i m N s h o

 Coming, as it does, from Happy Madison productions, one should not be surprised to find the Out-Laws playing hard to the comedy lowest common denominator. But seriously, this one really scrapes bottom.  I started watching the other day due to a dearth of other appealing options (everything else on my multiple watch lists seemed too heavy, deep, dark or just unappealing at the time), so I opted for the dumb movie. And after a relatively short time, I found myself stuck watching it from shear "are you kidding" me incredulity.   The moment that really broke me was the armored car chase scene after their bungled second-act bank robbery. As they start fleeing the scene of the crime, Brosnan and Barkin's characters jump into the back of the car as Devine, complete with Shrek mask/makeup running down his face, drives. AND, of course, as he pulls away, they leave the back doors of the car open, so that the money can fly out over the course of the chase that follows. I'm pr...

 Or, perhaps, simply from my darker sensibilities.  Since I'm between jobs again, once I'm done with the morning's scanning of job listings (I can only spend so much time reading job descriptions till the words stop making sense), I find myself watching a lot of movies and TV. Yesterday was not a banner day for me.  I started with Mike Flanagan's The Midnight Club . I've enjoyed every one of Flanagan's series on Netflix (the Haunting of Hill House , the Haunting of Bly Manor , Midnight Mass ) and am definitely looking forward to what he does with the Fall of the House of Usher . So I figured I'd check out Midnight Club. I should have taken a cue from this for the rest of my day, but 10 minutes in I realized that watching a series about terminally ill teeanagers really wasn't cutting it for me. So I went looking elsewhere.  For some reason, I ended up watching Men after this. Not sure how this seemed like a good idea, but at least there weren't any t...

There, I've said it. And the Golden Globes, and this writer from VOX who called it "a delightfully madcap tale of Irish zaniness" and everyone else chortling to themselves as they hop on the comedy bandwagon can all f off.  (This movie's been out long enough that I don't feel the need to worry about spoilers. So suffice it to say that, if you haven't seen the movie yet… and intend to… and you don't want any surprises spoiled, bookmark this post and come back after you've seen it.) Let me be clear… I understand black comedy. I enjoy black comedy. And I loved In Bruges , the last movie these guys did together. So I looked forward to Banshees and couldn't wait to check it out.  I've now seen it three times, and only truly laughed at any of it the on the third watching (more on that in a moment). And I am more certain than ever that this movie, as good as it and its performances are, is not a comedy.  The first time through (early on, before the ...