MovieChat Forums > Dirty Movie (2011) Discussion > Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

posted 10 years ago by Eric266
4 replies | jump to latest

Remember when National Lampoon used to make funny movies (Animal House, Vacation, Van Wilder, etc.)? What has happened to their production people? This movie was bad. Sure the jokes were funny and the ample amount of boobs was nice, but the movie just had so many misses. I had high hopes for a movie that acted out jokes, but it was just one joke after another. I kind of hoped for some set up before the payoff, but it was like sitting around listening to one of your friends tell jokes, badly.

The "plot" as it were, about Merloni trying to get a movie made about nothing but jokes had potential, but it was written poorly. Some of it was ghastly. Mario Cantone had some funny scenes when dealing with the joke writers, but the rest of it was pretty lame.

Ironically, I think if they had left out the "acting out" of the jokes and focused more on the plot about making a movie about jokes, it might have actually been funnier. The scene where they are filming the joke about the black midget and the white girl was pretty funny. With a little more thought they could have made an entire movie with some funny anecdotal type jokes tossed in. I think Mr. Merloni needs to get a new agent if this is the type of stuff he left SVU to pursue.

If this is all that National Lampoon has left in the tank, it might be time to shutter the windows and shut down operations.

[–] EmmaPopell 9 years ago

Well, this isn't a masterpiece film of any kind. What did you expect? Sounds like you expected alot more. This IS National Lampoon, right? How can they "fall" when they were never on top of the ladder?! LoL.

This movie is funny, in a tasteless, dirty, sick way. If you like that kind of silly humor, you might like some of the jokes. It was silly enough to make me laugh out loud, and I am old and tired most of the time....

Critique-ing this film, later, or ever is kind of like giving Kentucky Fried Movie a bad review: It is supposed to be a tasteless, silly movie. It is not racist, bigoted, or anything else negative. It is just silly, like a Cheech & Chong movie.
(Remember "silly", Folks?)

C'mon, Eric, I bet you remember at least ONE joke from this pile of badness....doncha?

P.S. I will watch Mario Cantone read the phone book. He is hilarous.

[–] Eric266 9 years ago

In all honesty, I wasn't really expecting much of anything. I had just seen Movie 43 which is in a similar vein. I was expecting a lot of gross out gags (which I love) and some over the top acting. This movie just felt thrown together. The overall plot was not funny and the jokes were stale. Most of them I had heard years ago. This was not anything new.

I really liked the idea of acting out the jokes, but it got redundant. As I said the scene with the white girl and the black midget cracked me up. THAT scene worked. It was not about telling a joke, but about how they acted out the telling of the joke. THAT is how the whole movie should have been played.

We agree on Mario Cantone. His scenes were the only real highlight of the movie. Him playing the straight man (I don't know if that is even a pun) to the craziest going on around him was absolute gold. He should get more work than he does.

[–] gregrchstr 9 years ago

I wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised when I watched this movie. This movie is funny! Sure, it's cheaply made and full of offensive jokes, that's the whole point, but it's funny! After watching Meloni on Law and Order SVU for years, I thought this was an interesting change for him. You gotta love those teeth he wears in this flick, lol!

[–] ktyson9426 9 years ago

I recently read about the history of National Lampoon. During the 80's the National Lampoon started having a hard time financially and began producing fewer and fewer issues of the magazine per year. Interestingly enough, Tim "Otter" Matheson of Animal House fame, along with his business partner Dan Grodnik, took National Lampoon over in a hostile take over in 1989 while the magazine was in financial decline.

After seeking financing to resurrect the Magazine for two years, Matheson was forced to sell, in order to avoid bankruptcy due to mounting debts. As a result they sold it in 1991 to J2 Communications (J2 was previously known for marketing Tim Conway's "Dorf" videos).

After the sale to J2 Communications the National Lampoon franchise predominately became a name-licensing company, in which the company was paid for use of its brand on titles of movies produced by unrelated 3rd parties.

J2 Communications was contractually obliged to publish at least one new issue of the magazine per year in order to retain the rights to the Lampoon name. However, the company had very little interest in the magazine itself and focused its efforts on the movie media branch of National Lampoon. Throughout the 1990s the number of issues per year declined and the company produced the magazine erratically, with the last issue being published in 1998.

After 1998 the contract with J2 Communications was renegotiated. For an unknown reason there was a reversal concerning the magazine, and J2 Communications was then prohibited from publishing issues of the magazine. J2, however, retained the rights to the brand name, which it continued to franchise out to other users

In 2002 the use of the brand name and the rights to republish old material were sold to a new and otherwise unrelated company named National Lampoon, Incorporated, owned by Dan Laikin.

In 2008 Dan Larkin was prosecuted for illegal stock manipulation and resigned from his position as CEO. Tim Durham, a dominant shareholder, took over duties as CEO of National Lampoon Incorporated. However Tim Durham was convicted in 2012 of the largest white collar crime in Indiana history. Since then National Lampoon has gone through several CEO's, but it is still licensing the name to movie makers.