Customer Reviews

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (WS)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I saw this movie last weekend. Although i've never written a review for a film, the fact that i cannot stop thinking about it days later compels me to do so. I couldn't imagine what he was up to when i heard the title of this movie. One of my favorite movies is Defending Your Life and of course Broadcast News, but I'm less familiar with some of the earlier works that critics allude to when citing accolades for Albert Brooks and this movie in particular. It has such a delicious satirical touch and is so hilarious, i was alternating between belly laughs and choking with laughter. Some of the situations are so absurd, they bend the mind in the most hysterical ways, that i've found myself repeating at least ten phrases of the movie and laughing. Things that stick out in my memory are the first scenes with Penny Marshall-- what a brilliant send up of Hollywood.. then Fred Thompson, then the interview sequence and the polish joke and the double talker at the Temple. With regard to Al Jazeera starting an entertainment network and a sitcom called "That Darn Jew" (no doubt referring to the old Disney movie "That Darn Cat") about the Jewish man living in a Muslim Condominium Complex. ... to the Pakistani Campfire scene and Albert singing songs from Irving Berlin. And the show.......what an amazing scene. To bomb to one audience, while making the audience watching the one not laughing, laugh their socks off, just brilliant. And yes, when someone has the balls to do that, they face some people siding with the audience that is not getting it, that's what made it so hysterical in the theater I was in. The difference between this film and, say, the countless anesthetizing formulaic comedies that Hollywood assaults us with these days is the difference between a twinkie and a homemade double chocolate brownie. I wish this guy made movies every year. We'd be so much better off. America is Albert Brooks.

Before posting my review, i read one below from some one who didn't see the movie (?!), ALERT--the movie itself deals with the very issues the person who didn't see it is concerned with!!. The issue of why he goes to India and Pakistan is dealt with expertly. Albert rides on a raft of the American Governments' making- why go to there? As Fred Thompson puts it "There's a 150 Million Muslim's in India alone... that enough for ya?" As I recall, Thompson also says, "You make the Hindus laugh, we'll consider this whole thing a success" (yuk yuk) That the government, and Albert's quest is ineffectual is the greatest gag in the whole movie. It's called a satire. Although after the cartoon I have little faith in the muslim comedy spectrum. I think the world would be a better place if more people saw this movie (esp. ones who have the nerve to review it!), and more movies like this were made and people learned to get in on a great joke!

LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD is a thinking man's comedy. If you're of the 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN or DATE MOVIE crowd, please avoid this film and spare us your "It just ...sucks" review.

If you're an Albert Brooks fan, you most certainly will enjoy his deadpan delivery and hyper-worried state that we came to enjoy during DEFENDING YOUR LIFE (I suspect this is why he was also cast as the father's voice in FINDING NEMO). But enough about Brooks. Let's see what the movie's about.

Looking For Comedy opens with Brooks arriving for a casting call at Penny Marshall's office (It's noteworthy to mention that Albert Brooks plays Albert Brooks and Penny Marshall plays Penny Marshall). Everyone seems to only recognize Brooks as "that guy who played that fish in Finding Nemo." His career is grudgingly winding down.

But upon returning home a letter from the government appears in the mail. He is summoned to Washington by a panel of Senators to do a research project for them ("Our first choice, quite frankly, wasn't available" they tell him when Brooks asks `Why me?') And his job? Travel to India and Pakistan and find out what makes Muslims laugh. Oh. "And you have to write a 500-page report on it."

"500 pages? I don't think I've ever written anything that long," Brooks protests. But he accepts the assignment and travels with two government men as his entourage and support crew. Once in India they bumble through getting an office and a secretary named Maya (the stunningly pretty Sheetal Sheth). Now the hard work begins. Either people won't talk to him or give him off the wall answers or give no answer at all. So Brooks decides to put on a comedy show at a local gymnasium only to have that fall flat, too.

To add insult to injury, war bells are ringing between Pakistan and India, bells that Brooks doesn't help with by sneaking across the border into Pakistan one night in order to meet up with some future comedian hopefuls.

The thing that makes this film so funny is that it doesn't try that hard. It just is. Brooks' normal paranoia fits perfectly with the script and makes us laugh time and again at his overzealous fears. Also is the fact that it shows the complete ineptness of government in trying to understand another culture by sending someone to another country who has no knowledge of such a job. And they send him to India! Although there are a lot of Muslims there, it is mainly a Hindu country. An Arab nation may have been a better choice but obviously the government higher-ups failed to do their own research before sending in an even-less-informed Brooks. Now THAT is subtle humor. If you "don't get that", you should avoid seeing this flick. But if you enjoy that kind of subtlety, give Looking For Comedy a try. It's a modern day and cerebral blast!

OMG! I am so excited this is finally out on DVD! I saw it because a friend couldn't stop raving about it. Then I couldn't stop raving about it, but when I tried to get my boyfriend to see it it was already gone from theaters!!! Seriously, if you like smart, grown-up comedies like Sideways, then this is for you. All the actors are wonderful, to the point where I found myself wondering if the Indian cast weren't actors at all but real people caught in action documentary-style (and maybe they were). Albert Brooks plays himself (so does Fred Dalton Thompson) so there is lots of blurring of the lines. It is also a subtle morality play about the dangers in assuming that everyone in the world thinks and believes exactly as you do (we can use this message now more than ever) -- if you are a Republican, don't let that dissuade you from seeing it, it is only a very small part of what is a very, very funny movie. There are illegal Pakistani comedians, a TV meeting with Al Jazeera and Albert Brooks does his old stand-up routine. So, so much to recommend this movie. Love, love, love!

This was my kind of comedy. It's funny and smart and out of the mainstream. Some comedies pound you over the head and others ask you to discover them as you are watching. I put this in the latter group. Albert Brooks has such an individual approach that it's too bad that some people seem to miss the point. But to me his movies get even better with repeated viewings and I think that is always a great sign.

Like some other people who have talked about the movie here, I went into this unsure of what I was going to see. I often buy a dvd if the title or the premise interests me and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. In this case it did. I was familiar with Albert Brooks somewhat, having seen his movie Mother on HBO and seeing Lost in America a long time ago. I can't really say I was a fan, I certainly liked what he did but I didn't run out to see this in the theater. It turns out I LOVED it. It is a style of humor that either grows on you or doesn't. We found ourselves laughing more and more as the picture went on as his style of humor just got under our skin. He doesn't beg you or even ask you to laugh nor does he point to obvious things and wait for you to get it. His show in the middle of the movie, where he is bombing badly, just got funnier and funnier as it went on. I think it takes a lot of guts to write a movie where the lead character is a comedian and then intentionally fail miserably at trying to be funny. That is something I had never seen before and it must have made certain audiences groan as the one in the movie did. We were hysterical at this. I also found myself thinking about this film long after I had seen it. Not just individual scenes but the whole idea of it and the style of comedy that was different than other comedies I have seen. I admire originality, and this filmmaker certainly is that. After I told a friend about this movie he told me to get a hold of "Real Life". I haven't seen that yet but from what he said Albert Brooks basically started this whole "Mocumentary" style of filmmaking in the 1970's, making fun of a genre that had not even been born then.... reality T.V. I think Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World is brilliantly original and also made me laugh a lot. Very very much recommended.

I really liked this movie. After seeing it in the theater, I'm purchasing it now.

Much of it is subtle, classic Brooks' humor from his early days -- playing himself & incorporating some of his early stand-up routines - which I happen to like.

If your favorite comedies are from people like Adam Sandler, you may not like this movie because Brooks does not go for the easy laughs - but you should give it a shot anyway. There are people who don't "get" the movie because he's delivering bad American jokes to Indian audiences - but that's the humor of it -- viewers laughing at other viewers not laughing -- Brooks' comedy pokes fun at comedy in general - and himself.

It was very refreshing to see a comedy (or any film) made in another country/culture like India - I wish American comedies would cross cultural boundaries much more often.

"Two words... JAMES CAAN!"

Opps, sorry wrong Albert Brooks movie!

The title of this one is apt to turn off a lot of folks, and evidently some of the reviewers here expect LFCITMW to be what the movie is about. I respectfully suggest they have missed the boat.

Albert Brooks latest little gem skewers just about everything while following it's unusual premise. The plot is not necessarily the comedy.

I think Albert would have been great starring in "That Darn Jew"!!!!!

Rent this one. If you're already a Brooks fan... just buy it!

One should be an Albert Brooks fan to know and have expirenced his dead pan humor. But like American's who watch this movie, they probably will take away just as much as the people in India, watching his stand up routine. Who would have thought that he would be so busy with his state department mission to actually miss seeing the Taj Mahal, even when he walks right in front of it. Like Woody Allen, its comedy that grows over a series of movies. Watching Albert Brooks on the early versions of Saturday night Live, he often had short films which for most, clearly went over the audience's heads.

I exected this movie to be awful after reading some of the reviews here, but I must admit I rather enjoyed it. The comedy is subtle, and you have to pay attention to know when its happening.

Also, it get off to a slow and less than interesting start. It doesn't seem like any of the actors broke a sweat making this movie. For a while I thought I could "watch" it while doing something else, but things pick up after the story moves to India. It made me wonder what would happen if a real project like this was ever undertaken.

I never heard of this movie before. My wife and I took a chance and rented Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World. We have watched it 4 times in the past week. This is a great movie with a unique story.