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Comedy and Reviews

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Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

By-the-numbers old age comedy drama

(2 stars)10 Feb 2012

Early in this by-the-numbers comedy drama, a young salesperson eagerly enthuses to retiring couple Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Jean (Penelope Wilton) that 'the grey pound is very strong at the moment'. We’re quite clearly supposed to see this…

Electric Man

Electric Man

A patchy, if well intentioned, Edinburgh-set comic comedy

(3 stars)8 Feb 2012

(12A tbc) 98min Shot in Edinburgh on a micro-budget, comic shop comedy Electric Man declares its intentions from the off: this is to be no social realist kitchen sink drama, typical of the UK film industry, but rather a light-hearted love-letter to…

Joost Swarte: Is That All There Is?

Joost Swarte: Is That All There Is?

Compendium of the Dutch cartoonist’s satirical alternative comics

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Apparently so. Or almost so. Is That All There Is? collects virtually all of the Dutch cartoonist’s alternative comics from way back in 1972 to the present day, translates them into English and assembles them, under Swarte’s own supervision, in this…

Henry Rollins – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Fri 13 Jan

Henry Rollins – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Fri 13 Jan

Prolific punk-rocker gets gut laughs on his three-hour rant

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Few people can make a decent living out of talking on stage for two hours. Henry Rollins, on the other hand, has it down to a fine art. An honorary punk rock graduate having earned his stripes fronting S.O.A. and Black Flag in the 80s, and later, his…

Young Adult

Young Adult

A fiercely dark comedy from Juno writer-director team Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman

(4 stars)2 Feb 2012

(15) 94min This reteaming of Juno director (Jason Reitman) and writer (Diablo Cody) is a fiercely dark character comedy that once again demonstrates the pair’s refusal to be limited by genre conventions, no matter how sacred. The set-up is…

Late'n'Live Guide to Comedy

Late'n'Live Guide to Comedy

The greatest hits of the legendary Fringe bear-pit makes an appearance on TV

(4 stars)2 Feb 2012

‘The performing equivalent of self-harm’ is how Johnny Vegas describes the bearpit hell of the notorious Late’n’Live. Brainchild of the Gilded Balloon’s head honcho Karen Koren, this Edinburgh Fringe staple has been sending chills down the spines of…

Carnage

Carnage

Polanski's comedy of upper-middle class savagery is fast, funny and filthy

(4 stars)24 Jan 2012

(15) 79mins Roman Polanski’s adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s play Gods of Carnage opens with a playground spat. Set over the opening credits, it’s this innocuous bust-up that drives the bitterly funny four-hander, as the parents of both children try to…

The Adopted

The Adopted

Quirky, saccharine directorial debut from French actress Melanie Laurent

(2 stars)24 Jan 2012

(15) 100 mins Still only 28-years-old, French actress and musician Melanie Laurent makes her directorial debut with this offbeat family tale, which owes more to her recent performances in US indie Beginners and the sentimental melodrama The Concert…

Meanwhile, It's Will and Greg

Meanwhile, It's Will and Greg

Will Andrews and Greg McHugh revive their Ugly Kid sketch talents for radio

(4 stars)6 Jan 2012

On first hearing that Will Andrews and Greg McHugh have collaborated for sketch work under the moniker of Will & Greg, the cynical might believe this to be a forced pairing simply to fulfil a US TV show pun. Reflect on this, cynics: the duo’s working…

Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles II - Summerhall, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Dec 2011

Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles II - Summerhall, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Dec 2011

Josie Long, eagleowl and more join in Kid Canaveral's annual shindig

(4 stars)6 Jan 2012

The combination of cheap tins and 12 hours of live entertainment could be an endurance test in the wrong hands, but the second annual Fence Records/Kid Canaveral Chirstmas Baubles all-dayer doesn’t exactly feel like a chore. A joyous turn by Fence…

The Descendants

The Descendants

Star performances from George Clooney and Shailene Woodley in Alexander Payne's latest comedy drama

(4 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 115m In Alexander Payne’s first film since his 2004 critical darling Sideways, George Clooney plays Matt King, a Hawaii-based businessman and heir to a hugely valuable piece of Hawaiian land. On the eve of him signing a deal to sell the land and…

Queen of quirk Zooey Deschanel stars in formulaic geeky comedy New Girl

Queen of quirk Zooey Deschanel stars in formulaic geeky comedy New Girl

The sitcom falls in neatly with The Big Bang Theory, Scrubs et al

5 Jan 2012

Adorkability. ‘Jess Daly’ has this in spades, and it’s the x-factor that led US executives to immediately order up a bunch of extra episodes after New Girl (Channel 4, Fri 6 Jan, 8.35pm) became the Fox network’s highest-rated autumn sitcom debut in a…

The Sitter

The Sitter

Zippy but unappealing sub-Apatow comedy starring Jonah Hill

(2 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 81min After springing to stardom in Superbad, Jonah Hill gets his first lead role in The Sitter, an amiable low-brow comedy from director David Gordon Green which throws Hill’s laid-back slacker persona into a similar underworld of criminal…

The Artist

The Artist

Delightful celebration of the bygone age of silent cinema, starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo

(4 stars)8 Dec 2011

(PG) 100min The Artist has in-built appeal for movie buffs who believe that the arrival of talking pictures was one of the worst things that ever happened to an art form that had found a universal language in the visual poetry of the late silent era.

Frankie Boyle

Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights

The comedian's TV show is a mix of decent stand-up material and woeful sketches

(3 stars)15 Nov 2011

Curious thing the moral barometer. After the faecal flood which surrounded the original Channel 4 showing of Tramadol Nights this time last year, some judicious cutting has been made to the DVD version. Gone is the Jordan/Harvey routine from episode two…

The Midnight Beast - Book At Us Now

The Midnight Beast - Book At Us Now

Unfunny pop-parody book designed to cash in on upcoming TV fame

(2 stars)18 Oct 2011

(Coronet) ‘We mock the living hell out of stuff for a living,’ claim London pop parody trio The Midnight Beast. Even in this disposable age, simply poking fun at more talented people can only stretch so far before the game is up. Success rarely…

Barking - DVD review

Barking - DVD review

Unessential DVD release of the short-lived C4 sketch show featuring David Walliams and Peter Kay

(3 stars)17 Oct 2011

(Acorn Media) Back in 1998, Peter Kay, Catherine Tate, David Walliams, Omid Djalili and Mackenzie Crook were all looking for a big break in their comedy careers. The Fast Show had ended on the BBC the previous year and it would be another 12 months…

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo

Flat romcom vehicle for Justin Bieber's paramour Selena Gomez

(2 stars)12 Oct 2011

(PG) 108min The star of tween drama Wizards of Waverly Place, but better known as the current squeeze of Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez is being relentlessly packaged for fame. Her previous venture, last year’s Ramona and Beezus sank like a stone, and…

Curb You Enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Larry David's groundbreaking sitcom stays at the top of its game for an eighth season

(4 stars)16 Sep 2011

After the high watermark of season seven’s Seinfeld-reunion storyline, Larry David brings us dragging and cringing back into his world of petty obsessions, chronic misunderstandings and friendships permanently teetering on the brink of abrasive…

Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris

Another warm and witty all-star comedy from Woody Allen

(4 stars)14 Sep 2011

(12A) 94min Midnight in Paris is one of the warmest and wittiest Woody Allen films in recent memory. The jaunty manner and literary bent are reminiscent of Vicky Cristina Barcelona as Allen invests what could be a New Yorker short story with a…

Albatross

Albatross

Well-balanced coming-of-age comedy starring Downtown Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay

(3 stars)13 Sep 2011

(15) 89min This British coming-of-age comedy drama from debut director Niall MacCormick retreads familiar ground with its story but, thanks to a very funny script and a combustible lead performance from newcomer Jessica Brown Findlay, it’s never…

Rory Sheridan's Tales of the Antarctica

Rory Sheridan's Tales of the Antarctica

David O’Doherty in very funny piece that risks becoming one-note in tone

(3 stars)30 Aug 2011

Rory Sheridan is a lovesick man, who inadvertently ends up on an Antarctic expedition to win his bride. Sheridan is no Scott or Shackleton, he complains too much for a start – about the penguins, about the cabbage he has to eat, about the farts that…

Sammy J and Randy: Ricketts Lane

Sammy J and Randy: Ricketts Lane

Extraordinary performances in an endearing show

(4 stars)30 Aug 2011

It’s been a busy month for comedian Sammy J and his antipodean compatriot Randy the purple puppet (performed by Heath McIvor). As well as their respective solo shows they pair up for this high-energy musical about companionship and tax evasion. After…

John Scott: Totally Made Up

John Scott: Totally Made Up

Exemplary observational material worked hard in stifling venue

(4 stars)30 Aug 2011

Winner of last year’s Take the Mic competition, John Scott has his work cut out in this stifling venue. That he manages to get laughs out of our sticky situation is a testament to his immense likeability. There’s some racy stuff but Scott’s charm takes…

BUG Hosted by Adam Buxton

BUG Hosted by Adam Buxton

Entertaining but unchallenging music video presentation

(3 stars)26 Aug 2011

The usually BFI-based BUG organisation’s remit is to celebrate ‘global creativity in music video’, and in that respect, this show succeeds admirably. Videos from acts as diverse as US indie-rockers Manchester Orchestra, electro artists The Chase and…

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