Maverick (1994)

Who loves dust more than Richard Donner? Seriously: whatever time and geography brings, there must be some dust. So why not do a western! Much more dust!

Let's start with the music for a change: There was hardly ever a better composer of comedic music than Randy Newman, and he delivers here as well. A perfect rendition of quirky, upbeat and humorous. Not unlike Basil Poledouris' score for "Quigley down under" 4 years earlier.

Gibson was of course born to play a character that has a constant need to talk and joke. However, it doesn't play to his strengths that in this movie, most of the cast are trying to screw him, and not the other way around. There are other actors who play befuddled, frustrated and mockishly angry better than him. When push comes to shove, Gibson isn't a comedian.

Nor is Jodie Foster, and though her chemistry with Gibson is far from bad, we don't get the constant grin that a better pair would have provided. The reason I bring up that none of the actors on display here are comedians is that this is a comedy. It doesn't take itself seriously enough at anything else, be it action, suspense or drama. It's all in a jovial, good-humoured way. Which is fine, but if you're making a comedy we really should be laughing more.

Not surprisingly, the best acting comes from Alfred Molina. As he is portraying a rather vicious and cruel cowboy, it is quite spectacular to not look stupid and out of place, but Molina always was underestimated. Gibson has some of his better scenes in this flick playing off Molina.

And anyone who is good at making comedies knows that 80-90 minutes is perfect. "Maverick" clocks in at 127. There is nowhere near enough script for that. Not to mention jokes.

So this is a light-hearted and charming as all films Gibson played in during this era, but it doesn't really bring anything else to the table. And as good as Gibson was at that in the 90's, it isn't quite enough.

5/10

Spaceballs (1987)

Was there ever a more loveable spoof than Mel Brooks? Of course not. At least not that managed to maintain any kind of fun for the viewer.

This is from his more straightforward period where he simply made a parody out of another film (or in this case, a franchise). Not as flexible as the concept of "Blazing Saddles", but Brooks was always quick with a joke and for anyone who actually saw "Star Wars", they will find much to muse at in this flick.

First a problem though, and it is a directorial one: Someone should have noticed that Pullman and Zuniga in the leads have different thresholds of parody in them. Whereas Pullman finds a certain balance, Zuniga is a full-fledged parody, making their interactions lacking to the point of confusing in a lot of their scenes. It should have been fairly easy to adjust, but alas. Their time together on screen is limited, and therefore, so is the damage. And as a rugged parody of Harrison Ford, Pullman works brilliantly.

The parody of Star Wars itself is fairly funny but not very imaginative. As usual Brooks hurls puns and gags at the viewer at an alarming pace, and that guarantees a certain amount of laughs. Some of them are more subtle though, so paying attention will be rewarded. The best gag is actually quite without both sound and facial expressions. Genius. Brooks knows the entire spectre of comedy. From the embarrassingly simple and stupid to the brilliantly clever.

This comedy suffers from the same fault as most, though: The simple fact that it has a funny premise, a funny start followed by some good jokes, but then falls into the trap of keeping too much focus on a story that wasn't too good to begin with.

As a the top-billed comedian here, John Candy knows his place perfectly as the highly enjoyable Barf. Other than him, there is limited talent, though Brooks has 2 small parts and Rick Moranis stars as Dark Helmet, nicely flanked by George Wyner.

All in all, Brooks provides more than enough gags for anyone to laugh. As always. And that really is the key thing for a comedy

7/10

Stripes (1981)

Ah! The uneven talent of Ivan Reitman. But he was never better than in the 80's and Stripes surely offers a lot of the best comedians of the decade

This movie has all the necessary features of a comedy of its time. Losers finding strength, titties (even mud-wrestling), women as props and some guns to boot.

Having used up and coming Bill Murray two years earlier in "Meatballs", Reitman knew he could depend on the young comedian. Teaming the misanthropic and impulsive Murray with the smart, careful Harold Ramis, was such a smart move, he did it with even greater success when producing Ghostbusters three years later. 


It's quite obvious that "Police Academy" has stolen its entire first third from this flick, as most elements from the enrollment are similar. There are also, particularly in the early stages, huge similiarities between Murray's Winger and Gutenberg's Mahoney (even the many push-ups in the rain as punishment). Though naturally, Murray has more strengths to play to. His misanthropy, opportunism, shameless flirting and bottomless insolence really is enough for any comedy to survive with honors. He is very nicely flanked by Harold Ramis, John Candy, John Larroquette and Warren Oates (he died only six months later at the age of 53) who all add laughs, smirks and snickers. And some extra credit to Sean Young who really has a dazzling smile to charm everyone present.

The music by Bernstein is brilliant, and the two themes perfectly fitted for the two main phases of the film. Firstly "all goes to hell" at the beginning and later the military phase. Elmer Bernstein certainly was the king of comedies.

The first hour or so is quite funny, and the characters are good. Ramis is a bit more on offence than he was allowed later in his career, so look for his mimics and facial expressions a lot of the time. They seemed to have two scripts and didn't do a good job editing. Hence, the movie is half an hour too long and the last part of it isn't particularly interesting nor funny. The prospect of a war-Winnebago is of course not without promise, but the gags are spent earlier and it adds litle to the whole. If anything. Generally Stripes feels like a lot of good ideas and fun for all involved, but a lack of discipline and structure strips it of status as a classic. It still is a good representative for comedy of its time.

7/10