First we watched "Auto Focus," the story of the sleazebag actor Bob Crane, A.K.A. Hogan from "Hogan's Heroes." It's pretty depressing, and Greg Kinnear does a great job in the title role. It feels as scuzzy as most '70s-era movies do, plus this one is about a sex addict to boot. Oh, and Willem DaFoe's character just makes you want to go scrub yourself with Comet to remove the scum. <shudder> Then there's just the whole "Hogan's Heroes" thing, anyhow—What were they thinking? Wouldn't you have just loved to be at that pitch meeting? "We're thinking of doing a sitcom set in a concentration POW camp!" (Thanks, Mark!) And, as kids, we were allowed to watch it. Imagine.
We went out last night and saw "Little Miss Sunshine," which is the kind of dark comedy I like best. Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, and Alan Arkin all turn in terrifically subtle, black-humor performances, but I think Andy hit the nail on the head when he remarked that the movie was more successful when it was being dark than when it was trying to be funny. Without giving anything away, the hospital scene and the final scene in particular were too goofy and slapstick; other moments in the movie—particularly some of Kinnear's reaction shots—were truly laugh-out-loud funny. I recommend it, but it falls short of being brilliantly funny.
In the Hogan Heroes producers' defense (and speaking as someone who watched the reruns every day after school), it was a prisoner of war camp, not a concentration camp. Not that prisoner of war camps should be considered comic gold either.
Posted by: Mark | September 18, 2006 at 09:22 AM