Thinking Out Loud

Tag: Steve Martin

  • Planes, Trains and Automobiles is astonishingly unfunny

    Planes, Trains and Automobiles is astonishingly unfunny

    I’ve been catching up on my John Landis, for better or for worse. Trading Places and Coming to America are both much better than I remembered, and I’m glad I revisited them. But Planes, Trains and Automobiles is just astonishingly unfunny. A slapdash production, clearly banking solely on the presumed charm and appeal of its stars without a solid screenplay or sense of character to back them up.

    Steve Martin’s character is fuzzily defined, wavering between misanthropic big city businessman and “gee, I guess I’ll give friendship and bonhomie a shot”. While John Candy is inherently likeable, the movie makes the imitative fallacy with regards to his character: he’s gross, blunt, and crude, designed to be everything a big city guy like Martin ignores as he goes about his day. But the problem is… he actually is annoying to the audience too, making it difficult to come around to find either of these two likable or endearing. That’s fine for a complex drama, but it’s fatal for a heartwarming comedy.

  • Tina Fey raids her rolodex for Baby Mama

    Tina Fey raids her rolodex for Baby Mama

    As a true comedy auteur, Tina Fey’s acting has always come in tandem with her own writing. This double act has progressed from improv comedy at The Second City, to head writer for Saturday Night Live, to supporting player in the feature film Mean Girls, (for which she wrote the screenplay), and finally to executive producer and star of her own sitcom 30 Rock.

    Baby Mama, written and directed by Michael McCullers, marks Fey’s first star turn in a project which she did not originate or write. Still, it certainly feels a lot like a Tiny Fey joint. Judging by the general tone and the chaotic improv of Fey’s partner-in-crime Amy Poehler, I suspect the two enhanced the production with a fair amount of script-doctoring.

    Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in Baby Mama

    Indeed, Fey’s character fits firmly in the public persona of Endearingly Neurotic Thirtysomething Single Girl established on SNL’s Weekend Update, as Ms. Norbury in Mean Girls, and as Liz Lemon in 30 Rock. The Tina Fey Notlash notwithstanding, she is evidently more grounded in real life, and married with a child. Meanwhile, the fictionalized “Tina Fey” is the idol of every girl with glasses and crush of every boy with… uh, glasses.

    Fey must have an impressive rolodex, for like her flagship TV show 30 Rock, nearly every little role is Baby Mama is filled by a familiar face. When not being amused by alumni from The Daily Show and SNL, we’re treated to Steve Martin as a wild and crazy organic food magnate and Sigourney Weaver as an initially creepy but ultimately sympathetic fertility doctor. But personally, I wouldn’t dare make fun of Sigourney Weaver’s age, lest she come after me with a flamethrower or a space forklift.