As mainstream commercial movies increasingly accommodate and prefer comedy content, this has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges to mainstream comedies: on the one hand, comedians no longer need to chase performance awards as they did in the past. The recognition of the company can also obtain a wider range of even international visibility in the market. Paul Rudd from the "Bad Boy Gang" and Christine Wegg from "SNL", such a pure comedian, can have the opportunity to join or even star in a superhero blockbuster, opening up careers other than the art line A new door to a career; on the other hand, this has also made it difficult for pure comedy films to compete with high-investment first-line blockbusters in market competition. The loss of talents and the dilution of themes have led to a sharp decline in market share, which has forced a large number of difficulties. Excellent comedians who have obtained high-quality film resources turned to the TV field, which instead promoted the small revival of TV comedies-but the high intensity and high density of the TV industry is almost exhausting for comedy themes that require time to accumulate and transform. . Although there are excellent new dramas like HBO's "Barry", there are also many old dramas ("The Annoying Detective" and "The Last Man") lying on the road of being hacked and urgently in need of first aid.
In this case, the vitality of comedy movies has actually been dealt a serious blow. After "Neighbors War", there was neither a decent new IP nor a decent new actor. And as Seth Rogen gradually turned behind the scenes, Melissa McCarthy and Kevin Hart are not even the first brothers and sisters of comedy, but the only two who are still fighting on the front line and can support one. A successful comedy movie, and widely recognized brother and sister.
In this case, "Happy Hour Murder" brought comedy fans a greater regret than the market failure.
As the second terrible comedy film invested by Huayi and STX this year (the first is "Super-Large Beauty"), "Happy Hour Murder" originally had very optimistic potential: the collision of puppet comedy and dirty comedy , A mix of physical comedy and language comedy, and the jade of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is in front, and he is the seed player of the best comedy of the year.
However, things backfired. The happy point of "Happy Hour Murder" is quite dull, and it does not show the uniqueness of the puppet comedy at all. For most of the time, it only stays on the level of display rather than promotion. This makes the freshness brought by the puppet quickly lose its appeal. The movie is only 75 minutes, but it may start to make people yawn after 15 minutes.
The reason why the film has such a bad performance is mainly due to the problems in the grasp and understanding of the style. The "Muppet Movie" of the past few years was very precise in positioning, and had very consistent characteristics in comedy design and narrative. But "Happy Hour Murder" wants to go the dirty comedy route, but also doesn't want to give up the serious noir route. As a result, many characters in many comedy passages are not stupid enough, and in crime movie passages, many characters are too stupid.
Although we often complain about Ben Falcone, who is of ordinary qualifications, is a shortcoming that limits Melissa McCarthy’s career development, but for "Happy Hour Murder", director Brian Hanson is the boring movie. The root cause lies. As the master of puppet comedy, he failed to successfully transplant the characteristics of this genre to the big screen. The strange selection of screenwriters has greatly aggravated the boring degree of the movie, and even makes people feel that, whether it is a comedy or a drama, most of the content of the movie is played on the spot, and the whole movie seems to have only an outline. Just like booting up.
Of course, this type of shooting is commonplace for comedy movies and puppet shows, but this does not mean that this type of filming will definitely bring a good comedy movie. "Happy Hour Murder" is very indifferent in terms of laughter. The most important role interactions of similar movies are not well portrayed here. There is even only one Maya Rudolph in the whole movie that has some depth. (Interestingly, Maya Rudolph was also one of the few highlights in another Melissa McCarthy comedy earlier this year.
When we put together Robert Zemigis's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Happy Hour Murder", we will find significant differences in artistic treatment and narrative mode between the two. For the former, it provides a cartoonish, but very real world. (Almost) all cartoon images are neurotic, but they are pure and harmless to humans and animals. This also gives the protagonist a better adventure. But for the latter, all puppets, like humans, are complex and flawed "people"-then the problem is, if these characters are just pretending not to be "people". People", what's the point of this? The same holds true if the whole story is all human beings. Then why must it be a puppet, not a human?
Melissa McCarthy and Bill Barreta of the Muppet Show are both talented comedians. They (especially the former) know how to make comedic content a natural extension of their characters, balancing reality and absurdity. . However, in the overly serious and heavy-mouthed "Happy Hour Murder", the two had to make a lot of sacrifices for the existing setting and creative orientation of the movie, which in turn affected the look and feel of the entire movie.
In short, as a puppet comedy that once again launched an impact on the big screen three years after "The Muppet Movie 2", Brian Hansen's personal appearance did not make much value to the brand image. Exploration and extension can even be said to be a disappointing attempt and a waste of resources. In recent years, the theme of comedy has gradually turned from adult pornography back to family drama. "Happy Hour Murder" is far from being an eternal classic like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Perhaps the only lucky one is this one. Movies are far from being a stumbling block in Melissa McCarthy's career.
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