Well, we watched Clue this week, and it turned out to be no better than High Anxiety or Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid as far as story analysis goes, and we just couldn’t put y’all through another “We got nothing,” show, so we bagged the podcast for this week and went a-hunting for comedic mysteries we know will work. We still feel pretty good about The Big Lebowski and Hot Fuzz, so those will still be on the roster, but we’re going to come back with a few more comedic mysteries on the back end so we can get our analysis in.
So – we’ll be back next Monday with a new podcast and in the meantime, our advice to you is – don’t watch Clue. There are funny moments, but no real story. See you next week!
8 responses to “A Week Off…”
You know, the performances were stellar. Fabulous cast. It just wasn’t a mystery.
So we’re frustrated because we really want to learn about this genre and for three weeks now . . . nada.
‘Don’t watch Clue’??
Um… Can we compromise a bit here? How ’bout ‘Don’t watch Clue if you want to watch a structured mystery story’?
I love Clue as a movie. It’s wonderful (I absolutely adore Madeline Kahn in it as well as Michael Mckean) and it always makes me laugh. I agree though it’s not a great movie for structured mystery and to learn about the genre.
The Bug Lebowski I haven’t seen for a while but the structure I think holds up to look at genre.
I’m not sure it strictly counts as mystery, but maybe consider Death at a Funeral (the British original, not the remake).
And weren’t you going to do Arsenic and Old Lace at one point?
DH just mentioned ” Nothing But Trouble”. I can’t remember if it’s more romcom or more mystery, but I remember it being okay.
Eh, I think Clue is still leaps better than the previous two. They *tried* to do a story, but given the gimmick, they had to deal with the gimmick. Especially when you have 3 potential scenarios and whatever you do in the middle has to sorta work with that. (And frankly, everyone following Wadsworth as he ran through acting out the entire movie smacks of “we seriously had to pad this thing.” GET ON WITH IT, indeed!).
I think maybe the problem here is that so far you’ve picked shows that had a gimmick. Maybe uh, look for ones that aren’t so gimmicked. I’ll even suck it up and watch “The Big Lebowski” even though I am the only person on the planet who doesn’t love it, and turned it off halfway through because I just wasn’t getting why it was so awesome and funny. I didn’t get what was going on (especially any time Maude does anything) and I only chuckled here and there. Sigh. Oh well, a fourth boner for me will be nothing 😛
I haven’t seen the Miss Marple movies, but those are supposed to be comedic. That might be an idea? And I’d be down for Arsenic and Old Lace. But please don’t watch “Nothing But Trouble.” It is seriously one of the shittiest fucking flicks I ever saw in my life. The only part of it that isn’t godawful was the musical bit randomly put in the middle.
Oh look, Wikipedia has suggestions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Comedy_mystery_films
Oh, and so I remember to mention this before Lebowski:
http://rebecca-coates.suite101.com/the-big-lebowski-and-film-noir-film-criticism-a246370
http://elizabethfoxwell.blogspot.com/2010/01/dude-abides-big-lebowski-and-big-sleep.html
I think Arsenic and Old Lace is black comedy rather than a mystery; we know all along who killed who. I think Fletch qualifies. Too bad Foul Play isn’t available 🙁
yep, that was the wikipedia list I saw, too.
Oh, let’s not watch any Miss Marple _movies_. Those are a travesty to Dame Agatha’s work. I’ve yet to see a screen adaptation that was any good. The BBC/ WGBH do a phenomenal job, but that’s another story. Literally.