answermehere

First off, let me say I pretty much worship the ground that Danny McBride walks on - he has made some of the best comedy EVER (foot fist way, eastbound and down), and David Gordon Green has some chops as well. I'm not quite as crazy about James Franco, but heck he was awesome in Freaks and Geeks, and he's not too hard on the eyes.

So, I was going into this movie expecting a few laughs at least. And that's exactly what I got... a ~few~ laughs, a ~very few~ laughs. I noticed something was off within the first few moments and things never improved.

There were a number of jokes that fell totally flat, I'm talking silence in a full house of people who paid nothing to see this. There were some jokes that the teenagers in the audience seemed to appreciate, but overall the audience response was weak, and it felt like the movie had been thrown together without much thought. Or like it had been made about two years ago and sat on a shelf until Natalie Portman won her Oscar and someone decided to release this.

I rarely walk out of movies but I was tempted tonight. They took something that was potentially a good idea and made it a total bore. If you're a fan of Danny McBride, I'd actually advise you to avoid this film as it will degrade your opinion of him.

On the positive side, I guess you could say that McBride and James Franco had okay chemistry - I would be interested to see these two dudes just hanging out and cracking jokes, and that would be more interesting than "your highness".

Oh, and as for the reviewer comparing this to "Princess Bride" ... I don't think so. Not even in the same universe.

I really wanted to like this movie, and - sporadically - I did. The actors are good, the characters and conceit are basically funny, and the camera-work was pro, but most of the (hopefully improvised) comedy was grasping at straws and fails by relying on the obvious jokes.

It's like, you know when you're watching sketch comedy, and a skit may have a funny idea but the jokes are just basically "isn't this a funny idea?" over and over. i.e. most of Mad TV and SNL.

Now compare that to someone like Chevy Chase or Richard Pryor, or even Larry David, who are able to totally improvise with style and creativity and intelligence. They can be shocking and seriously funny.

It just felt like comically these film-makers were slightly out of their depth, as if the actors didn't have time to rehearse or get a read on each other before filming.

That said, the main character and a number of the supporting characters were likable, which is no small potatoes given the topic.

And there were several (probably less than 10) moments that were genuinely funny. For instance the scene that takes place in the church and afterward where he's like "do you think that shirt is appropriate for church?!" Still, the majority of the dialogue felt forced and straining for laughs. I'll watch anything Kevin Corrigan is in, but his group therapy scenes were kind of depressing and blunt, while trying to be shocking.

Neither terrible nor good overall; I could imagine this done much better. Nice effort for taking on an "unsellable" topic.