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Reviews
Dr. Ken (2015)
It's ok
It's a pretty run of the mill sitcom. A lot of jokes jokes go for the obvious. A lot of the appeal for it, at least for me, was Ken Jeong coming fresh off of Community, and bringing a number of his co-stars in for cameos. But watching through it, nothing was really anything more than adequate. Other sitcoms do the jokes better, but if you like the cast it works. The best analogy I can think of is it's like oatmeal, it'll work for what you want, but it's bland and there are better options.
Ghostbusters (2016)
Disappointing from start to finish
So, a bit of background to help establish mindset, when I heard they were making a new Ghostbusters I, like many, was excited. Hearing Paul Fieg was directing had no influence on my excitement, I've enjoyed things he's directed in the past. The the first red flag was raised when he tweeted "starring funny women" not because it was women but rather when you have genuinely funny women you tend you use their names for, if nothing else, star power and excitement.Just saying funny women generally means the painfully unfunny Kristen Wiig, the embarrassingly juvenile Melissa McCarthy, and/or the dumbfoundingly bland Maya Rudolph. But I kept my hopes up that maybe, just maybe, he announced that as a "we've decided on using female leads, we're talking with Tina Fey and Amy Pohler to get some funny women but haven't got them yet" announcement. Then they announced the leading ladies and, to my dismay, was able to have guessed two of them. But there was still hope i had never herd of Kate mcKinnon, or Leslie Jones before, maybe this movie wouldn't be a total loss. Then I watched and read many reviews, and all but very few gave it essentially the same review, "the writing was bad, the characters were bad, the jokes were bad, the story was bad. final verdict movie was OK" with some flimsy reasoning usually "I liked the actresses" or "the action was better than the original". This concerned me, who can a movie where everything is bad be OK. so I decided to see if it was actually OK.
So first things first, the jokes, it is a "comedy" after all. A lot of reviewers always say the first joke made is a fart joke. From what I saw, it wasn't there a point before that where Kristen Wig is talking with her boss, and the last line she says to him, is said in an attempt at deadpan humor. It's not funny, originally i gave her the benefit of the doubt and thought "maybe her naturally speaking voice just sounds like she's trying to force a joke" but that tone only comes out when shes failing to make jokes in any of her movies. And most of the jokes are like that. The actresses and actors try really hard to be funny but it just doesn't happen and they feel forced. And sometimes there could even be a decent joke but they take it too far and it ruins. Another big one mentioned often is when Chris Hemworth's Kevin hears a loud noise and covers his eyes. Initially they mention to be careful or it'll be loud and Kevin says something to the effect of "No problem" and covers his eyes. I thought "Well it isn't hilarious but its kinda funny he's so dumb he covers his eyes when he's trying to show he can block out sounds" but then a loud noise is made and he covers his eyes, and it just kills any humor that might've been there. All the jokes are like that, unfunny, forced, and destroy any humor that could've been there. Next the characters, Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy live up to what is expected of them at this point. They aren't Funny. However i do have to mention Melissa McCarthy, while not funny, isn't at her usual level of "too juvenile for even a Happy Madison film" style of humor, so kudos there. Leslie Jones character feels like someone said, "she can't just be there Winston was that character so she can't be it but how can we make here different... I know loud to the point she's annoying her trait will be loud to the point its annoying it works for a lot of kids shows". Kate McKinnon's Character is summed up as the same guy said "A lot of kids shows now a days are really weird and random... but not in an amusing way... lets make a character that." the villain can best be summed up as a guy who is evil. everyone else kinda falls into the they exist but they're only real trait is they're stupid. Story... I understand there were lots of rewrites and what it seems was left is all the scripts put in a blender and then taped together. It doesn't flow, it has a bunch of filler, and it goes nowhere until the credits roll. In the end the movie can be skipped and nothing would be missing from your life. Paul Fieg should had spent less time trying to hamfistedly force an agenda with this travesty of a movie, and instead have focused on making a good movie. funny thing is if he had it would've served his agenda, and ppl would have been happy.
Parks and Recreation (2009)
Amy Poehler ruined this one
When it begins it is a considerably less funny version of The Office but is still decent. Somewhere in the middle of season 2 It switches from a poor man's office to a very thinly veiled ego trip for Amy Poehler, which is sad because she is a decent actor and doesn't really need to do that. for the entirety of the series we see that she is hardworking but still mostly inept at her job for mostly comical reasons. But in between her failing they make sure to try and force the opinion on the viewer that she is the most valuable member of the local government, while at no point in time showing her have any value, outside of a one time Harvest Festival (Which also had a large amount problems and did little to help the city). She won city councilwomen, but at no time did they show why anyone would vote for her short of one trailing statement at the end of one episode, yet in each episode she was higher in polls.
In summation, every other character is great and enjoyable, sadly they only exist to talk about how amazing and infallible Amy Poehler's character is while they fail to show her do anything remotely worthwhile.