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DVD Funny Bones
Funny Bones, directed by Peter Chelsom (Hear My Song), is a weird but intriguing comedy with a particularly dark edge. Oliver Platt plays a would-be comedian, the son of a major comedy star (Jerry Lewis); Dad's reputation even overshadows his son's Las Vegas debut. After that flop the son tries to go back to his roots and heads for his father's launch pad in Blackpool, England. There, he meets his previously unknown half-brother (Lee Evans), a bizarre comedy savant who teaches him a thing or two about taking risks to get laughs, and discovers a secret about how his father got started. Platt is likably lost and Lewis is perfectly overbearing, but the real find here is Evans, a rubber-faced, protean comic with always-surprising material. --Marshall Fine
Whether you label this film as a black comedy or as a dark familial drama with bits of comedy thrown in, FUNNY BONES is a brilliantly dark masterpiece containing first rate acting performances by all of the principals, and especially Lee Evans (There's Something About Mary, Mousehunt). In fact, it is Lee Evans who super-charges this movie with his complex and outrageously funny portrayal of the disturbed comic genius Jack Parker.
The supporting cast, including the brilliant Jerry Lewis, Leslie Caron, George Carl, and Oliver Reed, all offer strong performances as does Oliver Platt, playing the failed comic Tommy Fawkes, who goes back to the Blackpool, England of his early youth in search of the secrets of comedy. He will eventually uncover many of these secrets, as well as some dark family secrets he didn't anticipate finding. Lewis plays a supporting role as Tommy's father, a superstar comic who rules the Las Vegas strip and overshadows his son.
The quirky citizens of Blackpool, including the aforementioned Jack Parker, add charm, comedy, and warmth to this film. At times disturbing, heartbreaking, suspenseful, and hysterical, FUNNY BONES is an odd little film, but one that lends itself to many viewings.
I review very few films, but feel compelled to recommend FUNNY BONES since few people seem to have seen it and because it is one of my favorite films of all time.
Jeremy W. Forstadt
An insightfully dramatic look at comedians and family.
I have grown to love this movie. The first time I saw it I was put off and disturbed. Yet, it stayed with me. I wanted to and did see it many more times. The tension between Oliver Platt, as the failed son of superstar Jerry Lewis, is palpable. The shock Platt's character suffers when learning his father stole his material from Blackpool vaudevillians seems to redeem and reinspire Platt. The many Blackpool comics who you see add splashes of color and old-fashioned slapstick talent to this drama. The "Parker Brothers" from whom Lewis stole his material are completely bizarre yet utterly charming. Platt's newly discovered half-brother (Lee Evans) is the unheralded star of the show, playing a disturbed yet highly talented physical comic. Some of the best scenes involve Platt and Evans' new routine and a visit to a morgue. Jerry Lewis is wonderful in a backing role, a Las Vegas superstar whose dark secrets are revealed, becoming more human and less of an obstacle for his troubled sons. The more I see this film the more I spot the details and many layers to the story. What makes this movie special are the tensions between the characters and the challenges each overcomes when Platt's travels unveil the past and reinvigorate a seemingly more innocent and forgotten community of performers. Poignant comic moments abound but, again, this is a drama. Because this is such a unique film, I think it must have been a nightmare to market. You can't accurately describe it in 10 words or less. "Troubling and inspiring" occurs to me, but that won't sell tickets. Fortunately for you, it's inexpensive and regularly appearing on cable tv if you want a trial run. A worthwhile addition to my DVD library.
misrepresented film.
I found this movie to be quite good. Not a comedy as you might expect but Chaplin's comedies were not alway comedies either. I liked it, especially for Lee Evans.
If you saw Mouse Hunt with Nathan Lane you might remember the brother. That was Lee Evans. He does a very unusual, very funny bit, in this movie. Worth the price of the film.
Oliver Platt is the son of a famous comedian, played by Jerry Lewis, who fails as he tries to follow in his father's footsteps. To get inspiration he returns to the town his family had left when he was almost too young to remember. Revelations abound. If you approach this movie as a father - son relationship film and not as a comedy you should enjoy it. If you do not enjoy the Lee Evan's bit then you do not have a sense of humor and you should get yourself one.
When Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis first played the nightclubs, they became the hottest act, bar none. When they graduated to films, they took the world by storm. They were arguably the last of the great comedy teams (following Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, etc.). But that partnership had its moments of tension & personality clashes that ultimately brought an end to their teamwork. "The Stooge" certainly mirrors that real-life partnership/friendship in its storyline.
Dean plays Bill Miller, a struggling vaudeville entertainer hungry for good material & genuine success. In desperation, he agrees to hire a "stooge"--a guy "planted" in the audience as comedy relief--in the form of goofy but well-meaning Ted Rogers (Lewis). Chemistry is established & soon after, Miller's act rockets... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Dean Martin - Jerry Lewis Director(s): Norman Taurog DVD Release Date: Released the 12 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The hugely successful collaboration between Jerry Lewis and director Frank Tashlin (including Artists and Models and The Geisha Boy) came to an end with this knockabout hospital comedy, which contains a raft of Tashlin's patented sight gags. Jerry plays an orderly with a strange fixation on a depressed patient (Susan Oliver), but the point of the movie is watching Lewis wrestle with laundry bags or contorting with agony as he empathizes with the intestinal maladies of patients. This is one of Lewis's funniest movies for babbling, too ("Oh, friction--burning"). Meanwhile, Tashlin brings his cartoon sensibility to freestanding bits, such as the montage of wind chimes that ends with a skeleton chattering in the breeze, or the inordinately loud crunch of an apple in a hospital... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Frank Tashlin DVD Release Date: Released the 12 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Jerry Lewis's 1963 Jekyll and Hyde variation has always been tagged by two popular assumptions: one is that it is his best work as a comic filmmaker, and the other is that Lewis's Mr. Hyde equivalent--the slick, ultra-arrogant, good-looking womanizer Buddy Love--actually lampoons the director's former partner, Dean Martin. Well, The Nutty Professor certainly is Lewis's best film. But all one has to do is watch it to realize the motivation behind Buddy Love is more confessional: he's really much more like Lewis's darker, narcissistic side, while the shlubby scientist (also played by Lewis) from whom Love springs is closer to the star's screen image. You can watch all this psychodrama yourself and have a lot of good laughs at the same time with this unusual film, which still... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jerry Lewis - Stella Stevens Director(s): Jerry Lewis DVD Release Date: Released the 12 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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