This is one of those great films you can just curl up with on a rainy night and enjoy.
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warren_houghton — 14 years ago(June 18, 2011 02:16 PM)
I think so much of whether one can enjoy the style of humor in a particular movie involves one's personal makeup, likes and turnoffs, etc.
There are tons of "comedians" I wouldn't watch if you paid me, because the little I've seen of their style of comedy just turns me off. Martin Mull is so flat and deadpan just hearing his voice when he was in his heyday bored me silly. I hated Jim Carrey up until "Series of Unfortunate Events" which I think he's hilarious in.
Then there's the style of the movie itself. I found watching "Napoleon Dynamite" very uncomfortable the first time, but after getting past the discomfort of laughing at (lets face it) social retards, I'm OK with it now, though it's not one of my favorites.
In my mind, "Murder by Death's" humor is related to (in no particular order) "Princess Bride," "Airplane," Monty Python, Mel Brooks movies, "Clue," Pink Panther movies, Alfred Hitchcock's little intros to his shows and so much else that I grew up with or came to love later.
It also has to do with your mood and who you're with the first time you see a movie. That first impression can make or break that movie for you forever. I guarantee if I had been a young teen having a sleepover with my best friend, and had seen "Ace Ventura" at midnight in that giggly mood for the first time I'd LOVE Jim Carrey now. (I've actually never seen it, BTW.)
So if you like any of the stuff on my list, watch one of them, then watch "Murder by Death" again and see if your opinion changes. Though it might be too late now for you to like "Murder by Death."
To me it's just eminently quotable; jokes and lines from it pop into my head constantly in everyday situations, and there are plenty of other comedies (that I love, even) that just don't have that quality. -
blondeblue1 — 11 years ago(January 10, 2015 09:25 AM)
I am very familiar with the detectives spoofed in this movie. I also love off-the-wall humor like Monty Python, Kids in the Hall, Airplane, etc. That being said, I thought this movie was horrendously unfunny, lame, and just plain stupid. In fact, the only barely humorous part of the whole movie was at the very beginning, when the blind butler stamped the envelopes. The rest was downhill from there. I was appalled at what was supposed to pass for humor. If something like this was released today, people would throw garbage at the screen and then walk out.
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gallae — 13 years ago(November 21, 2012 05:33 PM)
I saw it on TV last week and I have to admit I was pretty bored until the "murder" took place. Also, I didn't find the humour between a blind butler and a deaf/dumb maid funny at all. Partly because I have friends with such disabilities, but also, why hire such a combination?
Laura Ess -
VinnieRattolle — 12 years ago(September 17, 2013 02:01 AM)
I've seen the title a billion times but just watched it for the first time and immediately connected the dots to "Clue" (partly because of Brennan); however, that film was more accessible to mainstream moviegoers. This film doesn't remind me of "Airplane" at all, it's more like "Elvira's Haunted Hills," which spoofed the Roger Corman/Vincent Price/Edgar Allan Poe movies. If you're not familiar with the films being spoofed then you're not really in on the jokes.
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PillowRock — 12 years ago(October 17, 2013 12:45 PM)
As was once said in a TV show that I used to watch a lot: "Humor is so subjective."
You didn't find the movie funny; that's fair.
That said, I have a comment or two about some of your explanation.
same with the Wang jokes, maybe it was slightly funny the first time Twain tells Wang to use his prepositions, but this was rehashed over and over. Same with Wang's proverbs, it was the same joke over and over.
and I know it's a spoof, but a lot of these jokes about certain stereotypes, which may have been funny to 70s audiences, certainly have not aged well and are not funny today.
I've never noticed any particular stereotypes about blind butlers or deaf mute cooks.
When it comes to the rest of the characters, they weren't spoofing / doing jokes about stereotypes. They were spoofing a specific set of characters and almost all of their jokes were specifically about those characters, though maybe more about their movie incarnations than staying strictly true to the books. They weren't doing jokes about Asian / Chinese stereotypes, they were doing jokes about Charlie Chan movies (and back in the 1960s and 70s those were on local TV a lot in late show and weekend daytime slots; everybody back then could identify with Twain every time he yelled something like "'is the'! 'is the'!" at Wang), right down to the Anglo lead actor with an Asian actor playing the son; the proverb thing was definitely a Charlie Chan trait, not an all-Chinese-people-speak-in-proverbs stereotype. They were also spoofing Sam Spade (though they also did throw in a couple references to other similar Humphrey Bogart roles), Nick & Nora Charles (from the Thin Man series), Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot. -
Tjanssen411 — 12 years ago(October 20, 2013 06:46 PM)
not sure about the bed on Fire joke but as a rule when going into spoofs/parodies is having seen enjoyed the genre being spoofed
If you've Not seen at least one adaptation of one of the people mocked by the central characters (Charlie Chan/Mr Moto, The Thin Man, Poirot, Marple, Spade/Marlowe) I don't think you'll enjoy it on the same level as you will with a point reference
without seeing the Moto/Chan movies Wang can easily be read as mocking Asians, but with that Point of reference the joke clearly shifts to that of using 'yellow face' and /or the forced meme of all Asians use broken English -
DracTarashV — 11 years ago(January 18, 2015 06:03 PM)
This is a well constructed, enjoyable and pretty clever film but it just wasn't as funny as I expected. And yes, I got all the jokes.
Clue (1985) is probably less clever than this one, but it's still funnier to me.
Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry! -
Zuider_Zee — 11 years ago(January 28, 2015 05:43 AM)
It didn't age well. I remember enjoying it in the theater back in the seventies but watching it recently did nothing but bore me. It just isn't that funny anymore and doesn't stand up to the test of time.
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liamforeman — 9 years ago(September 08, 2016 11:34 PM)
I agree. I'm watching this right now and just do not find much humor in it. If there is some, it is repeated over and over to the point that it's not funny anymore. Oh well, I'll keep watching it to the end.
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vintage_rocknrolla — 9 years ago(October 12, 2016 08:12 AM)
I seen it for the first time today and absolutely loved it. I respect everyone's opinion, and I can accept certain jokes don't work for some. But I found the humor clever, subtle at times but consistently hilarious. The stereotypes and over the top performances were exactly what the film needed; it provided a nice contrast to the subtleties of the jokes.
Now, this can only mean one thingand I don't know what it is.