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  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bostondevil View Post
    I still think Maya Rudolph should have said no. I bet the movie would have made the same $200 million without showing women throwing up in each others' hair or Maya taking a dump in the street.
    Just so we are clear, you are saying that you think Maya Rudolph -- who's two most recent films were Grown Ups and MacGruber, in which she played medium-sized supporting roles in each -- should have turned down the role as the #2 character in this film because it was too low-brow at times.

    Ummm, no offense my friend, but lets just say that your budding career as an agent giving career advice to actresses is not getting off to a good start

    Bridesmaids has been a huge career boost for the women in it. I like Maya, but she does not exactly have leading lady looks and she doesn't come off as funny most of the time as Tina Fey or Amy Poehler. I think there is an excellent chance that this will be Maya's biggest film and biggest role of her career. In fact, if the horrible were to happen and Maya were to die today, her obit would call her "comedic actress who starred in Bridesmaids and appeared on SNL for a decade." Yes, Bridesmaids would come first, before SNL. Nothing else about her career would be mentioned... unless it was a really long obit.

    I can understand that some folks found parts of Bridesmaids to be "gross out" low-brow comedy. But it was not trying to be high-end. It was going for those kind of jokes and the thing that sets it apart from many, many other films that try the same thing is that they worked exceptionally well in this movie. That is something to be praised because goodness knows, we see more than a few movies that try this kind of thing and just fall horribly flat (anyone see The Change Up? Blech!).

    --Jason "I bet if you asked Melissa McCarthy, Kristyn Wigg, Maya and the other Bridesmaids; they'd say this movie was the best thing to happen to their career so far" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  2. #22
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    Mar 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    Just so we are clear, you are saying that you think Maya Rudolph -- who's two most recent films were Grown Ups and MacGruber, in which she played medium-sized supporting roles in each -- should have turned down the role as the #2 character in this film because it was too low-brow at times.

    Ummm, no offense my friend, but lets just say that your budding career as an agent giving career advice to actresses is not getting off to a good start

    Bridesmaids has been a huge career boost for the women in it. I like Maya, but she does not exactly have leading lady looks and she doesn't come off as funny most of the time as Tina Fey or Amy Poehler. I think there is an excellent chance that this will be Maya's biggest film and biggest role of her career. In fact, if the horrible were to happen and Maya were to die today, her obit would call her "comedic actress who starred in Bridesmaids and appeared on SNL for a decade." Yes, Bridesmaids would come first, before SNL. Nothing else about her career would be mentioned... unless it was a really long obit.
    Having seen part of Grown Ups and all of MacGruber (on cable, of course), I have to say that Maya's choices must have been low-brow or nothing.

    But I strongly disagree with Jason's limited obit, because Maya Rudolph's connected. She has a famous husband, a famous high school classmate, a famous mother, and was immortalized in song when she was a small child. Look it up.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    Just so we are clear, you are saying that you think Maya Rudolph -- who's two most recent films were Grown Ups and MacGruber, in which she played medium-sized supporting roles in each -- should have turned down the role as the #2 character in this film because it was too low-brow at times.
    No offense taken but, nope, that's not what I'm saying. Of course Maya Rudolph the actress should have taken this role. If you'll reread my posts just a little bit more closely, what I've been critiquing is the writing. Maya Rudolph co-wrote the screenplay. I'm saying to Maya Rudolph, the writer, that when the studio execs told her she needed to put in the aforementioned scene so that "men will come see the movie too", she should have said no. If she put it in all by herself because she thought it was necessary, well, then I can't give her an A+ for writing, more of a B-. Just because a movie makes a whole lot of money and a whole lot of people go to see it, doesn't mean that it couldn't have been better. I liked Bridesmaids. I'm glad I saw it. I don't plan on ever seeing it again. Funny? Yes. A classic? No. And, IMHO, it could have been.

    And c'mon people, don't you at least agree that Kristin Wiig's hair looked atrocious in this movie? I know she was supposed to be depressed, but it's a movie, brush your hair!

  4. #24
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    Jun 2007
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    brooklyn
    Quote Originally Posted by Bostondevil View Post
    No offense taken but, nope, that's not what I'm saying. Of course Maya Rudolph the actress should have taken this role. If you'll reread my posts just a little bit more closely, what I've been critiquing is the writing. Maya Rudolph co-wrote the screenplay. I'm saying to Maya Rudolph, the writer, that when the studio execs told her she needed to put in the aforementioned scene so that "men will come see the movie too", she should have said no.
    umm, you better check yourself before you wreck yourself - maya rudolph didn't write the movie. i'd assume you were confusing her with kristen wiig, but you reference her later in your post. also, i'm really not sure where you are getting that "studio execs told" anybody that the poop scene needed to be in the movie. i saw the point of that scene to be saying 'hey, women can make disgusting poop jokes, too' and would bet that the films writers (wiig and her friend annie mumalo, who played the nervous woman on the plane) had that scene from the start.

  5. #25
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    Feb 2007
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    You are right, NovaScotian, Kristin Wiig wrote it, my bad. I made up the idea of the studio exec to give the writers, perhaps, more credit than they deserve. What can I say? I still hate that scene. And the more I defend my position on it around here, the more I hate it. I read scripts for theater companies all the time. Theater is a little different from movies, nobody is going write a scene like that for the stage, but, if that script did cross my desk, I'd pass it along with the note - lose the gross out poop joke scene, it's lazy, cliched, and unnecessary. I would, however, pass it along.

  6. #26
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    Dec 2007
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    Cary, NC
    What made the poop scene so funny to me wasn't just that they were women, it was that they were in this fancy upscale bridal shop doing a fitting, tensions were starting to build, and then things just snowballed from there. Then when Maya Rudolph walked out into the street, it's like she's standing in the middle of a crowded street pooping, but no one can see what's happening because of the dress.

    In the pantheon of all-time great poop scenes, I would have to put this one at #3 behind the first Austin Powers movie when Austin is attacked by a spy and Tom Arnold is in the next stall giving him encouragement, and of course Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber when he goes over to the girl's house.

  7. #27
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    BD, a question --

    What would you have done instead of the poop scene? The point of that part of the movie, and it is an important part of the story, is that Wiig is doing everything wrong when it comes to being Maid of Honor. Things have to go so catastrophically wrong that Maya removes her best friend from the wedding party and hands the important jobs over to Rose Byrne's Helen.

    Now, I agree there are other ways you could have Wiig's Annie mess up, but giving everyone food poison by taking them to a bad restaurant for the bridesmaid's luncheon is pretty good. Making it even worse by having everyone puking and pooping all over their wedding dresses is what takes it to the next level and make's Lillian's decision to distance herself from her lifelong best friend somewhat believable (an absolutely crucial thing for the plot).

    Plus, the job of the filmmakers and writers was to make a funny movie. Putting women in a sacred situation (trying on a wedding dress) and then ruining it in the absolutely worst way possible is funny. I laughed, a lot. My wife did so too. The entire theater I was in was howling with laughter. In fact, I want to see the movie again on DVD because I missed so much of what was said in that scene because the theater was howling with laughter and you could not hear anything.

    Yes, it was low brow and sophomoric. But much of the great humor through entertainment history has followed that same path. It is the fact that we consider these things gross and low-brow that makes them funny. Much of the great humor in history recognizes this.

    -Jason "worth noting, we don't see poop flying everywhere in that scene-- plenty of movies would have sprayed brown liquid all over the place. At least BMaids was above that level" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  8. #28
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    Feb 2007
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    All right, I'm of the mind that the more realistic you can keep a comedy, the funnier it is. If the situation remains believable but the outrageous happens? I'm there. OK, so, this group of women are going out to lunch and then trying on bridesmaids dresses. We are led to believe that they all chow down on various MEAT dishes just prior to that event? Annie can screw up by picking the wrong restaurant, one that serves spoiled food, and you can maybe even convince me that Annie would pick such a restaurant because she's skinny and can eat anything but there is no group of 5 bridesmaids in this world that will all chow down on a several course meat heavy spicy Brazilian meal just before trying on fancy dresses. Doesn't happen. Ever.

    OK, convince me to suspend reality and we have found 5 'Megan's in the same bridal party. They all eat spoiled meat. Nobody says anything about it tasting funny and off they go. They hit the bridal shop, get the dresses on, and then start to feel bad. You know somewhere that you're not going to try and tough it out until it's too late once you start to feel like you're going to throw up? A bridal shop. You're wearing a $800 dress and you feel like you're going to puke? First of all, you don't put the dress on, but, if you really do get it on before you start to feel ill? You rip it off. You're in a bridal shop, there aren't any men around, you get the dress off first, cause you know if you puke on it, you pay for it. And if a fellow bridesmaid is already throwing up in the toilet you would like to throw up in, and you're not drunk so aiming isn't really an issue, and somebody is already using the sink as a secondary emergency toilet? You don't throw up in her hair, you throw up on the floor. Character matters, even in a comedy, maybe even especially in a comedy. You can put your characters in extraordinary circumstances and ask them to do things they wouldn't normally do because of those circumstances but you can't ask them to suddenly become people they aren't. Actually, now that I think about it, it would have been a funnier scene if you had 'Helen' and 'Whitney' frantically trying to help get the dresses off before the puking occured. That would have worked much better. 'Megan' could have still been the one who didn't care. 'Annie' could have been trying to get the dresses off and hiding the fact that she had to puke too.

  9. #29
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    Feb 2007
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    Boston area, OK, Newton, right by Heartbreak Hill
    Making this a two parter, it's unrealistic that 'Whitney' didn't try to get those dresses off in the first place. Telling women who obviously aren't going to be able to stop themselves not to use the bathroom? Wouldn't happen, she'd be getting those dresses off like nobody's business, hollering for help. That's what would really happen and it would be funny because every woman in that audience, and maybe even most of the men, could relate.

    But, you could have gone a completely different route, had them start getting sick on the way to the bridal shop and wind up in ambulances with IVs on the way the hospital so that they missed their appointment at the snooty shop - the ONE thing that 'Annie' managed to get right, securing the appointment. 'Helen' still has to save the day by getting them a second chance. And the fight over the dress? Unrealistic. Brides get to pick those things. Plus 'Lillian' knows that 'Annie' is in financial distress, if she's really her best friend, she won't go with the $800 dress anyway. Nothing about 'Lillian' led you to believe she was a Bridezilla - she didn't pick her bridesmaids based on who would look the best in her wedding or who could afford the most, she picked friends and family. No way she'd expect 'Annie' to buy an $800 dress.

    I wonder if anybody is still reading this! I'll stop now.

  10. #30
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    Feb 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bostondevil View Post
    They hit the bridal shop, get the dresses on, and then start to feel bad. You know somewhere that you're not going to try and tough it out until it's too late once you start to feel like you're going to throw up? A bridal shop. You're wearing a $800 dress and you feel like you're going to puke? First of all, you don't put the dress on, but, if you really do get it on before you start to feel ill? You rip it off. You're in a bridal shop, there aren't any men around, you get the dress off first, cause you know if you puke on it, you pay for it. And if a fellow bridesmaid is already throwing up in the toilet you would like to throw up in, and you're not drunk so aiming isn't really an issue, and somebody is already using the sink as a secondary emergency toilet? You don't throw up in her hair, you throw up on the floor.
    You make some good points that might have made the scene just as funny or perhaps even funnier.

    All I will say is that as I read the above paragraph, of you describing the scene, I actually started laughing out loud a bit.

    That, my friends, is what funny is all about.

    --Jason "low brow me... take me into the gutter... if I laugh, it is all good!" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  11. #31
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    Feb 2007
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    Boston area, OK, Newton, right by Heartbreak Hill
    Are you saying that my writing made you laugh?

    Thank you. Maybe I should try a movie script next.

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