[ANNPRMEOW] Between Two Ferns

[Kyle]

This is the discussion thread for the All New Nerd Pride Radio Movie of the Every Other Week!

This thread is only for those who have seen the movie recently. Commentary from people who haven't seen it will be deleted.

This Every Other Weeks Movie: Between Two Ferns, selected by poorpete

WARNING- ALL SPOILERS FOR THIS MOVIE ARE ALLOWED! For real, if you haven't seen it, don't read any further!

Discuss!

[Mike]

I've only seen occasional clips of the TV show, and in general I find Galifianakis funny, but not as funny as everyone else keeps claiming he is. So my Hope's were not high.

I laughed throughout. I found this movie very funny. It helped that Aidan and I were watching together, and we sort of feed off each other in these situations. I especially loved the interview segments and the outtakes of same, but I found much of the plot portions really entertaining as well.

Nothing deep here. The plot was intentionally trite, and that triteness was played for comedy, so this was really just a sequence of very funny jokes strung together into a cohesive story. I laughed my ass off and didn't look any deeper.

[poorpete]

I came in as a big fan of Scott Aukerman (who directs) and Lauren Lapkus (who costars), from their comedy podcasts, and there's a bunch of comedy podcast cameos that are there to mainly satisfy me (Paul Rust, PFT, Matt Besser, Mary Holland, and others).

I didn't know if they could make something so mean-spirited and a bit anti-comedy for 80 minutes, but they figured how to put in some very mild stakes (agreed, nothing big or deep), some pathos (the characters do seem to enjoy each other, though I feel we didn't get enough time to appreciate them), and actually included some regular good ole classic comedy too. Lots of laughs is all I gave it and that's perfectly fine.

Scott talked a lot about being inspired by the low-stakes and lo-fidelity of This is Spinal Tap and Wayne's World and you can see it. I mean, it's exactly that. You could see a little bit of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles too, especially in the car-crash scene. It's not better than those three films, but very few films are, and it's a solid funny film I've seen twice now and will revisit often.

[Zombie]

Definitely some funny moments that I laughed at and some good jokes, but this bit feels stretched and a little tedious at feature film length. I've enjoyed Between Two Ferns over the years as they get shared on youtube and facebook. To me, it's perfect at that 10-20 minute mark.

I was talking with buckett and he mentioned that one thing that Between Two Ferns does well is to have this looming tension between Zach and whoever he is interviewing. You are waiting for that explosion to erupt. Not only is it a great source of underlying comedy, but it also gives the interviews a bit of cohesion as Zach bounces all over the place with his questions. They kind of get away from that in the movie some which was a bit disappointing.

Still glad I watched it. I've always liked Zach Galifianakis (Baskets super underrated).

[buckett]

I watched this right after it came out, as a big fan of the original webseries and Zack G in general. I don't think the premise is really as funny when Zack G is a huge comedy megastar or, as Zombie mentioned, when we only get a handful of questions at a time rather than the interview growing steadily more and more uncomfortable. Came out pretty disappointed and mostly just earned a handful of chuckles from me.

The 'story' bits were mostly pretty well done but I probably would have preferred it as a separate short and just a handful of separate interviews.

[Mike]

[Kyle]

THREEDOM!

[Mike]

I love Threedom.

[poorpete]

Dem threedom boys! Early threedom access might always keep me signed up to Stitcher Premium

Dunno if y'all noticed but each Friday they are releasing the full interviews. Aka about three more jokes and a calmer edit

Keanu
https://youtu.be/MP5IViZV-N8
Cumberbatch
https://youtu.be/1VrF-y9IKi8
Letterman
https://youtu.be/L8kgk2MzHh4
Rudd
https://youtu.be/dLEHlTzDdaQ

[Tahlvin]

Meh, wasn't really my thing. I laughed harder at the outtakes at the end than I did during the movie itself.

[buckett]

[mimekiller]

A absolutely ABSURD idea to stretch 5 minute skits into a 80 or so odd minute film but it actually works PRETTY ok, the interview segments are of course the best, the connecting tissues between those were amusing enough. SOLID 2 1/2 star out of ***** film. Kept me chuckling

[poorpete]

here's Brie


Next time, I promise, a film at least 4 or 5 times older. Y'all seen this French workers leaving the factory film?