radiodiffusion
Reviews
Two and a Half Men (2003)
Baffling
Clearly I'm missing something here; this programme is constantly being billed as "America's most popular comedy" and it has a fairly high rating on here, but I just can't stand it. It's not funny. I think that my main issue with it is that none of the characters are in any way likable.
We have Charlie Sheen playing what is essentially an over-exaggerated version of himself: an alcoholic, millionaire sex-maniac who, in my opinion, comes across as a borderline rapist - I mean, he's often getting women inebriated in order to have sex with them, OK - it's a comedy, it's not meant to be taken seriously, but it seems extremely sinister.
Then there's his brother, a man who is equally sex-obsessed, but just doesn't seem to receive as much of it, and who lives off his brother like some kind of parasite. He has a son; a greedy, chubby, intellectually subnormal adolescent, and a vile ex-wife. There is also the ghastly mother of the two brothers, and a loudmouthed maid.
The characters all behave towards each other in an almost sociopathic way - even they can't seem to stand each other and communicate though insulting one-liners. Again, I understand that it's a comedy and shouldn't be taken seriously, but there's something inherently depressing about the dynamic and relationship between the characters. I find it difficult to enjoy or find humour in something that is made up of such unpleasant individuals.
That aside, I'm surprised that people haven't got tired of the humour in this programme, it's entirely based around three main themes: sex jokes, fart/bowel movement jokes, and "ha ha the kid is so stoopid, tee hee hee" jokes.
One more thing - the series also contains constant references to the baffling observation that drinking coffee makes you s!!t. I've never heard this anywhere outside of Two and a Half Men, and they mention it all the time. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just do not like it.
Doctors (2000)
What on earth?
This is one of the strangest things on TV. It is set in a bizarrely underpopulated Midlands superb called Leatherbridge which seems to be the dullest place in the country. It features a bar with no visible staff or customers, a university with no students, a police station with no criminals and a doctors' surgery with more doctors than patients. The story lines are dire - every episode revolves round a bizarre medical issue acted out by a variety of brummie extras who can never actually act, and for some reason the doctor always ends up round their house solving their problem. Pretty entertaining for its pure comedy value, but I cannot believe that this thing actually masquerades as a serious drama. Bonkers.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Quality film
I've seen hat this film seems to have either very positive or very negative reviews, and in my opinion the majority of the negative ones are unjustified.
A lot of people don't seem to understand that the story is from a book by Roald Dahl, and was not invented by the original film. This version stays a lot closer to the original Roald Dahl story, and I'm sure many people that read that book will notice the effort that the director has gone to to recreate the feel of the original illustrations on screen. Several people writing comments on here have complained about the "addition" of the glass lift and the squirrels etc. These are elements from the book, which the older film chose to leave out. Also, I've seen people complaining about the omission of the part in the other film where Charlie and the grandfather start floating around after drinking some kind of magic drink from the factory. This was never in the book, and I'm not sure why people loved this totally unnecessary scene so much.
Basically, this film sticks far more to the book the the other one did, and I don't think it's fair to criticise it for that (especially seeing as Roald Dahl reportedly hate the original film for changing his story so much). If you loved the book, then this film is probably much more how you imagined the story, and in my opinion is far superior to the dark and creepy older film.
Ben & Arthur (2002)
Hilarious
Just watched this after hearing about how bad it was and wanted to see for myself. Seriously, even if you read all the negative comments on here you will be nowhere near able to comprehend how awful this film actually is, although it has to be one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen! Never bothered to post a comment on here before, but this piece of crap really warrants it.
Firstly the entire plot is ridiculous and nonsensical. Brother of the lead character (either Ben or Arthur, I forget which is which, and frankly it's never very clear) wants to stop some kind of gay marriage by killing everyone in sight - because homosexuality is abhorrent to Christians, but apparently mass murder isn't. Then there's some other crap thrown in about one of the gay couple's ex-wife trying to force him to remarry her at gunpoint. This leads to nothing, but provides us with one of the funniest lines of dialogue in the whole "film" - "I don't make sense? You don't make sense! That's who makes sense!". Brilliant.
Then there's the acting, which is just atrocious. It must be seen to be believed. My personal favourite is the apparently stoned civil rights lawyer woman, who is clearly reading her lines off of something, yet still managing to mess them up. Enough said. The gay couple couldn't be less convincing. There's the vaguely attractive and completely gormless guy, and his boyfriend who looks like that little cartoon dough man of the bisto adverts. Only fatter. And less talented.
The "film" has also been filmed by someone who is incapable of holding a camera even remotely still, and the number of mistakes throughout is amazing. The whole thing kicks off with the fat main guy in bed with a pair of boots on. Yep.
But anyways, we all know how terrible this thing is, so I'd like to highlight some of the most priceless comedy moments that the "film" provides.
- When the fat guy sets the church on fire and then prances like a six year old girl across the car park to make his escape. Hilarious.
- Mildread! No idea what relation she is to the main characters - sometimes they know her, sometimes they don't, but she pops up in a couple of scenes nonetheless. Hilarious.
- The stoned lawyer. Already mentioned her, but she's so funny she's worth another mention.
- The evil brothers dinner of crackers that he lays on for his guests.
- The evil brother's anti-gay potion.
- The evil brother's cats.
- The ending, which I won't give away because it MUST be seen to be believed. I warn you though, make sure you're not eating at the time!!!! The tub of lard main character/director/producer gets naked. It's foul.
Basically, Ben and Arthur is indescribably bad, but unintentionally the most comical thing you'll see for a long time. Literally, nothing is good about this excuse for a film, the goon of a director even manages to make the opening credits into a joke by writing his own name about 15 times.