Monday 5 January 2015

Looking into Comedy #1

 The comedy film I have decided to analyse is 'Step Brothers'. This is, as you can gather from the title, about two step brothers and having watched the whole film I know that they form an unlikely friendship towards the end after many many scenes of showing hatred to one another.



The opening starts with a George Bush quote about family, with them showing the author as "an actual George Bush quote". This is comedic due to George Bush's character and how it contradicts this quote. The credits all shown against a black screen in a doodle form text. This shows fun and lets us know its a lighthearted kind of film as it isn't as 'adult'.

Whilst these credits are running we hear a crunching/ruffling sound which we soon see to be a grown man overfilling a plate of tortilla crisps and cheese - finger/childrens food - again a theme of slight immaturity running with the greed. Fun music then begins to play with the man grabbing even more food than what he already has. I think the fun music is a pro in all of this at it helps set the lighthearted and comedic atmosphere.

We then see a scene with a mum leaving the house giving this man who we realise to be her son information about her whereabouts and when she will be back, another sign of adolescence.

A pattern emerges when we see another grown man acting like a child playing a guitar on a game depending on his father for food as he goes out.

This is all 'funny' because its not a social norm for fully grown men to act in the way the two males are shown in the opening, the things they are saying and doing also consist of 'adult' humour which is also something the audience would find entertaining.

After the two very similar men from different families are introduced we see their parents meet and form a connection with their similarities and attraction to each other - which is also very humorous, eventually we see the couple get married and their two children joined together.

Both of the children end up throwing some form of a tantrum in the reception at the idea of being in each others families and living together and it is at this point where the opening ends.

Like I said, I like that right at the start of the film we were given a feel for the atmosphere and story with the fun font and music. I also like the idea of a quote to set it all off as it immediately tells the audience what the theme of the film will be - family.

I think a con would be how the scene jumped from the parents first meeting to their wedding day, I believe an improvement would have been to film a short montage of the two getting to know and love each other rather than just jumping from lust straight to love. Apart from this however I believe the opening revealed and set the base for the plot very well in the amount of time it had, we saw the situation of both men and families and saw them join together with a little bit of 'step-sibling rivalry' which is enough for the audience to decide if its their kind of film.

Another thing I like about this film is that its genre is almost 100% focused on one thing; comedy. The romantic part is over and done with within the opening and the marriage scene, and the producers are more concerned in showing us the growing relationship in the two brothers.

A brief plot synopsis idea for a film in this genre
Andy is a 13 year old boy trying to find himself and fit in with all of the people at his school, when his now single and 'nothing to live for' 22 year old brother, Alex, moves in for the summer everything seems to come together. With his careless and Andy's tactfulness, they join forces in their journey of having fun, getting to know each other and climbing the high school ladder Andys desperately been wishing for.

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