When I was trying to decide which genre to use this January in the Genre-ary, I was worried about comedies. One reason I was worried about choosing comedy as the Genre-ary gerne was because when comedy movies go wrong, they can be really tough to watch and I did not want to watch a month of terrible movies.

Super Troopers is exactly the kind of movie that I was worried about.

According to IMDB, “Five Vermont state troopers, avid pranksters with a knack for screwing up, try to save their jobs and out-do the local police department by solving a crime.”

I really disliked watching this movie. There were some funny moments, but I have never been a big fan of stupidity as comedy.

Juvenile dialogue and characters that were, in no way, even slightly believable as police officers. There was little story in the film and the characters were some of the most obnoxious and unlikable characters that I have seen in a long time.

There was a movie where this could have been funny, but this was not it. I grew to dislike this movie more as it progressed and it is why I really was not anxious to watch a bunch of comedies. I hope there are more good ones to come because I can’t take a month of this.

January 9

Today’s new movie for the Genre-ary was found on HBO Max and it was a sci-fi time travel film called Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel. It was a British film that had a definite flavor of Doctor Who.

According to IMDB, “While drinking at their local pub, three social outcasts attempt to navigate a time-travel conundrum.“

This was a decent little flick. It may not have been amazing and awe-inspiring, but it was engaging and fun. Anything with time travel can be problematic, but I think they handled that fairly well. I liked how the time travel future scenes in the bar were laid out and how they came back around at the end.

I am not sure I love the three lead actors. Chris O’Dowd was solid as Ray and I thought the desperation of Dean Lennox Kelly as Pete was good. I am not sure how I felt about Marc Wootton as Toby. The three of them had some good scenes as a trio, especially in the men’s bathroom.

Anna Faris was time traveler Cassie and she had an easy chemistry with Chris O’Dowd. I’m not sure I bought them as a couple, but they were solid together during most of their scenes.

The future scenes were all fun and creative. The variety of the futures that we saw were pretty decent and kept us guessing.

It was an easy watch that moved briskly and was engaging enough. It was not a perfect film, but it was harmless as a watch some afternoon or over the weekend.

January 6

I went back to HBO Max for today’s Genre-ary film and it was considerably better than yesterday’s. Alan Partridge was hilarious, clever British style humor that truly was a joy to watch.

According to IMDB, “When famous DJ Alan Partridge’s radio station is taken over by a new media conglomerate, it sets in motion a chain of events which see Alan having to work with the police to defuse a potentially violent siege.”

Alan Partridge is played by Steve Coogan and this film featured his brilliant wit and great dialogue that was as funny as it was intelligent. Colm Meaney co-starred with Coogan as Pat Farrell, one of the DJs that got canned when the new media conglomerate took over the radio station. Little did Pat know, Alan Partridge had a hand in helping to make the decision.

Alan was being put into so many crazy situations with this siege that you could tell what a fantastic character this guy was… and that was with him being a jerk in much of the film. Even though he was selfish and putting himself first, I could not help but love Alan.

Apparently, Alan Partridge was a character originally on a television program in England. It would be an interesting thing to see, just to compare the comedy with the film.

I really enjoyed this movie and I loved the character of Alan Partridge.

January 5

We head back to 1932 today for the Genre-ary to a film called Miss Pinkerton. The 1932 film was viewed on HBO Max.

To be fair, it is labeled as a comedy/mystery/thriller, which is why it made its way on to the list for this year’s Comedy Genre-ary. Thing is…. there is not much of a comedy to it.

According to IMDB, “A hospital nurse is recruited by the police to watch a household where a suspicious death has occurred.“

Joan Blondell played the titular character, Miss Pinkerton, which was an alias she took on to help the police with their case. She was actually a nurse named Miss Adams. Blondell had some good presence as the lead of the film, but there was not a ton to the film.

The story of this movie is fairly convoluted and messy. I am not sure what was going on here.