Albert Brooks, apparently some guy who used to be a little funny, is coming out with a movie soon called Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. That title alone is enough to make one wince, but seeing the trailer is even worse.
First of all, the guy goes to India. Not exactly "the Muslim World." Apparently he also spends 15 minutes in Pakistan hanging out with a bunch of armed, hash smoking, "fundamentalist looking" Pakistanis. Marvelous. Granted, there are about 150 million Muslims in India, but that also means there are more than 850 million non-Muslims, and those are the people who made it into Brooks' film.
So while Brooks spends time hanging out with and doing stand-up for Hindus and Sikhs, he is looking for comedy in the Muslim world? Am I missing something here? He's not even in an Arab country, which are more heavily stereotyped as Muslim. His co-star is Hindu. They make unfunny jokes about stonings in Libya. Is this just a ploy to further confuse already tragically ignorant Americans?
The proponents of the movie say it pokes more fun at Brooks and Americans than anything else. Since I haven't seen the movie, I'm willing to concede that could be the case, but I'm not holding my breath. And I hate stupid comedies. Regardless, it seems that Brooks and his pals are either dimwitted or just don't care about having Muslims in a movie about, well, Muslims.
Oh, and of course since Brooks is Jewish, he gets to insinuate that Muslims are anti-Jewish. Haha.
Interesting side notes: Albert Brooks' birth name was Albert Einstein and his brother is Super Dave Osbourne. Also, I saw Munich last night. Not a fan.
That sounds like a totally F-ed up movie. I've never liked him anyways.
Posted by: kevin | January 16, 2006 at 07:17 AM
Damn, I just saw the trailer for that. Looks horrible. I thought it was a documentary but instead its a cheap romantic comedy with an apparent 20 year old sexy Hindu as Albert Brooks' love interest? Ugh.
Posted by: adwred | January 16, 2006 at 03:59 PM
Can I make a suggestion? Before giving a movie your PC disapproval see the movie first.
Posted by: drydock | January 16, 2006 at 07:18 PM
ive lived in a muslim country for over half my life and its pretty much 50/50 on the whole anti-jewish thing. some muslims like them some dont.
the movie may sound shit but does everything that seems 'over-the-top' or 'shocking and daring' offend you?
i bet youre one of the people that worships michael moore and sits in a box all day chanting "there is no outside world! there is no outside world!"
Posted by: | January 18, 2006 at 09:35 AM
what did you think about munich? i saw it as zionist, but apparently i'm in a minority?
Posted by: kkitchen | January 19, 2006 at 07:46 PM
hey kkitchen,
I thought the film was clearly Zionist and pro-Israel as well. There's an excellent critique that will be online on Monday that I can provide a link to when it goes up.
I thought it could have been a lot worse, and I think Tony Kushner had a large role in keeping on the "acceptable" level. But it really presented another rewriting of history according to the Israeli standpoint. According to the film, though both sides commit bloody acts, it is only the Israelis in the film who think through their deeds, contemplate right and wrong and are "forced" to act because of the Palestinians.
I can understand why it pissed off the pro-Israel side, and I can understand why people liked it as good filmmaking, but I don't think it was fair or accurate or representative, and that's how I approach these things.
Posted by: scott | January 20, 2006 at 03:02 AM
I haven't seen the movie but from what I understand a lot of the jokes are about how the people don't get his humor.
So basically it's another movie about how people from different cultures don't understand each other, hoe fucking original.
I saw a clip, it contianed the 'Muslims hate Jews' "jokes."
This movie seemed to start with a good concept. Way to lame the shit out of it.
Oh and drydock, nobody's passes full judgement on the movie without seeing it (a la every conservative on F9/11). What you see here is called inquisitive speculation.
Posted by: elemental | January 20, 2006 at 10:23 PM
Albert Brooks isn't even a "has been" he's a "never was"! I've never been able to watch more than 10 minutes of reruns of anything he's done. If we're to have censorship in America let's start with this asshole.
Posted by: Ronin | January 23, 2006 at 02:03 AM
I live in India and I would agree it's definitely can not be classified as part of the 'Muslim world' neither can it be classified by any religion because India is constitutionally secular. It's strange when movies insinuate religion in their plot line and draw upon people uncalled for insecurities and derive 'so called' humour from them.
Posted by: Akshay | January 24, 2006 at 02:19 PM