The RiffTrax blog is having a contest to take a comedy and re-pitch it as a drama or vice versa. Here’s my entry:
In the spirit of TRAINSPOTTING, a tragic look at the effects of drug addiction. Two friends, Jesse Montgomery and Chester Greenburg, finally hit rock bottom, waking up one morning unable to remember the night before. They try to piece together what had happened, but their drug-addled minds are no longer able to discern reality from hallucination. They find themselves attacked by transsexuals and imprisoned by a sexually perverted farmer, but it’s never clear how much of it is simply in their confused heads. They descend into madness, eventually believing aliens are among them and that a Rubik’s cube they possess is the key to stopping them. Tying all their delusions together is the search for Jesse’s vehicle, symbolic of the elusive hope of an escape from the nightmare they’ve made themselves.
DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR? stars Ashton Kutcher and Sean William Scott in their most tragic and terrifying rolls yet.
Change “Jesse Montgomery and Chester Greenburg” to “Barack Obama and Michelle Obama”, and “DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR” to “DUDE, WHERE’S MY TELEPROMPTER” and I’m all in.
Moe Lane links here, saying
To which someone very, very smart, really cool, with a charitable smile and chiseled pecs, replies:
I thought anything with Ashton Kutcher was already a tragic drama. Well, at least the ordeal that anyone that watches that retard has to go through could be classified as such.
By the way, nice job, Frank. Needs a bit more to it. What, I a not sure, but it is a really good start.
does it count if the drama was ridiculous in the first place? i am thinking “double jeapordy.”
Or maybe Batman Returns. “watch the wham and pow! you love from the caped crusader when he takes on the catwoman (meeeow) and the Penguin and his army of rocket launching penguins. Its the wackiest thing since ‘shark repellant!'”
Good nominees, though… my cousin vinny. sort of an indictment of southern justice or something.
or try this one: “a fat man goes in a downward spiral into madness. See Michael Moore in Fahrenheiht 9-11.”
How about a comedy about a family of loveable but misfit Muslim terrorists that no one (for some odd reason) seems to want to take in. Their search for a new home, and the pitfalls they encounter in trying to get there could be hilarious if handled correctly by a good director. I suggest Michael Moore….a man who knows how to produce movies that are basically sad pathetic comedies. The title: Meet The Uigurs.
My entry:
This is the tragic story of three men in their thirties, already in the midst of a mid-life crisis. Mitch, a lawyer, just left his sexually obsessive girlfriend. Frank is a newlywed with a troubled marriage from the start, one exasperated by his rekindled alcoholism. Bernard, appearing to “have it all,” including a wife, child, and his own stereo franchise, is likewise in a rut. Instead of confronting their problems, they seek to bury their troubles in alcohol, younger women, and a fraternity of college-age boys. Mitch, after a sexual relationship with a high school girl, seeks the comfort of a single mother dealing with her own emotionally abusive relationship. The group’s attempts to cope with their suburbanite lifestyles lead to the expulsion of several college boys, to Frank’s divorce, and to the tragic death of a war veteran. Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell star in “Old School.”
A young, optimistic Kazah called Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) finds the dark side of America when he stumbles upon a racist, redneck, Rush Limbaugh-loving tea party in the rural American South. Keith Olbermann stars as Borat’s sidekick.
Frank, is that your entry or the plot summary of Hellbender?
:::ducking:::
My entry:
I read the title and I was expecting a Frank J. riff on Chastity/Chas Bono’s impending GENDER switcheroo. My bad.
They were three friends on a journey…together. But they weren’t alone. Following several mysterious deaths, they were now stalked by the bearded cameraman who followed them everywhere. Enlisting the aid of a bat-toting manager, they crisscrossed the countryside, battling unpredictable obstacles in a journey of self-discovery that would lead them from Stonehenge to space pods, in an attempt to climb from the depths of their own personal Hell hole. But, what do you do when you finally discover it’s your own company that won’t allow your release? If you’re David, Nigel and Derek, when the question is “How much more black could it be?” it’s time to turn it up to 11. Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer star in the Rob Reiner thriller, This Is Spinal Tap
My submission:
A man with no family desperately seeking the money he needs to escape a fate worse than death at the hands of a usurious money-lender who’s consumed by his own greed … a beautiful young woman running blindly to escape an arranged marriage to a man she could never love … a violent dictator seeking to destroy his peaceful neighbors, while his wastefulness and corruption destroy his own country … all become caught up in the web of a power-mad sadist with a penchant for sexual torture and playing with dolls in Mel Brooks’ gripping portrayal of the nearly impossible struggle of Good against Evil, where Evil will always will (because Good is dumb) … SPACEBALLS (The Movie).
*evil will always win
Estella,
That was just Awesome! I commend you. Very well done.
SOB,
Yours rocked just as hard. Ya’ll some brainy folk, ain’t ye?