The Documentary, despite it being seemingly rushed a bit, is a nice touch to just give a final respect to a guy, who just couldn't help himself being nothing else but The Clown (in good sense). I will always cherish, as an European here in Hungary and Slovakia, his natural, raw talent of being The entertainer of his time, I have been and will always laugh at his great sketches and funny movies like Beverly Hills Ninja, which is really close to my heart to this day. He was simply a good-hearted guy who, with his purity, had to face with the classic enemy in the show business: To live up to his self image anytime he could, and was doing it with everything he could pull out of himself. We get you Chris Farley, and we love you for it. RIP!"As I stumble through this life, help me to create more laughter than tears, dispense more happiness than gloom, spread more cheer than despair.Never let me become so indifferent, that I will fail to see the wonders in the eyes of a child, or the twinkle in the eyes of the aged.Never let me forget that my total effort is to cheer people, make them happy, and forget momentarily, all the unpleasantness in their lives.And in my final moment, may I hear You whisper: "When you made My people smile, you made Me smile."
... View More"I remember one time when all the nuns in my Catholic grade school got around in a semicircle, me and Mom in the middle, and they said, 'Mrs. Farley, the children at school are laughing at Christopher, not with him.' I thought, 'Who cares? As long as they're laughing." - Quote by Chris FarleyI Am Chris Farley was probably my most anticipated documentary of 2015, right next to Amy. I always like these kind of documentary's, where we see an in depth look into the famous person life and get to know them more in person; Those are always the best. Chris Farley was a comedic actor that stared in ten movies and a couple of skits on TV and the greatest SNL players ever, until he's tragic death in 1997. I think it's about time we got a documentary about Farley as he was beloved by many people and today he's still being talked about, so making a documentary is a perfect time to start now. I finally got the chance to watch the documentary last Friday and I thought the documentary was okay, and it kind of sucks saying that as I really wanted to love it so badly.I think what the documentary dose so well is introducing us to the man himself Chris Farley, because the main focus of this documentary is on he's career on TV, movies and basically Farley in person. All of this is shown by old footage of Farley doing he's usual skits and Farley best friends telling us stuff that I didn't know about. All of that was well down and some of them had something interesting and funny to say about Farley. My only problem that I had with the whole documentary is that I felt like I didn't get a lot out of it if you know what I mean. The only things that I was interested in knowing before seeing the documentary is getting to know Farley more in person and he's drug addiction that later killed him. The good thing is that I got to know Farley a bit in person, but I felt like didn't get enough, Because after I finished watching "I Am Chris Farley" I quickly went online to look up Chris Farley and there was some much more details that went into more depth that the documentary didn't do. Yeah they're do bring up he's death and him going to rehab in the documentary but it didn't last very long has it quickly moved on. I just wished they would have gone more in depth on those important issues, and yeah you can say that maybe they didn't want to talk about it since it may be hard for them, But this is a "Documentary" and me as a viewer felt like I just didn't enough about the biggest issues in Farley's life which effected him deeply and made for a horrid sight. Well that's pretty much all my honest thoughts on "I Am Chris Farley". It's worth watching if you're interested or not. It's okay but not as great as I thought it was going to be.
... View MoreGrowing up, there was no actor that I loved more than Chris Farley. I watched Tommy Boy and Black Sheep more times than I can count, and I was probably the only person who loved Beverly Hills Ninja when it came out, seeing it twice in the theater. Even today, I can watch any movie with Chris Farley at any time and still laugh out loud. And while some of Farley's movies don't hold up as well as others (the aforementioned Beverly Hills Ninja is downright embarrassing at times), it's still always a treat to watch Farley's performances over again. I Am Chris Farley was made for hardcore Farley fans like myself. It's a movie made by those closest to Farley for people who grew up with, or were influenced by, the comedy legend.From the opening scenes, it's fairly obvious that I Am Chris Farley is a biased film. As the film is executive produced by Kevin Farley, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. With this in mind, I Am Chris Farley is best viewed as a tribute film to Farley rather than a fully detailed, definitive documentary. Almost everybody interviewed pretty much concedes that they think Farley was one of the funniest, sweetest people who ever lived. If I remember correctly, Mike Myers is the only person who even brings up having an argument/fight with Farley at any time (although fights between Farley and David Spade are brought up by other people). There is nothing inherently wrong with presenting Farley in such a positive light, but it also seemingly makes the one sidedness of the whole thing quite transparent at times. Farley's alcoholism is discussed several times, although explicit discussion of his use of hard drugs is skimmed over almost entirely. This fact is obvious and distracting at times, but it is also understandable given how upset friends like Adam Sandler, Bob Saget, and Tom Arnold appear when talking about the darker aspects of Farley's life towards the end. Sandler, Saget, and Arnold give incredibly insightful and powerful interviews. Out of everyone, these are three that seem the most vulnerable on screen. This is especially true of Arnold who comes across as the most introspective, sympathetic, and relateable out of anyone interviewed in the whole film. It's a bit surprising that there isn't more focus on David Spade given how close they were, but between his interview segments and the multiple clips from Tommy Boy and Black Sheep, the bond between Farley and Spade is still strongly represented in the film.I Am Chris Farley is very, very clip heavy. There are a great number of clips from Farley's most famous SNL sketches, his appearances on David Letterman's show, and video footage of him performing at Second City. While this might be annoying in other documentaries, it's never particularly bothersome here. Almost all the clips show Farley at his best, demonstrating what a unique and interesting talent he was. There are nitpicks that I could make about how Almost Heroes and Dirty Work clips are missing, or how there is slightly too much of this or that, though ultimately it doesn't matter as the final credits roll. I could have watched a four-hour documentary on Farley and still been glued to the screen. I Am Chris Farley is a 94-minute tribute that does what it sets out to do, and does it extremely well. While not perfect, this is the best movie about Farley that fans are likely to ever get. 8.5/10
... View MoreWithin the first five minutes of I Am Chris Farley, you will be overcome with the sense of loss and grief. We go back to when Chris was just a child and see his siblings talking about their departed brother, and the loss of a beloved family member becomes instantaneously too real. You will laugh, a lot, you will cry, a lot, but most of all you will miss him, a lot.I Am Chris Farley is a documentary told with love and respect for the person, not a glorifyingly tacky exploration of demons (a la an E! True Hollywood Story episode). It celebrates Farley, his warm and tender nature and natural ability to touch our funny bones. And while it must touch upon the factors that resulted in his death, those minor notes are not the point of the documentary.Instead, I Am Chris Farley does a wonderful job of highlighting the man. Taking time to focus on little gems in his personality and comedic habits, bringing them full circle - showing that perhaps Farley never deviated much from that sensitive kid from Wisconsin who wanted to be liked. Some people may criticize the film for glossing over the darker components of his life; however, any audience member with a semblance of empathy will be able to infer the cause of death, without needing the documentary to explicitly go into the sordid details.To be frank, I don't know how the directors, Brent Hodge and Derik Murray, were able to sway so many individuals to participate in this film, but I am incredibly happy that they did. With seemingly no connection to Center City, SNL, Wisconsin or any of the comedic actors involved in this documentary, they were able garner the approval of Farley's friends and family and tell the quintessential Chris Farley story. Hodge and Murray are able to capture the magic that was Farley in this narrative, and convey the love and talent of the man.I Am Chris Farley starts with his family and up bringing in Madison Wisconsin, told through anecdotes from his brothers that will have you chuckling and saying to yourself "yup, that sounds like Chris." Though, like most people, you never had the opportunity to meet the energetically larger than life individual, and your only perception of him is through a screen. From there, we follow Chris to college and get a more comprehensive view of the man and how he came to pursue comedy as a profession. Onward to Chicago, then New York, then Hollywood and then...In the hour and half documentary, you will feel as though you too knew and were able to call Chris Farley a friend. And the end of I Am Chris Farley will hurt, and though you know he wouldn't want you to cry, you just won't be able to stop yourself.Please check out our website for full reviews of all the recent releases.
... View More