I'm not ready to get out the torches and pitchforks and lead a lynch mob after Mr Martin -- not yet anyway! Having read the early reviews here, I went to the cheapo theater with low expectations, and emerged pleasantly surprised. There were some genuine laughs from time-to-time, plus a great cast (shoulda got more out them). My daughter and grandchildren were delighted.
The overall plot is reasonably clever -- so, that leaves the gags. Some work - some don't work that well, as evidenced by the fact that many IMDb'ers want to talk about why some of the gags don't 'feel right', or seem to 'take too long'. (No really successful comedians ever had people talk about how their gags don't seem to be working -- people just talk about how much they laughed. When people start analyzing why your comedy isn't funny, it ain't workin'). But we had a few chuckles in this one, if not a bunch of sustained belly laughs.
Everyone says we should stop comparing Steve Martin to Peter Sellers, but, if you watched the original films, how can you stop comparing? Sellers created this character, just as Atkinson created Mr. Bean and Cleese created Basil Fawlty. And Steve Martin tries to do Sellers anyway (his 'little yellow friend' line?). He can't quite pull it off, and he hasn't really found a shtick that works. For one thing, his eyes are always popping, like he's trying to pass gas. Sellers' eyes were quiet. His Clouseau was genuinely 'clueless'. And, I've mentioned elsewhere at IMDb that Sellers was a major Radio comedy star before doing films - that puts him in a league with Abbott & Costello, Burns & Allen, Bob Hope and Jack Benny. These guys built amazing gags that kept both live and radio audiences in stitches, using well-constructed devices such as bizarre characterizations, rapid exchanges, and nifty voices. Mr. Martin's roots in comedy are from a different - and later - era.
Overall, though, if you need an amusing and harmless diversion, go see this at the reduced-price theater. For $4, I'm in - $20 for a date and me, plus popcorn? where are those torches and pitchforks?
6/10 canuckteach
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