A Futile And Stupid Gesture

[kidsick5000]

The story of Doug Kenney who co-created The National Lampoon, available now on Netflix.
It's quite a sweet tale and uses an interesting device of using Martin Mull as the Kenney as he'd be aged today.
It's interesting gambit I think designed to make some people think that Mull is indeed Kenney. (They've seen him around various comedy things, not clocked the name, it could be him.) Though that would require not looking at Kenney's wikipedia page.

It starts a host of known comedy talents playing versions of 70s US comedy fraternity they have the most passing resemblance to (though Joel McHale is way too hulked out to play Chevy Chase).
Will Forte manages to be charming enough and not look too weird as a college boy.
If you know the story, you know how this is going to go. Unreliable genius who apparently doesn't so much blaze a trail in comedy as he produced a counterculture Playboy with marginally less blatant nudity.

There's also Domhnall Gleeson, further cementing his title of greatest living chameleon.

Anyone else watched it?

[Shit Good Nose]

Added it to my list and read up a little bit about the film (rather than the real history, of which I'm already well aware).  To be honest the thing I'm most intrigued about is the portrayal of all of those other 70s comedians, and that's what I'll be going into it for initially.

Quite a lot of the reviews I've read suggest that it's quite mediocre, though.  Which is probably expected I guess.

Fair play to Netflix for giving it a shot, though - even in the US Kenney isn't as generally well remembered as any of his colleagues, or those whose careers National Lampoon kicked off, so it hasn't exactly got a massive built-in fanbase ready to lap it up.

[kidsick5000]

Added it to my list and read up a little bit about the film (rather than the real history, of which I'm already well aware).  To be honest the thing I'm most intrigued about is the portrayal of all of those other 70s comedians, and that's what I'll be going into it for initially.

Quite a lot of the reviews I've read suggest that it's quite mediocre, though.  Which is probably expected I guess.

Fair play to Netflix for giving it a shot, though - even in the US Kenney isn't as generally well remembered as any of his colleagues, or those whose careers National Lampoon kicked off, so it hasn't exactly got a massive built-in fanbase ready to lap it up.

It's interesting in that it portrays him as more as less of a genius and more a charismatic workaholic member of a team.

But don't really be looking for amazing facsimiles of famous comedians. The closest is Paul Scheer as Paul Schaffer

[phantom_power]

I am a fan of most of Wain's previous films so am looking forward to this

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm greatly fond of Wain's work (especially We Came Together) and this is a smart, funny film, but nothing more than that. It hits the standard biopic notes and a few new ones to boot, and the performances are decent, with Will Forte being likeable for a change, but the final forty minutes become a bit gloomy and spoil the fun. 7.3/10

[ieXush2i]

I love Wain but this was largely wank. I don't see how it would make much sense unless you already have a working knowledge of the people involved and events depicted. Tony Hendra has a joke about sharing credit for Lemmings, but Lemmings is never actually explained, for example, and loads of famous interview quotes are forced into scenes as injokes ("I don't write for felt" etc). Kinney is never a character you want to give a shit about, just someone who glibly speaks in punchlines - Gleeson (in another unrecognizable role) is somehow the emotional heart of the film despite not being around for a lot of it, and also being a ridiculously wealthy precocious sod.

Is Ed Helms' Tom Snyder impression funny unless you know who Snyder was? Does Seth Green's single line as Christopher Guest mean anything if you're not familiar? The film goes to the effort of introducing characters like that with on-screen text, giving them some import, only to never mention them ever again.

So, really only good for the impressions. Jon Daly's Bill Murray is ridiculously good. McHale gives good Chevy, too. Weird that they only included excellent professional Rodney Dangerfield impersonator Erv Dahl in long shots. Oh and his line about working with Harold Ramis again only makes sense if you know about Ramis and his contemporaries from SNL and SCTV reviving Dangerfield's career in the 80s.