Saturday, April 16, 2011

Recently acquired comedies

Here's a general disclaimer for you, but first, a story. I work in multiple areas here at the library, including in public on the first floor, in public on the second floor, and in private in an undisclosed location (where I can't say exactly what it is I do, but I am not denying that I personally select and catalog films for President and First Family Obama's viewing pleasure--this is beside the point, and I wish the paparazzi would stop hassling me about it).

So, I work in public and in private here at the library. In my office, I do work that I cannot do at the desk--mostly tasks that I'd rather not have interrupted. Writing a blog post is not one of those tasks, and I'm happy to blog while helping the public. However, when I blog about movies, let's say, I don't have any speakers to hear what all is said in the trailers I embed in the post--I watch them silently for graphic stuff to warn you about, but I can't hear what they are saying. So, except for the wonderful foreign films with their subtitles, I cannot tell whether the characters are speaking an entire string of obscenities from beginning to end on these things.

The general disclaimer then is that you may hear something you don't like, I don't know, and I'm sorry I cannot warn you. Hear what you will at your own risk.

Four Lions [1]
Four would-be terrorists in London fail at terrorism and possibly life in general. This comedy has quite a bit of critical acclaim, including a Sundance Grand Jury nomination and a BAFTA award for Oustanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, who in this case is Christopher Morris, better known to me as Denholm Reynholm from the first season of The IT Crowd. [2]

Disclaimer: As an animal lover, I don't like seeing harm done to animals, but the rook that explodes in the trailer is cartoony in that one moment there's a bird and the next feathers flying around like that one lingerie ad with the underwear clad models having a pillow fight...at least, I don't think I made that up, but I'm not about to look it up on youtube while at work.


OSS 117: Lost in Rio [3]
OSS 117 is a spoof of spy movies in general and James Bond in particular. This is actually the second OSS 117 film (we also recently acquired OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies), and this one sends the French agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath to 1967 Brazil to find a fugitive Nazi. [4]



Who's the Caboose? [5]
For 90's comedy enthusiasts, this ensemble mockumentary follows a comedienne shopping her idea for a TV show pilot to studios. The cast is a who's who of 90's comedians, many remembered and doing well today, including Sarah Silverman, Sam Seder, Mark Maron, Laura Kightlinger, Kathy Griffin, Andy Dick, David Cross, Mark Cohen, Todd Barry, and others I've missed in my skim over the IMDb full cast listing.



Recently acquired links
1. Place a request on Four Lions, or learn more about it on IMDb

2. Don't remember Denholm Reynholm? Don't know about the hilarious British series The IT Crowd? Now that you know about IT, don't you want to request IT from the library?

3. Place a request on OSS 117: Lost in Rio, or learn more about it on IMDb

4. Place a request on OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, or learn more about it on IMDb

5. Place a request on Who's the Caboose?, or learn more about it on IMDb

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Brian, for the heads up. Four Lions sounds quite promising, and I'm happy to see it's available for streaming on Netflix!