i must have seen a different film!!

Absolutely Fantastic

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Albert Brooks' comedy has always been too dry for my taste, but his latest directorial venture is absolutely pathetic. This movie is supposed to be a comedy, but it barely makes you laugh. Maya and the embassy officials are painfully unfunny, even to the extent of taking away some of the fun.It is almost a cliché that Brooks, as an American, has to explain nuances of the English language to the Indian Maya. Perhaps Brooks needs to be reminded that "Indian" English is more authentically English than the Americanized version. The concept of interviewing the Indian candidates near the beginning of the movie must have seemed funny on paper, but the end result was cringingly boring. How can you mess up such a perfect opportunity for laugh-out-loud comedy? His stand-up routines in the movie are not for the common man in the US, let alone Indians in New Delhi. The whole concept of "what makes you laugh" does not yield any comedy whatsoever. The sojourn to Pakistan wasn't even interesting. The Pakistani laughing jacks seemed more like drunk jokers than "aspiring comedians." The whole movie was so focused on Brooks that it seemed more like an attempt at self-promotion rather than entertainment.This movie is for you only if you want to bore yourself for 98 min, or if you're a Brooks fan-boy.

First, those supposed to be smart viewers don't tell me that I don't get the movie because I'm not a thinking man.The movie is supposed to be a parody and satire. The main character is supposed to be the butt of joke in the movie.Alberts Blook playing himself was a big mistake. The idea of parody is to copy and twist a well known and respected character. Outside of US Albet is virtually unknown. Inside US Brook is practically unfunny. So we ended up with an unfunny character played an unfunny character to portray unfunny comedian.In the whole movie, Bloook goes around to do his unfunny act and shout "look at me, I'm so unfunny. I'm supposed to be unfunny and the audiences in the movie don't laugh with me. It's supposed to be that way so that it's unfunny and the audiences in the movie theater don't laugh at all. It's intended to shoot that way to show my higher intelligence, which is rat brain."It's painful to watch.

This is in many ways a thematic "sequel" of sorts to Brooks' first feature, 1978's "Real Life" -- Brooks essentially plays a version of himself, using his own name, and is making a documentary/essay type film -- so it's best to get comparisons out of the way quickly. It's not as good. But since Real Life is to my mind one of the funniest films ever made and along with Brooks' next three films, a masterpiece, this isn't exactly damning.I hate using the phrase "acquired taste", but if those words do have any meaning then surely Albert Brooks' works as writer-director-star all qualify for the adjective; his reviews have always been divided, the box office always mediocre-to-poor, his fans though as fiercely loyal as any. I count myself as one and am happy to report that after the disaster that was "The Muse", Brooks is back on firmer, funnier, and generally more interesting ground. The satirical premise here is that the US State Department, in trying to find new ways to open dialogs with those angry Allah-worshiping folks, have commissioned a study on what makes people laugh in the Muslim world. Right away Brooks is in his element as the simultaneously arrogant and egotistical, yet self-deprecating and depressed paranoid entertainer -- he learns very quickly that he's hardly the country's first choice for this mission, something that gets repeated often throughout the film. It's all the more humorous and (coincidentally) fitting that the head of the project is played by none other than 3rd-tier recent presidential candidate Fred Thompson, and that Brooks is first sent to predominantly Hindu India (I guess we'd like to know what makes the Hindus laugh too, they're important and they might hate us some day).If you know Brooks, you'll know that much of the humor from here on out will be subtle, low-key, and most of it at the star's expense, but the larger issues of American and Hollywood arrogance in the face of a different culture are never more than a moment's thought away. The bulk of the film has Brooks and his comely multilingual Indian assistant interviewing people on the street (the vast majority of whom speak excellent English, but strangely don't know Brooks' work at all, apart from Finding Nemo, staging a pretty unsuccessful standup show, and illicitly visiting underground Pakistani comics. Some of the best scenes involve Brooks' assistant's boyfriend, a jealous and insecure lover with both a suspicion of and fascination with western culture that is mirrored in Brooks' complex fears of him – as a potential terrorist (for no reason at all) and just as a boyfriend with a potentially dangerous misunderstanding.This all gets a little stale and wraps up rather unconvincingly, alas, but Brooks fans shouldn't fear, the man still has it – he may need some new ideas or insights to bring him back to the level of Modern Romance or Defending Your Life, but at least he's got me laughing again.

I really disagree with the Americans who thinks they can make fun out of anything anytime. I watched the movie from the beginning till the end. But it was such a pain in my brain. No funny scene at all. No acting, no technique, No nothing. I beg you people. If you adore the English "Coupling" series and really think that the American copy version sucks, then you can fully understand me about what I'm trying to tell here. American comedy scriptwriters, actors and directors are really successful when they are working on something original, something genuine like "The Mask". They do it great when they are the master of the situation. But if you don't know so much and learn about it in order to make a movie, then there is so much thats missing.