There's Something About Mary

The shock comedy aside (zipper and hair gel scenes), purposeful unpolitically correct moments (humor at expense of handicapped, animal cruelty), the most surprising thing about this film is it has heart and is rather sweet. It's not the completely nasty, cruel comedy you might have been expecting. There's a nice love story in here too. It's corny and cliche'd and doesn't feel overly cloying because there are enough shockingly funny moments to offset it. The acting is good, the pacing brisk, and the jokes, well... you've heard all about the best ones by now.

A lot of my friends said they hated this, but after i saw it and loved what I saw, it became apparent that many of these people hadn't seen it, they just KNEW they would hate it from the degradingly mysoginistic slapstick it supposedly represented. Sorry, wrong movie. This is a classic satire, replete with balladeer narrator. The gags flow fast and funny and expertly walk the tightrope between politically incorrect and unkind. This is surprisingly a movie that is very true to itself and its characters with a lot of plotlines that tie up nicely in unusual ways. And, it's a feel-good movie too. Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller are marvelous together in the leads.

In the past I have not been a great fan of the Farrelly brothers films, however this film is an exception. The dog scenes were probably the funniest personally, but there were heaps of other scenes that are well worth a mention. Cameron Diaz was fantastic as Mary, the girl everyone is after and Ben Stiller was excellent. Matt Dillon was way too over the top- I know his role somewhat warranted it- but did he have to be so excessive? He seemed so irritating. There is no doubt that the humour in this film is of the lowest possible calibre, but it really works- think Dumb & Dumber, but only quite good. Despite all the comic situations in the film, there is still something undeniably sweet in the centre of the story, I think thats what made it work. Its certainly not top class entertainment, but its highly recommended for when you are in a stupid mood and need a good laugh.

Whenver we refer to modern comedies I think we have to go all the way back to "There's Something About Mary" to see where this all started. It set the new standards for comedy and also became a much imitated movie. Movies however very rarely reached the level of this movie ever again, including all of the Farrelly brothers own later work.

It's the sort of raunchy comedy, that makes some completely inappropriate jokes and makes for instance fun of both psychically and mentally handicapped people, among many other things. This is the foremost reason why some people can't really stand this movie but luckily most others are able to see the talent and effort that were put into making this movie and why the movie works out so well.

As strange as it sounds, it's actually a real subtle done comedy. It's not predictable in any way and the build up and execution of it is spot on. It even makes all of the moments, that usually seem like something totally lame and forced, work out as something hilarious.

It also has a great, yet very simple premise, of a bunch of guys all falling for the same girl. It's the sort of story that provides the movie with plenty of silly comical moments, in which the characters lie and constantly are backstabbing each other, all to get the girl in the end.

Cameron Diaz forms the perfect centerpiece for this movie and the movie is filled with plenty of comical characters, all played by some capable genre actors. This movie is still from the time when it was cool to like Ben Stiller and yes, he also really is perfect in his role. But basically everyone is perfectly cast in this, which is obviously also a reason why the movie and all of its comedy works out so well.

Comedies like this only seem to come once every 10 years, or so.

8/10

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Insanely off the wall comedy from the Farrelly Brothers that delivers from start to finish. Wonderful early sequence with Keith David as Diaz's father busting heavily braced Stiller's chops. Stiller's zipper scene goes down as one of the funniest and most painful things I have ever witnessed on film. Diaz is divine the woman of Stiller's dreams...Dillon is hired to find Diaz...He falls in love with her and gives Stiller a bum story... Lee Evans, a pizza boy, is in love with her too... then Brett Favre comes into the picture. Every scene has something memorable from Dillon's attempts at reviving a dog to Stiller's "pre date entertainment." A classic that doesn't take itself too seriously.