Reed Benet

I fell asleep in the middle of the day watching this movie, which I don’t think I’ve EVER done before, even for the worst movie. And given that I laughed at all the fart jokes (particularly Jerry running the gauntlet of “the aisle” and his subsequent PTSD shower), and the first four times I watched the original and also completely goofy Austin Powers movie I thought it only got better and better, I don’t think the problem is that I and others panning this thing “need to lighten up.” Also I and many others panning this thing “got” all the 60-70s references, so that wasn’t the issue also? Makes me have more grudging (because I’m highly skeptical of all big corporations, even the world class ones) respect for Disney and their writers, since they so skillfully seem to be able to make both kids and old farts (every time I look in the mirror) like myself laugh at the same things for different reasons, and I just don’t think Jerry and his co-writers came anywhere close to this type of magic. It also gives me so much more respect for comedy, when it is done well. It’s lightning in a bottle. What fascinates me, though, is how nearly perfectly polar opposite the reactions to this movie are, which gets me hoping a social scientist will survey and analyze who are on both sides of this spectrum, i.e. demographics, political leanings, etc. Speaking of politics, and given that Hugh Grant (who I didn’t find funny, per say, but I thought his character acting was brilliant) spoofing as the Tony the Tiger Shaman in the midst of the 1/6 type riot (check out the “kill Mike Pence” type shout out) brings up the subject, so sorry but I’m going to “go there”… these days I’m completely fascinated by (1) my many Trump loving good friends (I call myself a “Recovering Republican” when these friends call me a “Commie” and “Marxist”) see the world as being so dangerous when I see it as mostly foolish (e.g. calling Cold War era former Marine Infantry Officer me the above), (2) how I can’t seem to get any of them to simply acknowledge that they are (literally and figuratively) getting their “truths” from an individual who is objectively considered a liar, misogynist, racist, draft dodger, shirker of all responsibility, whiner, adjudicated rapist, mocker of the disabled and gold star families, warned against by those he chose, attracter of the flawed, I’d argue an insurrectionist, serial breaker of oaths, illegal holder of classified docs, bully, bankrupt, purveyor of media slime, grand manipulator, credit taker versus giver, divisive, etc., etc., etc., and (3) that people I know and respect otherwise can see things so differently from me, and in the same but much more gentle way the people who thought this movie was five star worthy.