Search - Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (WS) on DVD

Monika W. from LOS ANGELES, CA
Reviewed on 11/17/2012...

I loved this movie, one of the best comedies I have seen in a long time. Albert Brooks is incredible . . . subtle humor throughout. I wish there were more intelligent comedies like this one.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Jocelyn W. (jocelyn) from PORT RICHEY, FL
Reviewed on 6/29/2011...

Not what we expected. Were thinking it was more a documentary-style film that would "educate" us. This was very pedantic.

Kim s. B. (seacat66) from RICHMOND HTS, OH
Reviewed on 6/27/2011...

this was AWFUL!!!!!

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Angie Kathleen L. from OREM, UT
Reviewed on 11/23/2010...

slow. Watched about half.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Looking For Comedy In All The Wrong Places

B. Merritt | WWW.FILMREVIEWSTEW.COM, Pacific Grove, California | 09/03/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD is a thinking man's comedy. If you're of the 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN or DATE MOVIE crowd, please avoid this film and spare us your "It just ...sucks" review.



If you're an Albert Brooks fan, you most certainly will enjoy his deadpan delivery and hyper-worried state that we came to enjoy during DEFENDING YOUR LIFE (I suspect this is why he was also cast as the father's voice in FINDING NEMO). But enough about Brooks. Let's see what the movie's about.



Looking For Comedy opens with Brooks arriving for a casting call at Penny Marshall's office (It's noteworthy to mention that Albert Brooks plays Albert Brooks and Penny Marshall plays Penny Marshall). Everyone seems to only recognize Brooks as "that guy who played that fish in Finding Nemo." His career is grudgingly winding down.



But upon returning home a letter from the government appears in the mail. He is summoned to Washington by a panel of Senators to do a research project for them ("Our first choice, quite frankly, wasn't available" they tell him when Brooks asks `Why me?') And his job? Travel to India and Pakistan and find out what makes Muslims laugh. Oh. "And you have to write a 500-page report on it."



"500 pages? I don't think I've ever written anything that long," Brooks protests. But he accepts the assignment and travels with two government men as his entourage and support crew. Once in India they bumble through getting an office and a secretary named Maya (the stunningly pretty Sheetal Sheth). Now the hard work begins. Either people won't talk to him or give him off the wall answers or give no answer at all. So Brooks decides to put on a comedy show at a local gymnasium only to have that fall flat, too.



To add insult to injury, war bells are ringing between Pakistan and India, bells that Brooks doesn't help with by sneaking across the border into Pakistan one night in order to meet up with some future comedian hopefuls.



The thing that makes this film so funny is that it doesn't try that hard. It just is. Brooks' normal paranoia fits perfectly with the script and makes us laugh time and again at his overzealous fears. Also is the fact that it shows the complete ineptness of government in trying to understand another culture by sending someone to another country who has no knowledge of such a job. And they send him to India! Although there are a lot of Muslims there, it is mainly a Hindu country. An Arab nation may have been a better choice but obviously the government higher-ups failed to do their own research before sending in an even-less-informed Brooks. Now THAT is subtle humor. If you "don't get that", you should avoid seeing this flick. But if you enjoy that kind of subtlety, give Looking For Comedy a try. It's a modern day and cerebral blast!"

Smart movies for people over 14

Donna Prima | California | 08/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"OMG! I am so excited this is finally out on DVD! I saw it because a friend couldn't stop raving about it. Then I couldn't stop raving about it, but when I tried to get my boyfriend to see it it was already gone from theaters!!! Seriously, if you like smart, grown-up comedies like Sideways, then this is for you. All the actors are wonderful, to the point where I found myself wondering if the Indian cast weren't actors at all but real people caught in action documentary-style (and maybe they were). Albert Brooks plays himself (so does Fred Dalton Thompson) so there is lots of blurring of the lines. It is also a subtle morality play about the dangers in assuming that everyone in the world thinks and believes exactly as you do (we can use this message now more than ever) -- if you are a Republican, don't let that dissuade you from seeing it, it is only a very small part of what is a very, very funny movie. There are illegal Pakistani comedians, a TV meeting with Al Jazeera and Albert Brooks does his old stand-up routine. So, so much to recommend this movie. Love, love, love!"

Looking for comedies in a moronic world

Natalie M | Los gatos, CA | 09/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really liked this movie. After seeing it in the theater, I'm purchasing it now.



Much of it is subtle, classic Brooks' humor from his early days -- playing himself & incorporating some of his early stand-up routines - which I happen to like.



If your favorite comedies are from people like Adam Sandler, you may not like this movie because Brooks does not go for the easy laughs - but you should give it a shot anyway. There are people who don't "get" the movie because he's delivering bad American jokes to Indian audiences - but that's the humor of it -- viewers laughing at other viewers not laughing -- Brooks' comedy pokes fun at comedy in general - and himself.



It was very refreshing to see a comedy (or any film) made in another country/culture like India - I wish American comedies would cross cultural boundaries much more often."