Me & My Movies

Comedy Genre

Rebecca Doyle

StepbrothersDirector - Adam McKayYear of Production - 2008

A story of two middle aged losers who are both still living at home. They are forced to become roommates when their parents meet, fall in love and decide to get married, which is then they become stepbrothers. It’s a real clash of personalities and it takes time for Dale (John C Reilly) and Brennan (Will Ferrell) to adjust to life together, sharing the same home and bedroom. They seem to find sharing their parents hard to, and throughout most of the film, they are in competition, and purposely annoy one another.

The HangoverDirector – Todd PhillipsYear of Production - 2009

Three groomsmen take their best friend Doug (Justin Bartha): who is due to get married in 2 days, to Vegas for his last night of freedom. Things get out of hand when Alan (Zack Galifianakis) spikes their drinks without telling, and they lose Doug somewhere throughout the night. They’ve no recollection of what happened and have to retrace their steps to find him, through receipts and people who might have seen them.

Knocked UpDirector – Judd ApatowYear of Production - 2007

When party animal Ben Stone (Seth Rogan) goes out on his usual drunken antics, he gets more than he expected when he wakes up from a one night stand, in bed with a girl he met called Alison (Katherine Heigl). He gets a surprise visit on his doorstep eight weeks later, only to find out he’s going to be a dad. They face repercussions in trying to get to know each other better, and have constant arguments, but it is laughable at the same time. They also try to not stand in the way of each other, as she has a media personality job to focus on too.

Why Comedy?The three things that most attract me to the comedy genre are the stars, stories and the trailers/previews which determine how good they look before you watch it. I watch endless films because I’ve become familiar with certain comedy actors and because of the actors qualities I enjoy the film more. Not only this but I enjoy the story of the film too, I’m always excited to watch a comedy film I’ve never seen, and if the story sounds appealing then ill watch it. Stepbrothers for example, is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in my opinion, and no matter how many times I watch it, it still makes me laugh the same. The story of becoming stepbrothers, and the combination of Will Ferrell and John C Reilly together is what makes this film what it is. Star Theory could be considered here when an audience watches a film because of the people that are in it. It makes you curious as to what role they pull off and whether you still like the film in the end after their performance. They’re very charismatic and their relationship is amazingly funny. I’m very easily amused, and not only do they make me laugh but they can cheer me up and make me happy by watching them. I think it’s good that films like this can lift your mood so high. On the other hand, there are films where I only watch them for the storyline and based on the trailer., and an example of this is The Hangover. I watched this the first time purely based on the trailer I had seen in the cinema. It was very different to what had been done before and it did so well. I hadn’t really heard of any of the actors, so I found this exciting as part of the audience to watch it and see what it had to offer.