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Looking for Comedy in a Muslim World
 
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Looking for Comedy in a Muslim World

Starring: Albert Brooks, Conrad Bachmann Director: Albert Brooks
2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
List Price: CDN$ 37.98
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Looking for Comedy in a Muslim World + Lost in America (Widescreen) + Defending Your Life (Widescreen)
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  • This item: Looking for Comedy in a Muslim World DVD ~ Albert Brooks

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  • Lost in America (Widescreen) DVD ~ Albert Brooks

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Review

The setup for Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World -- that the government sends Albert Brooks, playing a variation on his neurotic, narcissistic comedic persona, on an international fact-finding mission in order to learn what makes people in Muslim countries laugh -- is little more than an excuse for Brooks to fire off a stream of his characteristically witty one-liners while also writing jokes about what he himself thinks makes great comedy. The highlight of the film is Brooks performing some of his oldest routines in front of a crowd of non-comprehending Muslims. Any longtime fan of the comic should find these bits, especially the one involving him "improvising" a comedy bit on the spot, painfully funny. The humor is compounded by the fact that the audience Brooks is performing for in the movie remains mostly silent. Assuming the film's audience finds the classic Brooks routine funny, we are now laughing at the routine as well as the fact that he as a performer is dying on-stage. That moment should make a viewer question why he or she is laughing, and why the audience in the film is not -- and this is the larger theme of the entire film. Brooks is getting at a lesson not dissimilar to the one Preston Sturges served up in Sullivan's Travels: everybody laughs, and that brings joy in even the most difficult situation. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World falls short of offering any deep insight, but it might make the audience think just a little about the nature of comedy. For that reason, and as an excuse to film Brooks doing some of his classic standup bits, the movie is certainly worthwhile. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide


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Subtitles: English, Franais & Espaol (feature film only)
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Has no insight and very little comedy to offer, Nov 18 2006
By Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This quirky comedy had the potential to be pretty funny and/or actually say something about Muslim culture, and I was quite disappointed to find it met the first goal only partially and failed abysmally at the second -- especially since the film spent most of its time in India, a nation I find fascinating (while it is by and large a Hindu nation, India does have a very significant Muslim population). Frankly, I don't know what this film actually wanted to accomplish. Stereotypes abound in the representation of the two foreign cultures, Albert Brooks spends a lot of time being conspicuously unfunny, and all but one of the secondary characters are without any substance whatsoever. Albert Brooks' sardonic wit can be funny when he's complaining, but that's about all this movie has going for it.

Why is Brooks Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, anyway? Well, a special committee headed by politician/actor Fred Thompson, working under the auspices of the State Department, has asked him to serve his country by helping the American government understand what makes your typical Muslim tick. Find out what makes Muslims laugh, as the argument goes, and you'll go a long way toward understanding them. That's why they're asking Brooks, a comedian, to travel to India and Pakistan, spend a month figuring out what makes the people laugh, and write a 500 page report on it. You'll hear a lot about this 500 page report, as Brooks goes on and on about the challenge of it, especially as time goes on and he learns almost nothing remotely useful or relevant. Thank goodness for Sheetal Sheth, who plays Maya, the assistant/secretary Brooks hires after arriving in India. Sadly, however, the script wastes a golden opportunity to reveal something about the life of an independent woman in Indian society, relegating Maya all too often as the only person in the entire film who finds Albert Brooks remotely funny.

I'll admit that I'm not familiar with the comedic work of Albert Brooks, although I do appreciate the type of sarcastic dry humor he seems to specialize in -- but I don't see how even his biggest fan can find his big "comedy show" in India funny. He actually opens with a Gandhi joke, which is not the best way to win over his audience. At least they didn't have any trouble finding a crowd who could sit there stone-faced throughout the routine, as this show would be a total bomb in any country, in any language. Having counted on the big show to discover what Indians find funny, Brooks' mission is all but doomed by this point. And forget about Pakistan -- Brooks has to sneak across the border just to spend a few hours with a group of "budding Pakistani comedians."

If the film has any point at all -- and I don't think it does -- it might be this: even our best-intentioned attempts to understand foreign cultures are too misguided or just plain stupid to ever have a prayer of succeeding -- and sometimes exacerbate problems that we are too insensitive to understand or even recognize. Even though Looking for Comedy in the Muslim Word is mildly funny from time to time, it is never the least bit insightful, and that makes it a pretty disappointing failure in my eyes.
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