Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
| 20 January 2006 (USA)
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World Trailers

To improve its relations with Muslim countries, the United States government sends comedian Albert Brooks to south Asia to write a report on what makes followers of Islam laugh.

Reviews
Blueghost

Other reviewers have got it wrong. This isn't dry intellectual humor that'll have you laughing hours later after you think about the line. This is vapid and uninspired humor that was horribly executed and horribly shot.The camera angles are uninspired, the music is canned, the acting and overall film are simply poorly directed. Lots of master shots, few if any cutaways. There is absolutely nothing here to accentuate the humor in the film. It's bland as can be.The one scene that had some humor in it was left on the cutting room floor, and the other comedic sequence cast some aspirations on international rivals.The real crux of the matter is that the film presupposes that somehow humor is not universal. It also demonstrates a kind of intellectual high-brow naiveté about the middle east. Ironically enough the film was allegedly aimed at a western audience and trying to bridge social divides, but falls miserably flat on its face through lack of zest.The other aspect is that this is, more likely, a test market film that needed to recoup its losses. It was shot with a minimal budget, and had production values to match. What was being tested here (the director? the viability of shooting a low budget film in India?) I have no idea, but it's market appeal has all the earmarks of a film that is ready to have its return and market analysis fast tracked to the studio heads and marketing department.Why on earth there would be more than 100 reviews for this film is beyond me. What's even more puzzling is why there would be praises heaped onto this thing when it was intentionally half baked.Did I mention the ending? Well, I can't, but it's not funny, just like the rest of the film.

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farkomeister

Albert Brooks' comedy has always been too dry for my taste, but his latest directorial venture is absolutely pathetic. This movie is supposed to be a comedy, but it barely makes you laugh. Maya and the embassy officials are painfully unfunny, even to the extent of taking away some of the fun.It is almost a cliché that Brooks, as an American, has to explain nuances of the English language to the Indian Maya. Perhaps Brooks needs to be reminded that "Indian" English is more authentically English than the Americanized version. The concept of interviewing the Indian candidates near the beginning of the movie must have seemed funny on paper, but the end result was cringingly boring. How can you mess up such a perfect opportunity for laugh-out-loud comedy? His stand-up routines in the movie are not for the common man in the US, let alone Indians in New Delhi. The whole concept of "what makes you laugh" does not yield any comedy whatsoever. The sojourn to Pakistan wasn't even interesting. The Pakistani laughing jacks seemed more like drunk jokers than "aspiring comedians." The whole movie was so focused on Brooks that it seemed more like an attempt at self-promotion rather than entertainment.This movie is for you only if you want to bore yourself for 98 min, or if you're a Brooks fan-boy.

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chasrar

closing your eyes is better than watching this movie .The movie totally puts the train out of rails .The writer/director/producer/actors all attached to this movie filmed it just in India and there they claim that they have searched for comedy in Muslim world ? Muslims are minority in India ,how can you find Muslim comedy in some country where Muslims are not even majority ? "i tries hard to search for comedy in this movie but I failed" .The writer/producer seems to be so unaware of the fact ,that Pakistan is country with Muslims in majority and he should have landed in Pakistan first to search for his so called "COMEDY" rather than India .Secondly when you're making a non-fictional movie ,you've to be damn right with the common facts .The writer lacks the basic knowledge about the Muslim world ,as well as India and Pakistan Both. You can get visa to Pakistan as easily buying ice cream. Okay few bad things happen and we laughed .Few mishaps and yeah HA HA HA. You're no Mr.Bean ,there's no humor in your mishaps ,its rather a shame for a writer to visit some other country unprepared. Next time if you make some movie like this please consult some of the translated Muslim literature first and by visiting real Muslim world ,you can consult the world map ,Thanks.

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the_sarpo

I really disagree with the Americans who thinks they can make fun out of anything anytime. I watched the movie from the beginning till the end. But it was such a pain in my brain. No funny scene at all. No acting, no technique, No nothing. I beg you people. If you adore the English "Coupling" series and really think that the American copy version sucks, then you can fully understand me about what I'm trying to tell here. American comedy scriptwriters, actors and directors are really successful when they are working on something original, something genuine like "The Mask". They do it great when they are the master of the situation. But if you don't know so much and learn about it in order to make a movie, then there is so much thats missing.

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