Why So (Yahoo) Serious?

I couldn't let this week end on a down note so here's a nice little pic I made for Yahoo Serious Week! Enjoy!!

Mr. Accident – Seriously

Mr. Accident

It’s almost a shame that Yahoo Serious only made three films. Unfortunately there’s only so much of a market for his style of slapstick comedy. I have a feeling that if he weren’t the one writing/directing and producing all his pictures there would have been more than just the three. His third film Mr. Accident was released about seven years after Reckless Kelly and more than a decade after his biggest hit Young Einstein.


Pictured: Yahoo creating art con sombrero

This time around Yahoo plays Roger Crumpkin, he comes from a long line of parts people. At an early age he gives up on imagination (surprising, given his wardrobe) and dedicates his life to parts or more specifically taking things apart. Somehow he lands himself a job as a maintenance guy at a local egg factory, though it is surprising he keeps the gig based on his propensity for destroying things. This fact means nothing seeing as his job is basically a plot device to keep the story going and actually means nothing. As typical in Serious’ movies it’s just there for opportunities for prat falls and sight gags.


Plenty of prat falls due to this non-osha compliant bar

The story, in a nutshell, is that the brother of the head of the egg factory takes over and has a clandestine plan to make eggs addictive by feeding tobacco to the chickens. While this is all going on Roger is trying to start a relationship with a woman who has a propensity for fixing things (see they’re perfect for each other), but he doesn’t know that she’s the ex of his now boss. So it's basically up to Roger to take down the big bad boss and save himself, his flatmate, his new girl and the world from the evil plan. Will he succeed? A betting man would say no, but seeing as this is basically a romantic comedy you already know he wins.

None of that is even all that important anyway, as with the other Serious films you’re on board for the physical humor and the sight gags and trust me, there’s plenty. There’s big butt humor, addiction humor, things falling apart, Roger setting about rube goldbergian like series of events that usually end in someone covered in some thick liquid or with his apartment filled with feathers and filling with water. There are more than enough crotch shots and of course the awkward attempts of Crumpkin to pick up chicks at a bar.

Mr. Accident may be Serious’ most sincere picture, but I just can’t get past the man’s hair. I get that it’s a reoccurring theme of his work, but in Mr. Accident it’s way out of control and it distracts from the jokes and fails to enhance them, like in Young Einstein. Regardless though, Mr. Accident is a fun flick and I think if you’re afraid to commit to 90 minutes of Yahoo Serious alone, invite some friends over and make a night of it. It’s a great flick to make fun of (in a loving manner of course).


Seriously, Yahoo?

I know Yahoo still does stuff and frankly I would love to see him attempt another film. This is the time for comebacks (or so it seems) and the man deserves one, seriously.

3.5 out of 5

Drink Up, I've Got Movies to Watch

Moe

Reckless Kelly – A Little More Serious

Reckless Kelly

Yahoo is back in his second film. After the success of Young Einstein he was able to pull off a slightly better known cast. Did it pay off any better? I think it did, Reckless Kelly may be a lesser-known film of Yahoo’s (granted he only has three and only one is well known), but in my opinion it’s his best work. Maybe it just has to do with his hair being the most normal out of all his movies.

Yahoo plays a modern take on the Australian robin hood-esque outlaw Ned Kelly. He’s the sole remaining member of the bank robbing division of the Kelly gang. The rest of the gang now spends it’s time in the running of a hotel that’s so old that most don’t know if it were built or if it has always been there and the “the manufacture and consumption of beer”. We see Ned early in the film holding up an ATM and using the money to deposit into accounts of those who can’t afford to repay their loans and then, of course, mailing the receipts to said people. It’s all very clever


The real Ned Kelly, clearly spoof worthy

On a particular job Ned discovers an aspiring actress named (get ready to groan) Robin Banks (ugh) played by Melora Hardin of the office fame. This sets Yahoo up for the also groan worthy line “What’s your name?” “Robin Banks” “I was earlier, now I’m depositing”. The movie gets better trust me. Ned is actually a very positive character, not only does he give all his ill-gotten gains to the needy, but he also never kills anyone. He’s a bit gun obsessed, but he only uses guns to “shoot guns from the hands of those that would prefer to see me dead”. An adage he’s picked up from his favorite movie character “The Hollywood Outlaw”. All this bank robbing though does get him on the bad side of the head bankers.


Bulletproof

The top brass is played by Hugo Weaving (I wonder what pill he took to wind up with this role). He calls in a British Special forces agent (played by Alexei Sayle, see what I mean about the cast, it’s pretty great) to help deal with the “Kelly problem”. Alexei has some of the best wig humor in the movie, the entire time the characters are in America (more on that in a bit) he sports a wig that makes him look like an 80’s glam rocker (though he tends to keep the suit all the same). The way the evil bank decides to deal with the Kelly gang is to sell the island they live on and have it shipped to Japan.


"Hi, I'm Hugo Weaving, I played some fairy elf thing in Lord of the Rings, but you probably remember me better for my role as Sir John in Reckless Kelly" - Hugo Weaving

This forces Ned to go to America to rob banks there (since everyone knows it’s ok to keep the money you steal in 'Merica). Needless to say he discovers America’s love of plastic and he winds up in show business. He winds up running into Robin as well and they get cast in a film about an outlaw preacher blah blah blah. Frankly the America storyline is kind of weak, but as with all Serious films. You come for the sight gags. There are gags galore too. There’s also a wider range as well, in Young Einstein I felt he was trying to be the naked gun movies too much, but with Reckless Kelly he also draws inspiration from airplane and some Mel Brooks style humor.


Has nothing to do with the movie...I just thought it was funny

All in all it’s a lot of fun and I think if you enjoyed Young Einstein you’ll enjoy Reckless Kelly even more.

8 out of 10

Young Einstein - You Serious?

Young Einstein

You probably didn’t know this, but Albert Einstein was a genius. He discovered gravity, carbonated beer, invented rock n’ roll music, enjoyed surfing and discovered atomic energy (splitting a beer atom with a hammer and chisel) all while sporting a pretty rockin coif. I recently sat down and watched this fascinating documentary about the man. He led an incredible life.


Einstein shown inventing "Roll and Rock" Music

Like, did you know that Einstein was Tasmanian and that he once had a relationship with Marie Curie? Or that he seemed to have a perpetual supply of apples in his pocket at all times? You probably didn’t know that, OH or that he lived in a whorehouse (er, uh, I mean hotel) bet you didn’t know that either.


Shown here with Ms. Curie during his brief stint in the asylum

OK I have a confession. I was fibbing. Young Einstein is a work of fiction. I feel bad for my deception. Yahoo Serious (born Greg Pead, but name legally changed to Yahoo) plays a fictitious Albert Einstein and you know what. The man is pretty damn funny. Despite the plethora of goofy and borderline groan inducing jokes the majority of the film is quite entertaining.

Yahoo is the master of the throwaway gag; whether it be a man grabbing an axe to break the emergency glass so he can get...wait for it...AN AXE, an evil cook baking a pie with live kittens in it (saved, of course, by Einstein before baked), washing dishes in the bathing tub (with him in it), showing the Wright brothers as one black and one white or the homemade steam engine boat. There is a very Naked Gun-esque style of humor used in his films, though probably one of the reasons Young Einstein hasn’t lived on so well is that the naked gun movies are a hard thing to live up to.


Oh Yahoo, you cut up!

At the end, it’s the magnificent power of Rock n’ Roll music that saves the day, which of course makes sense seeing as this takes place in 1906. Young Einstein is not a perfect film, but it’s a fun comedy and it’s a sad fact that Serious’ Other two films didn’t fare as well as this one did, but more on them later. This is Yahoo Serious week after all


"It's gotta be rock n roll music, if you wanna dance with me"

7 out of 10