Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

There isn't a whole lot more to the plot of Fantastic Beasts than "the guy has to get his creatures back," but I do always like the world of Harry Potter, and it's interesting to see it in a different country, in the '20s, without Harry Potter or any kids at all. It's a pleasant starting point for the series.

Last movie of 2016, in which I saw eight more movies than 2015. Still didn't quite hit my goal of one a week. I'm glad I saw Fantastic Beasts in the theater, although a lot of the CG was slightly off. I wasn't expecting much, and it delivered on that; another one of those where it's pretty much all in the trailer. Newt was a likeable character. He reminded me of The Doctor, probably because of the hair, the blue coat, and being British. All of the characters were likeable, though, especially Queenie and Jacob.

Suicide Squad

 Suicide Squad had a lot of promise. I like the world of Batman (especially without Batman in it), a lot of the characters were cool, and there were some funny moments. But the Joker was atrocious, a lot of the dialogue didn't work, the plot started out as nonsense and only got worse, and the editing was a mess.

I've been hearing hype about Suicide Squad for like two years now, starting with the big reveal of Jared Leto's makeup. And let's just start there. What a horrible Joker he was. I don't get what was with the teeth. They looked so awkward. The hair color didn't work at all, the lipstick was crazy. The voice he went with reminded me of Bruce Jenner. We never really got a feel for what his character was about. It was just so random when he killed people, which I guess might be the point, but it didn't work for me. People complained that he wasn't in the movie enough, but I hated all of his scenes, so it was more than enough for me.

I knew going into it that people said the movie was terrible, but I had some hope anyway. I did like the colors of the logo a lot, and the art they did at the end to represent the characters. Harley's outfit was interesting, and I liked her accent. She was a pretty cool character overall, although I was really confused by Dr. Quinzel. She wasn't very believable. Deadshot/Will's performance was interesting I guess.

Kill Zone 2

Kill Zone 2 had potential, but the plot is pretty atrocious. It looks okay, though, and some of the action is interesting.

The trailer for Kill Zone 2 made it look interesting (I think half of my reviews start this way). IMDb said the plot wasn't good, but the action was, so I went ahead and saw it. IMDb was accurate. The plot is pretty atrocious, but the action is interesting. Tony Jaa is fun to watch, and Jing Wu was good, too. Some of the dialogue probably came across better in the original language.

I'm really starting to hate breaking windows. I haven't seen it done well in so long. Luckily that wasn't a main feature here. There should have been more action. There were some long stretches without it, and they were terrible. I didn't like how it was mostly realistic action, and every now and then someone would do a wire stunt that stood out like a sore thumb.

The Secret of Kells

The Secret of Kells has an interesting feel to it, but I wasn't into the animation style overall, and the story didn't really go anywhere.

I liked Song of the Sea, so my friend thought I might also like The Secret of Kells, but I didn't think it was as good. The animation was still interesting, although I've always been bothered by those Samurai Jack-style square fingers. And the cat and the wolf had spiky points for feet, which was really weird. And the cat's "X with a circle around it denotes the nose and mouth" bothered me, too. And I didn't like the linework on a lot of people's faces, like how the same line for Aidan's beard turned into his ear. Okay, maybe I really wasn't into the animation on this one.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Repo! The Genetic Opera is just really, really bad. It looks cool some of the time, but the terrible music kills it.

Back around the time Repo came out, a friend watched it. For some reason I wasn't interested, or he was watching it when I was about to go to bed or something, because I saw about the first third of it and not the rest. People seem to like it, though, so I thought I should see the whole thing. It turns out the first third was the only halfway decent part and it's all downhill from there.

I did like the Graverobber. He's easily the best part. I like his aesthetic. And he has the best song, about Zydrate, which is the only good song. The music is really terrible. Shilo's punk interlude was the worst. It didn't make any sense at all. Rotti's children were so weird. They didn't have any depth at all, which I guess was the point, but it made them really hard to get into.

Song of the Sea

Song of the Sea is the best movie I've seen this year. The animation style is unique and captivating; the main characters are surprisingly charismatic for being animated children; and the plot is both whimsical and poignant.

I knew about Song of the Sea when it came out, but it didn't seem like anything I needed to see. I was skeptical about the animation style when I first started watching it, but it got better, and I wound up liking it a lot. It's one of those styles that kind of becomes a character of its own.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy has its moments, but the plot is uninspired, the dialogue doesn't always work, and something about the way the character design is executed makes it look like everyone is just playing dress-up.

Everybody said Guardians of the Galaxy was good, but I didn't see the point, and I kind of feel the same way now that I've seen it. It was okay. I always have a rough time with different-colored people (like pink, green, or blue) for some reason. They just don't seem natural. Maybe because they're weird colors. So I was kind of turned off by Zoe being green, and I never got past that or the other weird-colored people.

I forgot that Rocket was Bradley Cooper. I knew he was "somebody," but I couldn't remember who, and I didn't recognize his voice. I saw Vin Diesel's name in the opening credits, and I spent about a third of the movie looking at Drax and going, "I don't think that's Vin Diesel." I had no idea that Nebula was Amy from Doctor Who, so I guess she did a good job with that. All of the makeup was so crazy and over the top, it just looked like everyone was playing dress-up.

I'm glad I didn't see it in a theater. People would've been laughing so much and ruining everything. Yondu's arrow weapon thing was cool. I'd be interested to know more about how it works. The Ravagers didn't seem very scary. Everybody acted like they were intimidated by them or something, but then they all had this "comedic/stupid" thing going on, so it was confusing.

The Raid: Redemption

There are some interesting action pieces in The Raid: Redemption, but the tone is way off, and it feels more like a first writing/directorial effort than the third that it is.

A friend recommended The Raid about a year ago, and I just got around to watching it. I usually don't like the same things he does, but I figured you couldn't go wrong with a pure action movie. The tone was pretty weird. The director said in the commentary that he was going for kind of a horror/suspense vibe, which I didn't get at all, and a lot of the scenes he thought were funny didn't come across that way to me. So it just seemed really uneven and amateur.

This was the writer/director's third movie. It comes off more like a first. The title makes it seem like it's a sequel. It's actually not, but there is a sequel out now. I'd kind of like to see it to find out if he was able to learn anything from this one/improve the next one. Somebody else did the screenplay for the sequel, so that could potentially help.

Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang

Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang is kind of frustrating in how it just skims the surface of Cai and his art, but it's still interesting to watch.

I read a review of Sky Ladder on Ebert's website, and it sounded interesting. Unfortunately, the review pretty much laid out the entire movie. The movie seemed to just kind of skim over the surface of things. It didn't go in-depth on much. I guess it really was mostly about the Sky Ladder project, which is a pretty weird project.

Pacific Rim

I would've enjoyed Pacific Rim more if it weren't for some weird logic issues, but it was still fun. You pretty much know what you're getting into – it's mecha fighting Godzilla monsters. The characters are engaging, the plot kept me interested, and it's Guillermo del Toro, so you know it's going to look good.

I wasn't interested in Pacific Rim when it came out, but somehow two years later, I decided I should see it. I was expecting Josh Duhamel for some reason. I guess he's in Transformers, which some of the fights in Pacific Rim actually did remind me of. Raleigh looked a lot like Chuck, who naturally looked a lot like Herc. I didn't get them confused or anything, but it seemed weird that they would have so many characters were so similar. I didn't figure out that Chuck was Herc's son until near the end of the movie. I did actually have a bit of trouble figuring out who was who and what was going on with Chuck and Herc.

Mad Max: Fury Road

You know from the trailer exactly what you're getting with Mad Max: Fury Road. The action isn't that spectacular, but the world of Mad Max is always interesting, I liked the characters/actors, and the plot was fine.

I have a lot of nostalgia for the original Mad Max series, from forever ago. I'm pretty sure I watched it about 15 years ago and didn't like it. But I don't remember that anymore, so it's basically just back to the nostalgia. I didn't see the point in watching Fury Road. It didn't seem like the movie was necessary, or anything that was going to be that great. I do like Tom Hardy, but I'm not a huge fan of Charlize, and "Furiosa" is the dumbest name ever. I guess it *might* kind of fit in with the Mad Max univerise, though.

The opening of the movie is pretty cool. It's hard not to get behind Max's narration. I did like the look of the war boys. And the canyon people's outfits were cool, too. I thought Nux looked like Nicholas Hoult. I keep confusing other people for him, but I was like, "No, this time that really *has* to be him." Some of the car stuff was cool I guess. I wasn't super impressed with it, or the guitar player, although I did like the war drums. I could've done without the sped-up footage effect.

The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven has a lot of flaws, and the acting isn't good enough to carry the lack of plot and character development. Some of the action is cool, but it's not really enough to make it worth watching.

The Magnificent Seven got mixed reviews, but I was hoping it could be carried on the virtue of the actors. Turns out it couldn't. The plot is ridiculously simple, but you know that going in, so they really need to do some character development or have some cool tricks or something, but they don't. It felt really tired and unispired. The whole "defending a small town with tricks" thing has been done to death. You've got to have some spectacularly impressive tricks if you're going to make it entertaining, and they didn't.

RocknRolla

RocknRolla is a fun movie. I guess the plot is sort of original, but it mainly gets by on the likeability of the characters.

I guess I can officially say I like Guy Ritchie's stuff. The Man from U.N.C.L.E was great, and I liked Sherlock Holmes and Snatch (although I no longer remember the latter). RocknRolla really pulls you in. It's engaging right from the start, and the characters are all likeable. It's interesting how little Mumbles and One Two want to hurt people, considering their line of work.

Interstellar

Some cool stuff happens in Interstellar, but I didn't find it to be that engaging.

A lot of people seem to be into Intestellar. And Christopher Nolan. I don't know how I feel about him. I liked Inception at least. The plot of Interstellar didn't seem interesting to me when I saw the trailer. I was super distracted when I watched the movie, and it wasn't engaging enough to pull me in. Some cool stuff happens, but overall it's still just your basic plot of "the world is dying, this guy is humanity's last hope," which I'm apparently not into.

The Nice Guys

I probably would have enjoyed The Nice Guys more if I had understood what they were going for when I watched it. It was consistently funny, but some of the characters were annoying, a lot of the scenes didn't work, and the ending was strangely unsatisfying.

The trailer for The Nice Guys looked funny, and Roeper liked it, so I guess I had unreasonably high expectations. It was kind of disappointing. Russel Crowe's character was cool I guess, but March kind of got on my nerves. Ryan Gosling did look good at least.

Hail, Caesar!

I'm not the biggest Coen brothers fan, but I liked "Hail, Caesar!" All the actors are good, it's fun to see how they used to make movies, and there are a lot of funny scenes.

I'm not a huge Coen brothers fan. I either haven't seen or haven't been that into most of their movies, although I did like The Ladykillers (what) and True Grit. But Hail, Caesar! just looked interesting on its own merit. Roeper liked it; the friend I watched it with had seen it already and didn't like it because it seemed too "disconnected." Maybe I was inclined to like it just to be contrary. I didn't really find it to be disconnected. Everything seemed to go together pretty well. And overall it's exactly what you're promised – a funny look at how they used to make movies back in the '50s.

Rise of the Legend

There are some cool ideas in Rise of the Legend, but they aren't carried out well. The action looks fake, there's a bizarre fascination with poorly done CG fire, and the plot is dull.

I keep watching these Well Go movies, and they're always terrible, but for some reason that doesn't stop me. I saw the trailer for Rise of the Legend, and I thought it might have some interesting action scenes. I guess it did. There was one in water that was kind of cool. And I liked the idea of the fire one more than anything that really happened during it. The dialogue was horrendous, but I think that was partially the fault of whoever did the subtitles. The story probably would have been better if it had been translated differently. All the "F" names were confusing, with Fei and Fiery and Fa, and the first time I saw them I wondered if the subtitles were just messed up (they did refer to Fei as the "forth adopted son" for the entire time). 

I didn't recognize Eddie Peng from Tai Chi Hero at all. He seemed a lot better-looking in this movie than that one. Maybe he was just surrounded by people who weren't as good-looking in this one, though. Overall the action was pretty flat. It all seemed super fake. Even the giant "thoom" sound effect every time somebody got kicked was a bit much. 

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Miyazaki's movies all seem to match the same theme of "stop fighting and respect nature," and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is no exception. It is visually interesting, and you can't help but like Nausicaä, so I'd lean towards recommending it even though it's not exactly mind-blowing.

I'm pretty sure my college boyfriend liked Nausicaä, but it's been so long since I've thought about it that I could be totally wrong. I wanted to watch My Neighbor Totoro, which I haven't seen yet, but the plot was too simple for my company and they chose Nausicaä instead. It reminded me a lot of Princess Mononoke. I did like Nausicaä more, though. Except for the name. They pronounce it so weird, with an "sh" for the "s." I do like the animation style, although the hats were really distracting and weird.

Nausicaä herself was a cool character. I liked her outfit. You can't *not* like someone who's basically just nice to everyone/everyone's hero. Again the message is super heavy-handed, though. "Stop fighting and try to understand each other." Okay. I guess it's a good thing to tell kids.

Captain America: Civil War

There wasn't a lot of substance to Captain America: Civil War. It basically left me feeling like, "Was that a movie? Did I just watch something?" Some of the action was cool, and I guess the question it raises is interesting, but it's less than memorable.

I didn't see the first two Captain America movies, so I guess I was missing out on a bit of backstory here (and apparently the second Avengers movie would have been relevant as well, which I also didn't see). But I think I get the idea – the Avengers are destroying stuff, and Cap and Bucky were friends when they were growing up. I think I read a review that said it's an interesting dilemma, the fact that so many innocent people die in these things, and that this movie doesn't really provide any answers.

I think it sort of does. Cap's logic seems pretty sound. I guess it's just like in any war. Ultimately you're saving more lives. It's not like they're out there *trying* to kill innocent people. And putting the government in charge of them wouldn't be good. Although there probably should be some sort of system of checks and balances in case one of them is ever less than altruistic. Maybe it works if they're just self-policing.

The Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods is kind of interesting. I like the premise, and parts of it are cool, but the ending feels like a cop-out.

When my friend said he wanted to watch this, I thought it was Cabin Fever, and I was like, "Why would I want to watch that?" But it turns out it wasn't. I do vaguely remember that people liked The Cabin in the Woods, but it wasn't ever anything I wanted to see. The first thing I noticed was that Kristen Connolly's hair looked super weird. And I had to look up where I knew her from (it turned out to be House of Cards).

X-Men: Apocalypse

There's not much to say about X-Men: Apocalypse other than if you like the X-Men, you'll probably like it. The action looks cool, the plot is interesting (albeit simple), and you get to see more characters in their younger iterations.

I begin this post about X-Men: Apocalypse with the disclaimer that I've never seen an X-Men movie I didn't like – although that could be because I've strategically avoided X2 and X3. And I knew I didn't want to see The Wolverine. And it's not even listed as an X-Men movie, so I'm not counting it (I didn't like it. But I did like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, unlike everyone else). I watched and liked the animated series, and the X-Men are definitely my favorite superheroes.

Apocalypse got a lot of bad reviews. It seemed like no one really liked it. I liked it. I didn't think it had too many characters or anything. A lot of them were people we already knew. I can't stand Sansa as Jean, though. I just don't like that actress. Then again, I felt the same way about Jennifer Lawrence, and I'm getting more used to her in the role now I guess.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is Werner Herzog's look at the oldest known cave paintings. It's intriguing just from the perspective of the fact that basically no one ever gets to see them in person. He explores some other facets of life back then, like the landscape and other forms of art, so it's not only about the paintings. It's interesting to think about.

I wasn't interested in Cave of Forgotten Dreams when it came out, but someone (hi, ZT) said it "literally (literally)" blew their mind, so I figured I'd check it out. I watched the same way I always watch documentaries – in 10-minute intervals over the course of a day. It's a little slow sometimes. And it bugged me when they were first exploring and getting lots of shots of them shining lights on the drawings that were so bright that you couldn't actually see the drawings. But they eventually stopped doing that.

Her

"Her" kind of gets more interesting when you reflect on it. The relationship stuff is slightly profound, although it does mostly just make you think again about things you already knew or realized. It's cool to see an imagining of the near future and the evolution of AI, though.

I'm a bit late to the game on "Her," but I wasn't really interested in it. Everyone kept saying it was good, though, so I checked it out. I do like Joaquin Phoenix. Not sure what everyone's doing with the Chester mustache and the super high pants in this movie. I guess it makes sense – the wardrobe as a whole is kind of futuristic and at the same time reminiscent of the past, and fashion always references the past.

There are a lot of good quotes in the movie. Although I couldn't hear half of it, so I'd probably have a better feel for it if I had been able to. "The past is just a story we tell ourselves" is a good one. It is true. Nothing's objective; you never really know what other people's feelings or motives were. I read something once that said every time you remember something, you're actually just remembering the last time you remembered it, so the memories you think of the most are actually the least accurate.

And specifically Samantha was referring to how something Theodore said about her made her feel, which means she was actually talking about "our perceptions of ourselves are a story we tell ourselves," which is also true. I've always thought that you create your own reality, though.

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Alice Through the Looking Glass was cool to see in the theater, but I wouldn’t recommend it outside of that. It could’ve been a lot better. Aesthetically it alternates between gorgeous and freakish; the plot’s largely contradictory and uncompelling; the dialgoue is trite; and Mia doesn’t quite have the presence to pull off the Alice they’re trying to portray.

Roeper warned me that Alice Through the Looking Glass wasn’t going to be any good, but I didn’t listen. It looked pretty, so I wanted to see it. It was pretty. Although the Hatter and the Red Queen looked really freaky and screwed with the aesthetic appeal for a lot of the movie. Alice’s outfits were really cool, though. I loved that crazy thing that she wore to the ball.

Deadpool

Deadpool as a character isn't entirely my thing, and the voice Reynolds went with was pretty obnoxious. But T.J. Miller was great, the action was cool, and it was funny as a whole.

Congratulations to me for finally seeing a movie from 2016. I hadn't heard great things about Deadpool, and I wasn't expecting to like it that much. I haven't seen much of the comics, so I spent a lot of the movie going, "I wonder if it's like that in the comic." I wasn't a fan of all the "fourth wall" stuff, but maybe because I had heard people praising a lot of it already. The tone as a whole didn't 100% click with me. Maybe more like 70%. It was a little too fast/cocky/self-aware for my taste. 

I don't know what Ryan was doing with that voice - another "is it like this in the comic?" moment - but at first I was pretty sure I was going to hate the entire movie because of it. It didn't seem so bad after we got to see Wade, though; and somehow it was even easier to take after we saw how he became Deadpool. He probably still could've dialed it back a smidge, though.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

The Force Awakens really is just like a re-hash of the original Star Wars movies with different actors, and the whole thing is slightly "off," but it was still fun to watch.

I'm not really a Star Wars fan. I made the mistake of watching the first six movies in episode order rather than chronological. Hayden Christensen was terrible. And I didn't get much out of the originals, either. But I kept seeing posts about this one, and I realized you don't get many chances to see a Star Wars movie in the theater, so I went to see it on the big screen.

I'm glad I did; it was worth $3. It's cool that Harrison Ford and everybody is still around to reprise their roles. I don't really see Carrie Fisher as Leia, though; I pretty much just see her as the actress Carrie Fisher. I liked that it felt like a reboot with young actors, although I guess the series in general has been about young people. I didn't recognize Adam Driver at all as Kylo. He looks a lot younger in the movie. BB8 was pretty adorable. His name sounded a little awkward when people said it.

The Transporter

I could barely force myself to think about The Transporter for long enough to write anything about it. I don't know why I thought it might be good, but it profoundly was not. Definitely one of the worst, cheesiest movies I've ever seen. Everything about it was horrible, from the music to the action, dialogue, and plot.

I wasn't interested in The Transporter when it came out, but I later became a fan of Jason Statham (Death Race and Crank, anyone?), so I decided to check it out. Bad idea. Easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I don't even think Statham is that good here. The music was absolutely horrible. The action sequences were so obviously choreographed and slow. There were huge pauses for Statham to hit his marks, with all the bad guys patiently waiting for their turn to be attacked.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Maybe because I had low expectations going into it, and/or maybe because I just like Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, I thought The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was brilliant. There are so many hilarious scenes, and the timing and delivery of the lines is (frequently, although not always) dead on. The plot is less than inspired, but it looks slick, and the soundtrack really stands out.

I didn't have high hopes for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. It got pretty mixed reviews. People like to pick on Guy Ritchie for some reason. I liked Snatch, and I wasn't impressed with Lock, Stock, although I can't remember either movie anymore at this point. But Sherlock Holmes was great. I need to see RocknRolla. I wanted to see The Man in the theater, but circumstances prevented me from doing it, the first time it came in from the library I flat out didn't have time to watch it, so I've been wanting to see it for forever.

I *thought* I hadn't ever seen Henry Cavill in anything until I just checked and found out he was the super hot guy from The Tudors. He's still super hot, and I love his voice. Solo reminded me a lot of Neal from White Collar. They're basically the same guy - a thief who got caught and is now working for the government. Although Neal wasn't in the Army. Henry's acting wasn't exactly perfect. There was something a little *too* mannered/deliberate/campy about it. But it did work most of the time. 

The only thing I'd ever seen Armie Hammer in was The Lone Ranger, but he was great in that. So I was basically just interested in The Man because of the two lead guys. And the trailer had some great lines. I liked the idea of these two guys who hate each other having to work together. I'm sure it's not the first time it's ever been done, but it looked interesting anyway. It was really tough at first to buy Armie as a Russian guy, though. I don't know how authentic his accent was, but I just kept thinking, "this guy isn't Russian and I know it." He and Henry did absolutely kill it a lot of the time in terms of comedic timing/delivery/tone, though.

Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters is a classic. It's probably worth watching just as a point of reference, and it does have its funny moments, but it's pretty simple.

Somehow I've never seen Ghostbusters. I feel like I must have seen it at some point, I just didn't remember it. I'm surprised nobody ever made me watch it. Bill Murray's performance was interesting. I haven't really ever appreciated him in anything, but I heard right before I watched this that he ad libbed a lot of the stuff. He was pretty charismatic. Really the center of the movie.

The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight has some interesting characters and scenes, but it's not exactly iconic.

I wasn't interested in The Hateful Eight from the trailer,  and the reviews didn't make it sound like something worth watching. I've never been a fan of Tarantino's dialogue, but it actually wasn't so bad this time. The characters were pretty interesting. I sort of missed about 10 minutes when they first got to the Haberdashery, but it probably wasn't important.

Not just for that reason, but it's one of the few movies I think I'd like to watch again, knowing all the secrets now. Bob's accent was weird. I didn't really buy him as Mexican. The British guy brought a lot of life to things. Domergue was intriguing, too. And you can't go wrong with Walter Goggins.

The World of Kanako

The World of Kanako is basically about drugs, rape, violence, mental illness...all kinds of gritty stuff. But the cinematography and soundtrack are beautiful, and I was captivated watching it play out.

The World of Kanako is a pretty crazy movie, but I'm generally into that kind of thing. I love how it hits you right out of the gate with violence; it's all stylized, and really well done. The movie as a whole looks great.

The music stood out, too, especially the parts when it was punctuating something happening on screen, like when it stopped in the middle of the scene with Matsunaga. The animated scene was great, especially the way it ended with the doorbell ringing. I liked the blood-splattered cuts anytime someone attacked Akikazu. Speaking of which, that guy was a superhero - he could really take a beating.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy is apparently about how pointless the Cold War was, or what a drag it is to be a spy, which doesn't exactly make for an enjoyable movie. It was interesting about half the time, though, and Gary Oldman's performance was great.

I wasn't interested in this when it came out; or before I watched it, frankly. I heard it was supposed to be good, but it just seemed boring. It did turn out to be about 50% boring. There were some parts where the suspense or storyline kicked in and it got interesting, mostly because of Tom Hardy or Gary Oldman.

Misery Loves Comedy

Misery Loves Comedy starts getting interesting about 3/4 of the way through. It's not as insightful as the trailer leads you to believe; it's mostly just common sense observations.

Misery Loves Comedy wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. There were a lot of "duh" observations like "comedians like to hang out with each other at parties." I'm pretty sure people of any profession probably have things in common and talk to each other at parties. I watched it in bits and pieces over a couple days, as I usually do with documentaries, and I'm definitely glad I didn't spend an uninterrupted chunk of time on it.

It's interesting to see the comedians, but there's not much that's really insightful. It actually started to get interesting in about the last quarter, so they should've done more stuff like that.

I guess they save the fundamental question for the end, which is "do you have to be miserable to be funny." And I think the answer is, not necessarily miserable, but you've got to at least have something to complain about. You never hear anyone making jokes about how everything's awesome and nothing's wrong or uncomfortable.