I got this book from Netgalley, so I can read and review it before it’s published. Three years ago, I read another book by Matt Singer called Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever, and I enjoyed his style of telling the story of Siskel & Ebert. So, yeah, when I saw this book, and it was about comedy movies and the producers, directors, writers, and actors behind them, I was intrigued.
There was a lot of quick insights to the movies and all the people involved. I had a bunch of LOL moments as I was reading about a particular movie, and could visualize that scene as well. A lot (if not, all of them) of the movies were rated R and there was a lot of sexual situations mentioned throughout the book. Also, they were very manly movies. Very little is discussed about the funny females of comedy (only Bridesmaids was mentioned). Maybe that will be a separate book which is totally deserving and definitely needs to be told.
It was also interesting to read how the players met and what movies they say that influenced them to become an actor. Overall, I really enjoyed the book.
Some of the movies (in no particular order):
Animal House
Dodgeball
There’s Something About Mary
The Hangover
Bottle Rocket
Old School
Road Trip
Anchorman
Reality Bites
Meet the Parents
Knocked Up
Talledega Nights
Swingers
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Wedding Crashers
Bridesmaids
Tropic Thunder
Zoolander
The Cable Guy
Stepbrothers
The Ben Stiller Show
Freaks and Geeks
Some of the players (in no particular order):
Ben Stiller
Judd Apatow
Adam McKay
Todd Phillips
Paul Feig
Will Ferrell
John C Reilly
Jon Favreau
Vince Vaughan
Owen and Luke Wilson
Jonah Hill
Seth Rogen
Sasha Baron Cohen
Steve Carrell
Paul Rudd
Michael Cera
