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Bret Easton Ellis will not be writing the screenplay for "The Hangover 2: Less Than Hangover"
You know, I have very little in common with bisexual Brat Pack author Bret Easton Ellis. He's monied, slick and connected, and I'm ... well, you're lookin' at it. But despite the gaping socioeconomic chasm that exists between us, I have enjoyed several of his books that weren't Glamorama and I actually totally identify with this tweet that he sent after (perhaps even while) seeing hit comedy The Hangover:
Here's why I can pick up what BEE is droppin' ... I hated The Hangover. And while I would like to think it's because the movie was kind of pedestrian and derivative in its self-conscious wackiness and not because the straight guy characters use the word "gay" as a pejorative and the word "fag" three times (in reference to another straight guy) in the first eight or so minutes of the movie ... that might have something to do with it, too.
Funny thing is, I saw the movie (at a press screening last week) with a very good guy friend who happens to be straight, happens to be the only person with whom I've actually been on a bender in Las Vegas (which is what the movie is about) and happens to be the guy with whom I saw the film adaptation of Ellis's brilliant American Psycho on opening night. (We even dressed up in suits.) This is the guy with whom I've watched Overboard, Clue, and The Big Lebowski about 200 times apiece, and who famously urinated in the shoes of a bunch of Scientology interns who were living next door to us in Hell's Kitchen when they wouldn't turn off their alarm clock for 30 minutes. And he hated The Hangover, too. As for myself, I happen to adore stupid gross-out humor, and have more than passing crushes on both Justin Bartha and Bradley Cooper, so I was pretty well primed to enjoy this thing. I'd really like to think that it was the shortcomings of the script (it's not as clever as it thinks it is) and the director (who fails to present a single likable character in the central cast) that placed me in the severe minority of people who didn't cotton to the comedy, but who knows ... maybe it was all the "fags". At any rate, nice to know that I'm in company I can appreciate. (Side note to Ellis: You, me, Imagine That, this weekend? Call me!) And if you haven't seen The Hangover yet, don't bother — rent Go instead. Submitted by on Thu, 2009-06-11 08:04. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media
Bret Easton Ellis and the cast of The Hangover
Am I the only one who thinks
Very Bad Things
Love that movie!! So funny, and so dark. That movie helped cement the crush that I
had(still have - admitting with just a touch of shame) on Jeremy Piven.As a fellow gay man
I had the opposite reaction completely. I LOVED the film and thought it was very funny. It wasn't the characters as much as it was the situations. However, I disagree that none of the characters are likeable. Zach Galifianakis stole that movie. My friends and I laughed the entire time we were in the theater. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so much
I completely recommend it to everyone.
Same here
Hey, I know...
...I'm totally in the minority. But neither my pal nor I found it remotely funny, entirely independent of one another and despite the fact that we were both very excited to see it. I laughed exactly once, at a throwaway line that Cooper dropped during the breakfast table scene (I don't even remember what it was).
I found Drag Me to Hell and even Land of the Lost to be far more entertaining.
(ducks rocks)
Though I probably...
...would agree with Ellis on this, I've never been able to get through a single book of his. And I've tried three of them.
--
Rob
http://www.robwillreview.com
Thanks for the warning...
about the "f-bombs". Bad enough people don't shut off their damn phones in theaters so the light bugs everyone sitting behind them. Nothing worse than having to deal with that AND have the "f-bomb" used on the screen. Makes you want to chuck your drink and bag of popcorn at the back of someone's head before demanding a ticket refund.
Comedy's
I've been so disappointed in comedy's for years. The last one that I saw that actually made me laugh so hard I hurt was There's something about Mary. I have not seen a comedy in a theatre since I can't remember when. I saw Mary on a DVD. What goes for humor these days I find very droll.
I guess I'm stuck loving the old stuff (Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy) more than most of the new. Even comedies on TV I rarely find funny. (Right now I only find The Big Bang Theory funny - perhaps because I was and still am a comic geek). Perhaps it's because I'm older (52 last week). I was seriousy bummed that two of my favorite Dramedy's were cancelled this year (Eli Stone and Pushing Daisies). Both were original and had very smart comedic tendancies.
Thank God other people (even
hangover
i liked this movie. i had low expectations going in, because i'm not a big fan of "jock humor" as i call it. but this movie made me laugh a lot. i even laughed at the use of "fag" and "gay" in this film, because douche bag guys like those characters do talk that way. and when they talk that way they sound ridiculous.
my one criticism is that none of the guys actually seemed very hung over. in the morning after scene, brad cooper (while sitting at the casar's palace restaurant table, poolside) off handedly mentions that, "i've never been this hungover before." all while drinking coffee, sitting upright, fully dressed, outside and waiting for food. haha! hardly hungover. :-) i can hardly manage that much on a sober morning after a full 8 hours.
as for this film thinking it's smarter than it really is...i'm not sure about that. i can't believe anyone making THE HANGOVER thought it was a smart film. it felt a lot more like a modern take on THE THREE STOOGES to me. and sometimes that's all i need.
thanks brian for your blog on this movie. i enjoy reading your thoughts, and i also see your valid points. keep up the great work!
S. Arbuckle
http://www.skinnyarbuckle.blogspot.com
CHEAP HUMOR
I laughed during this film, but felt guilty. It is clearly anti-gay (they actually say "faggot" three times, not fag -- that's even worse.) It ridicules gays, asians, and most of all, women (the few women with over-5 roles -- one is a whore, one is a stripper, and one is a hated, shrewish, harpy girlfriend...clearly they hate women as much as they do gays.) And also blacks - one is a drug dealer (what else), one is a stripper (who has no lines -- give her no voice), and one is a cop -- but she's fat, ugly, mean, and stupid (she and her dopey male partner are duped out of their police car by our three drunken fool protagonists.) Zack G. is funny, but he's a cartoonish moron, pretty much retarded. Also they rely on him too much to just mug and do goofy funny stuff, just to fill up time. Oh and Mike Tyson is exploited, he and his black thug are are searching for his pet bengal tiger. Um okay. Not to mention a million complete implausibilities in the script -- Vegas casinos have security cameras everywhere, this story could never happen in the first place. What's parading as "dark humor" here is really just bigoted humor, dressed up as something with higher aspirations, but it's a fraud. (And though I did laugh -- I laughed harder and longer watching "Drag me to Hell"!)