Real Men: Operação Extraterrestre

a movie like real men is for some people quite difficult to like. i suppose in that respect it falls in the same category as 'hudson hawk', another movie that is as much vilified by its opponents as it is praised by its fans. for me, real men was an utterly hilarious experience.

when i saw the movie, i never heard of it, and was therefore without any expectations about plot, people playing in it or general need for suspension of disbelief. this is perhaps the best way to view any movie, yet also harder and harder to achieve in this day and age of mass communication. i guess that it came upon me pretty quickly that nobody in this movie took themselves seriously, and even better, played their parts over the top and had so many completely unbelievable situations happening to them that i couldn't help but be entertained. in fact, i have this movie in my private video collection, and even show it from time to time to small groups of friends who invariably can't help but laugh their lungs empty. yes, this movie might not have eminently quotable lines, a brilliant script or a beeline to the oscars for best comedy, or even the most inspiring actors, but i've seen a lot of movies that label themselves comedies yet fail miserably where this movie succeeds brilliantly; it ends with me having a huge smile on my face. not only that, but any movie which has a clown squad of elite killers should be applauded for it's complete disregard of normal and sane everyday logic. if you can enjoy a good laugh and don't have too high standards of what should and should not happen in movies, this is definitely one to brighten up your afternoon.

The laughing gas, that is... I can only surmise that the writers who worked on this film, faced with a creativity crisis – you know, one of those dark moments of writer's block – must have solved the creativity problem by consuming a few deep hits of laughing gas, and this movie is what resulted. (Unlike Bill, they DID inhale.)

I've seen this movie several times over the years, and I somehow always find myself enjoying the comedy in it, though I find it (the comedy) really rather hard to define. It's not really a "Laugh-yer-butt-off" kind of slapstick humor, though there is a goodly amount of slapstick in it. It's not really a "Laugh-at-the-funny-lines" sort of humor, though again, both Ritter and Belushi do have some very funny lines in it.

I think it's one of those movies that you must approach much as you do, say, a Monty Python film: you need to be in "that frame of mind," you need to straight away drop some of your defenses and your preconceived notions of what constitutes "funny". Otherwise this movie will quickly leave you, thoroughly unamused, by the side of the road, as it continues along its merry, twisted path. By the time the clown scene comes, well, you will not find it funny at all. By then you would probably get more comedic value out of switching the TV channel to Bill O'Reilly or Neil Cavuto.

What makes Real Men work for me is the combination of the bizarre, almost Twilight Zone-like storyline, and the excellent chemistry between John Ritter and James Belushi. The story premise is SO implausibly dumb it just constantly makes me laugh as the movie unfolds. Combine that with the acting and antics of Ritter and Belushi, which are just spot-on smooth as silk, and the whole thing just makes for compelling watching. As mentioned, the two leads have good lines, but I think their body language and facial expressions say as much in this movie (perhaps more) than the spoken word.

So, drop some of your defensive shields, get in a suitably zany mood, and watch this movie. (REALLY watch it, looking at some of the physical humor, the quirks of facial expressions, listening for some of the double entendres, etc. Then you might love this movie, as I do.)

Why lie? It's a movie of nonsense. It's John Ritter and John Belushi at their funniest by being themselves. From the music do Belushi'a humor to the silliness of Ritter it's a smack out of the park home. Why not a 10/10? Ehhhh that would be a perfect movie, but for what it is, 8 for sure. There's so many times to LAUGH YOUR ASS OFF from the clown scene to where Ritter thinks he's shooting them with a finger gun, to the scene with Belushi's family. Oh, it's a rare movie you can actually watch in full on YouTube too. But from seeing this as a boy on ch11 WPIX on weekend afternoons to loving it growing up, it's timeless silliness. Let's be honest, it's not Emmy quality, but they weren't trying for it, and it's just a fun flick that makes you laugh in nearly every scene and that alone makes you truly appreciate it.

So yes the whole concept of the movie is ridiculous. But that is the whole point. This movie is to make you laugh. If you take this seriously then of course you are not going to like it. If you are willing to let you surrender to the absurdity then you will find that this movie has more to offer than comedy alone. For one thing there are some very nice action sequences in this.Then there is the buddy factor.Jim Belushi and John Ritter make a great pair and are the main reason to keep you watching. Now last but not least it is Jim (James) Belushi. Somehow James Belushi always gets underrated. Sure he does a lot of comedies but those do fit more with his acting style. However he can do so much more. In Real Men he actually is quite convincing as the ultra suave super spy. He is very likable and funnily enough not that goofy as he is in his later movies.Do yourself a favor and give this a try. You won't regret it.

This has become well known from cable television. It didn't do anything in the theaters, but it is very funny. I don't know why this was not a hit. A wonderful spoof. I'm not a John Ritter fan, but he and Jim Belushi are really good together. Next time it pops up on cable check it out.