The Above Average Awards: Comedy 2015

While the problem evades me, comedy continues to limp along, as we move from year to year, and it's terribly frustrating, as someone who loves true, true comedy. For some reason, true comedy just doesn't do it for me as much as it used to. In fact, I think Anger does a pretty good job of displaying how frustrating it is to watch an R-rated comedy, these days...

Nevertheless, it is imperative that we give comedic filmmakers and actors their due, something for which I will always advocate. My comedy list may be small, in 2015, but there is no doubt that the folks and films, below, made us laugh and deserve the praise that I am about to bestow upon them...

Best Actor

#3 - Zack Pearlman
(Staten Island Summer)

Staten Island Summer was quite ho-hum, in the grand scheme of things, but, thankfully, there were several silver linings, including a hilarious performance by Zack Pearlman. Honestly, I'm not familiar with Pearlman's work, but he has a knack for silly, fat-guy humor. So, don't be scared to check out his older material. That's what I'll be doing in 2016!

#2 - Skyler Gisondo
(Vacation)

What a goofy kid! Skyler Gisondo may have been the brunt of 90% of the Vacation remake's jokes, and I had absolutely no problem with that. Gisondo brought humor to an otherwise mediocre film, and he truly went all out with his dorkification. As an only child, I don't understand sibling rivalry, but I sure as heck don't have a problem laughing at other people's problems!

#1 - Samuel L. Jackson

(Kingsman: The Secret Service)

Samuel L. Jackson has a huge reputation for popping up in small roles in very BIG films, but Kingsman: The Secret Service allowed Jackson to truly shine as the main baddie (with a lisp). His performance was absolutely hilarious, and, if the entire film would have just been Samuel L. Jackson talking with a lisp, I probably would have been satisfied. Undoubtedly, in my mind, the funniest performance by any actor, in 2015!

Best Actress

#4 - Amy Schumer
(Trainwreck)

It is hard to praise Amy Schumer for her performance in Trainwreck, because there was such a fine line between her performance and her real-life persona. But, regardless, she was absolutely hilarious in the film and has obviously blossomed into quite a star, over the past six months. Kudos to Schumer for her big, big year. She is quite deserving.

#3 - Tilda Swinton
(Trainwreck)

Did anybody know that Tilda Swinton had an ounce of humor in her body?!? I mean, you can typically cut glass with her perpetually evil glare! Fortunately for us, Amy Schumer (of all people) was able to talk Swinton into embracing her humorous side and getting a spray tan--both of which did her very well, in my opinion. Here's to hoping that Tilda finds herself in another comedy... very soon!

#2 - Miranda Hart
(Spy)

As a big fan of Melissa McCarthy's humor, I was quite surprised that I didn't enjoy Spy more than I did, particularly considering that the film was fairly well-received. But, regardless of my opinion of the film, there was no denying the hilarious turn by Miranda Hart, who was probably the best-cast comedian in any 2015 film. I don't have a clue who she is, but I really hope she has some funny, British-humor stand-up out there waiting to be discovered.

#1 - Phyllis Smith

(Inside Out)

Where Hart was the best-cast comedian of 2015, Phyllis Smith might have been the best-cast voice actor of ALL TIME! If anybody watched Inside Out and didn't laugh at Sadness, (a.) you've never seen The Office or (b.) you have no sense of humor. We will talk about Inside Out much, much more, but, in my mind, the film just doesn't work, without Phyllis's voice. Period. Kudos to whoever is responsible for putting her behind the mic and for bringing this particular character to life. 

Best Film

Trainwreck

While I have trouble recognizing Trainwreck's originality and Amy Schumer's new voice of female-lead comedy, there is no doubt that the film is absolutely hilarious. Come on... any film in which LeBron James plays a large role is likely to at least be a little fun! In a year where comedy really struggled, Trainwreck was the lone beacon of pure comedy that shone through, and, for that, I am very grateful to Schumer and crew.

Inside Out

If I have to endure one more claim that "Pixar is back!" because of Inside Out's success, I might just go insane. Nevertheless, the film is absolutely genius! Sure, some may say that it shouldn't really be labelled a comedy, but the main reason that I loved the film was because of its amazing sense of humor and clever play on thought-related terminology. And, of course... SADNESS!... She was just the best. Kudos to Pixar for doing what they do best and making adults appreciate animated films for what they truly can be.


Well, there you have it, people... the best in comedy from 2015. My apologies for the brevity of the list. If you have any complaints, you can call Hollywood...

The Avengers

Expectations:
Let's be honest with one another for just a minute. How many people have ever seen a movie with a ton of really famous stars in it that just really, really sucked? Answer: Everyone. How many people have a seen a movie with so much CGI and so much unrealistic crap that it just really, really sucked? Answer: Everyone. Now my expectations were that, when you combine those two elements of suckiness, you get The Avengers. There is just no way that you could possibly set your expectations too high for this film. We all know how awful Thor and Iron Man 2 were. We all know that nobody can make a good Hulk movie. We all know that Loki looks retarded with that antler helmet on. Sure, the action scenes would rock, and every comic book guru would pee in their pants while waiting in the theater at midnight. The question was could they overcome all of the aforementioned problems and make a good, solid movie?

Plot:
While the plot of the movie certainly wasn't deep or real, I will hand it to Joss Whedon and crew for coming up with a way to make every character share an almost equal-sized role. This film had so many big characters, which is not an easy aspect to deal with, but they dealt with it almost perfectly. The only real big problem I had with the plot structure was the fact that it took so long for us to actually see them all together. There was too much jumping around from place to place at the beginning of the film. The other small problem that I had was not really a problem with the movie but, instead, a problem with film critics and watchers. No one can tell me that the final battle scene didn't mimic the final scene in Transformers: Dark of the Moon (a film that everyone hated for no reason at all). While I loved the scenes in both films, can someone please explain to me how you can love the one film and hate the other? Regardless, I was completely surprised at how sound the plot was. While it certainly isn't Oscar-worthy, people can still love more than the just the characters in the film, and that is a strong statement for a superhero movie.

Characters:
While there were a few low points character-wise, most every character was dealt with fantastically well. There was very little randomness to the interaction and appearance of these characters. Robert Downey Jr. was fantastic, as usual, in his role as Iron Man. While I expected her to fade into the background, Scarlett Johannson really surprised me at how interesting her character was. Samuel L. Jackson was just as so so as he ever is. Chris Evans certainly carried his momentum from Captain America into this film. Tom Hiddleston's performance as Loki turned out to be much more real and raw than I ever could have imagined. While the antler helmet did take away from your ability to accept him as real, I was very impressed with his performance. On a negative side of things, there were a few characters that I didn't quite like in the film. Looking back, Chris Hemsworth's Thor really had no major role in the movie at all. I think Hulk's presence really took away from Thor's ability shine as the big strong dude that does big strong dude stuff. Also, I was not a big fan of Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner. I don't really know why, but I just wasn't impressed.

Best Character: Although I never saw the newest Hulk film, I have heard nothing positive about it, which is what lead everyone to think that Hulk would be a low point in The Avengers. Boy were we wrong! Everyone who has seen the movie knows exactly how great Hulk was portrayed, but I'm not completely sold that it was because of Mark Ruffalo's performance. I give the credit, yet again, to Joss Whedon.

Worst Character: Agent Maria Hill, played by Cobie Smulders, was absolutely the stupidest character in the whole film. I do not understand why she had anywhere close to that big of a role. She wasn't basically just a person that gave Nick Fury a reason to have lines.

Conclusion:
The Avengers shattered mine and everyone else's expectations, while taking the box office numbers for quite a spin as well. Was it the most solid movie ever? No. However, it was extremely well put together, which means that comic freaks and movie freaks all need to invite Joss Whedon to their birthday party this year! The comedy in the film was a bit over-bearing at times, but it was certainly fun to watch with everyone cracking up at 1 o'clock in the morning. The plot wasn't realistic, but it wasn't supposed to be. Almost everything that went wrong in The Avengers had an excuse, which is rare. With all the positive things that have been said, I must say one thing that everyone may not agree on. Contrary to what everyone was putting on Facebook and what not, The Avengers is NOT the best superhero movie ever made. That title is held and will likely always be held by The Dark Knight, and don't you ever forget that. I give The Avengers 4.11 out of 5 stars.

21 Jump Street

Expectations:
Yes, Jonah Hill is an excellent funnyman, but, in the past, his excellence has been brought out by the actors that surrounded him. I certainly haven't seen all of Channing Tatum's work, but I just couldn't see how he was going to bring out the best in Jonah Hill. The previews did have hilarious moments. However, if you haven't realized it by now, most comedic trailers tend to be funny, regardless of how funny the actual film is. I really thought that 21 Jump Street was going to be one of those comedies that had nothing going for it, beyond the funny moments in the trailer. I mean, come on!, it's not even an original idea! But I had to go check it out...

Plot:
I'm going to be honest with you... I have never watched the old 21 Jump Street. All I actually know about it is that Johnny Depp was one of the main characters, but isn't that all that anyone knows about it? Regardless, I just want you to know that this review in no way critiques how well the original story was retold. So, as an original story (not idea), 21 Jump Street was absolutely fantastic. There wasn't any great genius moment of story-telling, but I can only remember one time where I thought "I haven't laughed in the last minute." As far as being funny goes, it's been a while since I have seen a comedy that made me laugh this much. Considering I watch like a bazillion comedies each year, that's a bold statement.

Best Scene: My favorite moments in 21 Jump Street were the random one-liners that just never ceased.

Characters:
I'm going to go against my expectations here and say that Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum were the perfect pair for this movie. I thought Jonah Hill was going to lose his funny with his weight, but he is still fat enough where they can joke about it, so fret not! Hill's character (Schmidt) was a former high school loser, who was given a second chance to become popular. Tatum's character (Jenko) was a former popular kid, who was stuck with the nerds during his second time around. While the emotional, awkward relationship moments were there between the two friends, it wasn't as awkward or emotional as the usual unfolding comedic friendship. The only negative that I found was a casting issue. While there were few really bad characters, I did feel like a few of the actors chosen were not right for their role (cough cough... Ellie Kemper and Dave Franco).

Best Character: Because this is best "character," I'm going to give the best character honor to Ice Cube's Captain Dickson. However, this is yet another role that I feel was poorly cast. I would have rather seen Samuel L. Jackson in the role. Obviously, I can't get everything that I want, but I should!

Worst Character: This one was not even difficult. While I absolutely love him on New Girl, Jake M. Johnson was awful as Principal Dadier. It was just an awkward role.

Conclusion:
While it is only March, I think 21 Jump Street has certainly grabbed itself a nice hold on being the best comedy of 2012. I certainly hope that a ton of other comedies come along that just blow me away as much as this film did, but I just don't see that happening. With this film, Jonah Hill has established himself as one of the leading comedic actors in Hollywood, but don't forget that he can do serious as well (Moneyball). There is no doubt that this is the most surprisingly good film of 2012, thus far, and, with the money it's made, I can't wait for them to announce a sequel. As I said, the one-liners stole the show. I would quote every single one of them for you, but the language would be a tad too offensive. If you want to laugh hard at some hilarious, dirty, offensive jokes, go watch 21 Jump Street! It will please you in ways that The Lorax and The Hunger Games just can't. I give 21 Jump Street 3.82 out of 5 stars...