It seems, no matter the acclaim, recent mainstream Hollywood comedies fail to blow me away. Whether it's The Hangover, Get Him To The Greek, or new release Bridesmaids, I just can't get a reaction bigger than a snigger or chuckle. Where once we had the sillier prospects of Tropic Thunder, Team America, Dodgeball or Borat... it seems that Hollywood has gone all Judd Apatow on us. That means more realism and less surreal nuttiness.
That's not to say that Bridesmaids is bad; far from it. The cast is superb led by a game Kristen Wiig (a major comedy talent to be sure), John(Mad Men)Hamm, Rose Byrne, Matt Lucas and SNL's Maya Rudolph. Stealing the show is Melissa McCarthy (much better in this that the TV series she won an Emmy for this month) as the rather mannish and ignorant member of the mis-matched group of girlies. It's script is well observed, the direction is restrained enough to let the skilled cast improve their socks off and it pushes the boundaries on a couple of occasions to produce a couple of classic scenes.
Good stuff to be sure, but no comedy classic.
