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Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

9/15/2015

11 Comments

 

C+
​2.38

  • Even with a great gimmick and some amazing deadpan one-liners, DMDWP still falls short of being a very good or great comedy - Shane
  • I took notes on this one and I'm at a laugh count of 3 - Bryan
  • I was readily allowed to be distracted by browser games - Bobby
Picture
Initial Review by Shane

I really have the hardest time reviewing comedies, especially parodies. Usually they’re light on plot and sprinkled with some pretty flat acting or poor acting from the bit parts. Parodies, in particular, can revolve from smart to completely juvenile. Not that I have an issue with juvenile, but it’s never going to score high with me unless I watched it while a teenager or drunk in college. (For example, Grandma’s Boy is awful, but had I watched it for the first time when it came out, I would say it’s a B+.)

But, I’m also a big big fan of anti-comedy. A lot of people see it as dumb, but I’ve always felt like it’s usually a bit smarter. I feel like when done right, it’s making fun of the audience. The joke is on us. I love that. A prime example is Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show. Lots of people justifiably call it dumb. I get that, though I disagree. But even those who find it dumb must feel like they’re missing something because Tim and Eric attract a lot of legitimate talent. Why are those people on there? Chef Goldblum, am I right?

So I read an article about Steve Martin and his anti-comedy beginnings and saw Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid mentioned as an example. Martin interacting with old movie clips? I saw one clip (where Martin lambasts Humphrey Bogart for how stupid the no tie look looks) and my curiosity was piqued.

But even with a great gimmick and some amazing dead-pan, one-liners, DMDWP still falls short of being a very good or great comedy. It simply couldn’t avoid what I mentioned above: the plot just isn’t great. Really, it was even kind of confusing, though that is partially as a result of the same gimmick that gives the movie its better moments.

Usually I’ll go through and critique some acting performances first. Hard to do that here considering we’re watching spliced footage from other movies. So really it comes down to how well Martin is able to bounce off of actors who aren’t there. Kind of like Transformers movies and the other CGI heavy garbage we see every summer. Or working with Vin Diesel I imagine. Martin obviously has good timing and presentation and that’s not a surprise to anyone. If it’s Val Kilmer here, I’m not sure I last more than 15 minutes.

So let’s talk about the gimmick? Does it work? I think so. There are some great jokes and lines that you think are throwaway lines that pay off half a movie later. The cleaning lady thing was purely absurd until it paid off in that old clip. The running gag on the tie was great. I really enjoyed the interactions with the dad, the guy in jail and the drunk on the barstool (You could be the Hunchback of Notre Dame.) Of course, this gimmick also makes having a coherent plot a lot tougher. There were so many characters in and out and by necessity, what they were talking about was never going to seamlessly fit into the plot. It may have been the beer, though I doubt I was the only one who found it somewhat muddled. They built a consistent world that was part ridiculous while still making sense, but they just couldn’t quite make it work all the way.

There were plenty of other parts that I laughed about as well. The joke about the “big tits” made me laugh the hardest. RIP Terre Haute. The too much jewelry in the soup line was played so straight that it ended up being so bad it was good. But hands down my favorite was the Java stuff. I just laughed the entire time. Even better were the java references down the road.

In the end, the plot confusion really caps this. A near perfect comedy caps at a B+ for me. Anything over a B+ on a comedy has to be something special. This is merely good and I would watch again.

B-


11 Comments
Admin
9/16/2015 10:13:34 pm

Spot saved for direct replies to the original review.

Reply
Bryan
9/16/2015 10:18:33 pm

I took notes on this one, and I'm at a laugh count of 3.

1) Something about foc at the beginning
2) He gets shot twice in the same spot.
3) Telling a past girlfriend his name was Novak, in case he got her pregnant.

The plot seemed ok for a while, but I ended up incredibly confused. The play off of java and cleaning lady didn't do a thing for me, it actually made me irritated more than everything else.

Chalk this up to I don't get it.

D+

Reply
Shane
9/17/2015 11:24:31 am

I was certain you would not like this, but the D+ is much higher than expected! Way to have an open mind!

Reply
Bryan
9/17/2015 12:34:30 pm

Chelsea said she liked the first 30 minutes, but would rather read than finish the rest - not sure what grade that means.

Cooker
9/17/2015 08:09:59 am

What a fun movie Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid was. It reminded me of a scene in my atrocious classic Harry Putter and the Chamber of Commerce. There’s a scene where Harry and Ron talk with the giant spider Aragog, the joke being that the character instead is Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings. Random scenes of Viggo Mortensen are spliced in to create a dialogue amongst the group. Of course, everything is random, the background is always changing even though everyone’s supposedly standing still, etc.
This movie did a great job with the editing, using footage from near-20 classic films allowing for such a star-studded cast including: Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, James Cagney, Vincent Price, Ingrid Begman, Joan Crawford, and the list goes on; several of these well-known entertainers long deceased.
The film itself was simply a spoof of the film noir genre. I thought this was well done mimicking the particular style. The music. The dialogue (phrases like “doll face” and “cup of java.”) The action sequences (the short rumble in the alley). And although it got rather silly at times, I found it funny: Steve Martin shaving his tongue, taking forever to pour coffee grounds, giving the dog poop to the secretary, etc.
I liked the inner monologues had by Rigby Reardon (played by Steve Martin), and how Juliet (Rachel Ward) was able to react to the non-verbal dialogue as if it had been spoken aloud. The use of running gags worked for me as well, especially the madness brought on by the words “cleaning lady.” Although predictable, it was a nice pay-off for its usage at the end. Rigby getting shot and Juliet sucking out the bullet was entertaining as well. I also found the process of solving the case amusing. Regardless of how cryptic, all the clues would be figured out and the next clue would always be a list of some sort. Speaking of solving the case, I thought the debate between Rigby and Field Marshall Wilfried von Kluck (played by director Carl Reiner) about who should reveal the plot was classic.
Of course as a film noir, there had to be your sexual tension between the investigator and the client. I acted in a student film project at UE where I played a gay private eye whose lady client was trying to seduce him with no such luck. I thought this was cleverly done with the humorous dialogue: “put your finger in the hole and make tiny little circles,” “knocking breasts out of whack,” “kiss her with every lip on my face,” “showing her something I learned with my hands”—shadow puppets. It was tastefully fun.
My favorite line of the film had to be, “they spell trouble T R U B I L, and if you try to correct them they’ll kill you.”
Were there any negatives to the film? I did feel like the dialogue was forced in some scenes to get the conversations to work with the old footage. Aside from that, I thought it was well-paced, funny and a good spoof. And they blew up Terre Haute! That alone adds the +, to my B+ score.

Reply
Shane
9/17/2015 11:24:48 am

I forgot about the dog poop. That was pretty great.

Reply
Bryan
9/17/2015 12:33:54 pm

I agree, the dog poop was clever as was the physical response to Martin talking to himself.

Reply
Jon
9/19/2015 07:48:41 pm

I've really had to force myself to write this. DMDWP made me laugh in several places, particularly in the java-prep scene. Like Shane, that kind of anti-comedy (funny, then not funny, then hilarious) works on me like a rake to the face. The hook is a good idea, but it's tiresome after the first couple times. I've seen one of the movies that have had footage spliced in (Double Indemnity), and I'm aware of enough of noir tropes to be in on the joke, but I was pretty much exhausted by the end.

Making fun of noir has a high bar on it for me. Robert Altman's Long Goodbye and PTA's Inherent Vice are both actual noir movies that still manage to make fun of their ancestors. Those are as perceptive about the genre while also being great films in their own right. DMDWP is all about the jokes, and while plenty of them worked, and I liked Martin in the lead, this movie was about an hour too long. I can't say I didn't like it, but this is a forgettable C-.

Reply
Phil
9/22/2015 12:27:20 pm

Going short here as 90% of my review would be a lot of "what Shane said." This is a movie that I found funnier than I thought I did. I do like this anti-comedy stuff, so I'm not shocked it worked on me. The opening joke where Martin is massaging Ward's breasts and plays it off that he's "putting them back in place" just killed me. Nice work playing that one off. The other ones I liked were already mentioned, especially the java-prep.

Shane mentioned the scene with Bogart about the no tie look (which I agree with Rigby btw - that's a really, really stupid look), but that was one of the only scenes (along with the cleaning woman payoff) that the old footage gimmick really worked on me. The rest of them were well-done for sure, but they didn't feel like they added a whole lot to the proceedings. Cool concept for sure, but it made for some serious trade-offs, especially in the plot department. Like most, I found myself slightly confused by the plot. I could see enjoying this more on a second viewing or paying a bit more attention.

I enjoyed DMDWP - which, by the way, I laughed when we finally heard those words in the movie, only to find out they were completely nonsensical. The concept gave the movie a high degree of difficulty, and while it had some stutters, it paid off on it pretty well.

Grade: B

Reply
Bobby
9/22/2015 09:46:19 pm

Well, I don't have much to say about Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. It doesn't start off well with the creepy beginning... just for a pretty meh joke. I didn't get any really good laughs out of the movie, but did appreciate some of the humor and the call-backs. Overall though, I found the movie pretty boring and I was readily allowed to be distracted by browser games and my phone.

I will say, that Ward and Martin did well. Both delivered their lines with the tone and expression fitting for the scenes and movie as a whole. I also appreciated the integration of the archive footage.

I just wasn't very invested in the plot or Rigby at all, which would have probably been fine if I found it to be a bit funnier. A little less than Meh... C-



Reply
Drew
10/19/2015 02:36:54 pm

The anti - funny spoof worked well for me. I laughed in several spots.

I must give props to the editing. It flowed really well and that is always a concern but DMDWP did great. It can be chalked up to convenient story in some regard but it still requires careful editing.

I do not have much to add than what has been added. Outside of a few films, Steve Martin did not really done much for me to really like him but this was a delightful surprise.

I love dry humor and puns and DMDWP scattered them throughout the film. Even too many jokes I like is too much and DMDWP crossed that line.

All in all, this was pretty good for its genre. Different and fresh approach sprinkled with dry humor and puns but was too much in some areas.

Grade: B

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