BEFORE: Well, this is a bit embarrassing, I don't really have material programmed that's appropriate for Memorial Day, and here we are headed into the big holiday weekend. I was so busy finding films for Mother's Day and Father's Day, and making sure I could connect those dots, and also link from Father's Day to July 4 that I sort of forgot all about Memorial Day. In past years I've at least watched a solid war movie like "The Dirty Dozen" or "Flags of Our Fathers" or even a spy movie like "Notorious" or the James Bond films. "The Monuments Men", "Catch-22", "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot", "Heartbreak Ridge", those are some of my great choices from past years for Memorial Day - last year's choice of "The Lego Movie 2", maybe not so much.
I guess I have to take another pass this year, because it's too late to change things up and still make Father's Day on time. Mea culpa, unless one of my choices this weekend turns out to be about something war-related, but I'm finishing up this little mini-theme about stand-up comics and neurotic people (remember, it's still National Mental Health Awareness month) so based on what I know about this weekend's films, I'm probably not even in the ballpark of war or military stuff.
Richard Kind carries over from "Obvious Child", and for a while I had TWO films with the same title on my list - last summer I watched a documentary also called "The Last Laugh", also about stand-up comics, but specifically it examined whether it's appropriate to make jokes about things like the Holocaust. Yep, even THAT would have been more appropriate for Memorial Day, over what I have planned. Oh, well. But this is another film on the shorter side, so it's another opportunity to watch a stand-up special in addition to the feature, and cross something else off my Netflix list - only the best fit would be a Lewis Black special, and he hasn't released anything new in a while. I think maybe I'll rewatch his "Black to the Future" or maybe "Old Yeller: Live at the Borgata", either of those could be a good fit. I just have to think, which is more important, watching a comedy special that ties in with the main theme (or at least features a comic who's also in the movie) or eliminating something from the voluminous Netflix queue?
I'm going to go with "Black to the Future", which is a comedy special from 2016 that focuses on the election. Hey, at least that's about American politics for this American holiday weekend, right? But in that special, Lewis Black talks about possibly retiring because he can't do jokes about Trump, because nothing he could write would be any crazier than the real man, his history and his politics. Great, first Trump broke the country, now he also broke Lewis Black - notice that he hasn't released a new comedy special since 2016, and I hold the President responsible.
THE PLOT: When retired talent manager Al Hart is reunited with his first client, Buddy Green, a comic who quit show business 50 years ago, he convinces Buddy to escape their retirement community and hit the road for a cross-country comedy tour.
AFTER: OK, I'm feeling a little better about my choice tonight, because this is a road-trip buddy comedy, and what's more American than driving across America? Umm, only maybe right now's not the best time to go anywhere, like motels or comedy clubs or diners, which are all things they do in this film. Well, maybe you're in one of those states that's re-opened for business, in which case this film is very accidentally relevant! Pack up the kids and the dog or maybe your best buddy from 50 years ago and get out there, hit some bars and roadside attractions and a comedy club or two. It's still too early for us here in New York City, 7 out of 10 of our metrics still say we're not ready, but they are opening beaches this weekend, only you can't swim in the water or get too close to other beach-goers, or ride any nearby carnival rides, or eat any boardwalk food that isn't grab-and-go. Umm, thanks, but I think I'll skip the beach - but call me when the Atlantic City casinos finally re-open, only that's going to be without buffets (always the highlight of the trip) or shows or any boardwalk food that isn't grab-and-go. Looks like I'll still be house-bound for a while.
It was also my Dad's 79th birthday yesterday, so topically a film about older men is right on point for me. When Al, a retired talent agent, finally takes the advice of his granddaughter and moves into assisted living, he re-meets Buddy, a comic who lives there that he used to represent, who turned down an appearance on the Ed Sullivan show and quit the business for a podiatry career just before he broke big in comedy. Al doesn't really take to the slow pace of the senior-home lifestyle, so he convinces Buddy to go back out on the road with him, work a few clubs and then head to New York for an appearance on "The Tonight Show". Buddy still thinks Johnny Carson's doing the show out of L.A., so Al has to break some sad news to him...
This is a tough year for nursing homes and assisted living, that's for sure - and if someone has the ability and the means and the good health to drive across the country, that's not a terrible idea, at any age. But aren't these guys paying for the nursing home care but not getting anything out of it while they're on the road? That just seems like a waste of money, that's all, paying for hotel rooms AND the nursing home (sorry, senior living facility) Maybe their social security is paying for it? I just think there were probably a bunch of comedy clubs in the L.A. area that they could have started with, instead of immediately booking a 12-city tour. Also, I think that any agent worth his salt would have asked to see his client do a set first, before packing his bags. Sure, Buddy SAYS he has fifty years of jokes saved up, but let's hear a tight five minutes before making that call to Fallon's booker, that's all. Al shouldn't have had to wait until the first time on stage in front of an audience to confirm that Buddy had material, and wasn't going to freeze up.
Surprisingly, most of the jokes are pretty good here, and they didn't fall back on the trope of a comedian bombing just because he's having a bad day, which for Buddy, means a day without his medical marijuana. It's kind of interesting now to think that a senior citizen now driving across country has to know the drug laws of all the different states, which ones he can score weed in, and which state line crossings mean that he has to hide his stash. As we learned in "The Mule", police aren't likely to suspect the elderly to be carrying, but they probably should.
Al and Buddy both make the same mistake, they don't tell their families about their road trip, but they do this for different reasons. This leads to Al's granddaughter and Buddy's son teaming up to track them down in Kansas. I wondered if this was going to lead to those two (relative) youngsters getting together, but it's just not that kind of movie. I think this could have fit into the romance chain because of Al's new relationship with the artist they meet in Texas, but I've probably got bigger fish to fry in February. Be warned that there's a long drug-induced hallucination, complete with a questionable musical number - the writing credits for the odd throwback song reveal that it was written by the film's director, and that sort of explains a lot. Let's just say that song was conspicuously absent from the Oscar nominations last year.
But there's a logical problem in doing a drug-trip fantasy in a film, however insightful it might be into Al's hopes and fears, it's not real. And when he asks another person if what he's seeing is real, she says, "No, you're just hallucinating." Umm, how does SHE know what he's seeing? It's not like he's describing it to her...
They finally make it to New York, and Al pulls some strings with another of his former clients to get him to give up his spot on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" so he can finally perform at the Ed Sullivan Theater. This is a nice touch, except for a few NITPICK POINTS, namely that it wouldn't be up to a comedian to book someone else in his spot on a late-night talk show. That would have to be done with the approval of the show's booker. Patton Oswalt recently released a second hour of his Netflix special "I Love Everything" to give one of his mentors, Bob Rubin, a shot on Netflix, but I'm sure this was done with Netflix's approval. But "The Late Show"? You can't swap out a comedy routine at the last second like that. Also, that may be the exterior of the Ed Sullivan theater, but NO WAY is that the interior. It looked fairly familiar, but I've been at enough Letterman (and one Colbert) tapings to know what the audience area of the Ed Sullivan looks like - there's no giant curtain like Carson used to have, for example. (BTW, what network has the rights to air either NBC or CBS Letterman reruns? Are they even airing anywhere?)
(EDIT - Eventually, I found it by Googling "Filming locations The Last Laugh 2019" - though this is a road-trip film where the characters go to Texas, Chicago, New York, etc. it seems the interiors were shot mostly in New Orleans. Obviously some travel was needed, especially a shot of Chevy Chase gazing at the exterior of the Ed Sullivan Theater, but the inside was the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans. Harrah's Casino in New Orleans was the stand-in for Las Vegas, and I really should have recognized that "Texas" restaurant with the giant mug of root beer for a sign, I just saw it profiled on an episode of "Food Paradise" a few weeks ago, it's Ted's Frostop outside NOLA. Even that "Chicago" hotel was really a New Orleans hotel.)
I saw briefly in the credits a "Thank you" to someone named Bitsy, with the director's last name. Ah, I thought, there's the connection to "The Late Show", which has a writer who sometimes sends his mother out to do funny bits where she interviews politicians. So the writer/director must have experience writing for Colbert, so why the hell couldn't they use footage recording during a real episode of "The Late Show"? My mistake, I was confusing "Bitsy" with "Bootsie", Bootsie Plunkett is the mother of that talk show writer who gets confused about politics and such. Still, she's a funny lady, we need her back after the lockdown ends. Hell, we need talk show audiences back, my late night shows just aren't the same when they're just Zoom conferences. We also need comedy clubs, roadside diners and casinos back, please. And hotels (which, final NITPICK POINT, I'm pretty sure you can't smoke in any more - not cigarettes, not medical marijuana. OK, maybe a few hotels in the midwest, but not very many.)
Also starring Richard Dreyfuss (last seen in "Book Club"), Chevy Chase (last seen in "Love, Gilda"), Andie MacDowell (last seen in "Only the Brave"), Lewis Black (last seen in "Gilbert"), Kate Micucci (last seen in "The Little Hours"), Chris Parnell (last heard in "Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation"), George Wallace (last seen in "Mr. Deeds"), Chris Fleming, Carol Sutton (last seen in "Hot Pursuit"), Ritchie Montgomery (last seen in "Elvis & Nixon"), Allan Harvey with archive footage of Lawrence Welk, Bing Crosby (last heard in "Scared Stiff"), Bob Hope (ditto) and the voices of Stephen Colbert (last seen in "The Wizard of Lies"), Ryan Reynolds (last seen in "Definitely, Maybe")
RATING: 6 out of 10 Mariachi bands in Tijuana
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