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Reviews
Modern Family (2009)
Easy entertainment worth watching.
During season one, I just thought it would be another Bill-Cosby-Show. In season two, the writing and the actors grew on me, though they are most often based on stereotypes. The kids throw hilarious punchlines. But it is a show that could not live without the dry sense of humour of the leading couple between Ed O'Neill and Sophia Vergara who sometimes bring elements of the unforgetten MWC into it. Watch the series back to back, you will see some scenes in "Modern Family" that will remind you of "Married...with Children". "Modern Family" feels like Al Bundy hit the lottery jackpot. The stereotypes sometimes are exaggerated, but it is still easy entertainment. If you want a really black sense of humour, watch Monty Python or MWC. Kudos to Ed O'Neill for playing Al Bundy and Jay whatever...Good choice of roles! My main point of criticism is that this family is wealthy and will never hit rock bottom like the Bundys, but apart from that, it is a funny show.
Mind Your Language (1977)
Late night fun discovery on the Internet
I have just discovered this and it is total fun. Whatever happened in Europe at that time (I had just been born when this was aired) , it is nicely wrapped up and played down in that classroom. For me, being an English teacher in 2015 myself, it is nice to discover that the wars in the classrooms have not really changed since then. Everything is about sex, religion and politics, not about talking to each other... A good follow-up to Monty Python's Flying Circus! I was just told I should add more lines to this text. OK. Subversive ideas: the headmaster is a woman who would preferably hire another woman. Gender ideas reversed from the beginning. Colonial history is reversed as Ali, the student, proves smarter than the teacher. Summing up, this was shot in 1977 way ahead of its time.
Fawlty Towers (1975)
Best comedy ever!
This is by far the best comedy I have ever seen. It simply does not age. John Cleese, Andrew Sachs as well as the rest of the cast are stellar. Cleese should have done some more comedy writing at this stage of his career because he is simply good at it! It is real fun to watch this stressed-out hotel manager in Torquay coping with the problems the world (his guests, his wife and his team) put upon him. I had some good laughs watching Monty Python's "Flying Circus", but this is John Cleese himself at his best. Honourable mention goes to Andrew Sachs as Manuel who still makes me fall from my sofa almost 40 years later. Oh yeah, and I DO remember this series anytime now I have to stay at a hotel. Some really come close to Fawlty Towers.
Late Show (1999)
Looking back a nice satire!
I grew up and went to university in the times of Gottschalk's and Schmidt's Late Night Shows in Germany. Watching this movie 15 years after it was produced still left me entertained. German private TV and media of the 90s well-observed, some brilliant acting. Even Gottschalk manages, though he basically plays himself. Yeah, and Dietl absolutely wanted to have his girlfriend Ferres in all of his movies. He could/should have done without. Who really convinced me was Harald Schmidt, who is actually an educated actor. I loved his cynical TV show and it is just great to see this cynic overacting as a cynic pulling strings. The scene where he loses control of his face when he consoles Engel's stalker nearly made me fall off the couch. I also liked the roles of Jasmin Tabatabai, Dieter Pfaff and Olli Dittrich. And it was good to see Helmut Zerlett and his band on the show again!
Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969)
Beating everything out of the meaninglessness of everything.
It is hard to put into words how much I like the "Flying Circus". Born just some years after it was produced, I can still remember how my whole class at school watched a replay of it on German TV at the end of the 80s (it was fortunately not dubbed, just subtitled) and we were always re-enacting the jokes the day after... Fortunately we had teachers who were also into Monty Python, including our English teacher who let us watch their movies. Now, almost 25 years later, they continue to make me laugh. But having grown up and having become a little bit more educated now allows me to produce an even sillier interpretation of their work. The thought underlying everything they did was basically that 99,9% of the things we humans do is practically meaningless. May it be starting or following a religion (Brian), undergoing expert treatment (Confuse-a-Cat Ltd. - a brilliant sketch), politics (Silly Walks) etc. And what made them even better is that they also took on the past with WW2 (the deadly joke, Hilter in England) and their medium TV/cinema in itself. Brian kidnapped by aliens - an early parody of science-fiction, isn't it? All this combined with to-the-point acting, sharp observations and top-notch writing - they were decades ahead of their time. If this did not deserve a 10/10 rating, I would not know what else.
Ödipussi (1988)
Wunderbar.
I watched this movie for about the tenth time tonight. Loriot was an absolute genius who found a worthy counterpart in Evelyn Hamann. May they both rest in peace. Their brilliant observations of postwar Western-German society shall live forever! I am going to kill you if there is violet around, by the way. Well then, what else is there to say to meet the comment requirements? At least that I would like to be such an exact observer as Loriot used to be. I am trying. And shouldn't we all try to hit the can somewhere in our life? Maybe it would do us some good. And now IMDb keeps asking me to write more words. OK, so let us keep roaming in our thoughts . Would it not be good if we all had a closer look at what is going on around us? I mean, should we rather not talk to our neighbour instead of looking at the greater context? I do not have many more things to say about this movie but I keep on writing for I have to write a minimum of ten lines here to get my review published. This is indeed rather annoying for I do not claim to be a comedian.