SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Matt Greene Nobly, Wain is trying something new here; unfortunately it jumps awkwardly between a stylistic & dramatic punk rock film, & a traditional biopic, leaning on cliched storytelling tropes that he would normally lampoon. Even the funniest stuff is all old National Lampoon creations, not film originals. The stunt casting is fun (especially Daly's Murray), but the bad makeup & wigs, filmmaking insecurity & Forte's unnuanced lead performance just point to Wain not quite having a control over the material.

mikez-96255 Not sure why the movie pretends Doug Kenney is alive (Martin Mull plays him at the beginning) and why some people are saying Alex Garcia-Mata is a fictional character. Not really a spoiler but if Doug died in 1980 why does the movie pretend he's alive at the beginning? And as far as Alex is concerned, I'm no expert but a quick Google search shows she did exist and there's a NY Times article announcing their engagement in 1970 (http://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/17/archives/miss-garciamata-is-engaged-to-douglas-kenney-an-editor.html). Anyway....It is entertaining, which is what movies should be and I enjoyed watching it. I'll leave the rest to others to hash out!

Sam Panico Based on A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever, Kenney basically assembled the cast of Saturday Night Live before the show even aired. From John Hughes, Anne Beatts and P.J. O'Rourke to Tony Hendra (Spinal Tap's manager Ian Faith) and Chris Miller (who co-wrote Animal House) on the writing side to Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner (and more) on the performance side, you can see how nearly every comedy in the 1980's had the Lampoon stamp - and stink - all over it.As for the film, it's pretty much made for comedy geeks who have the hardback of Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead and have watched the documentary that ensured ad nauseam, that have read and re-read every book on SNL, that can breathlessly tell you of the relevance of 1970's comedy. Yes, I am looking at the man in the mirror.If you knew nothing about Kenney, I'm not sure you'll come out of this film loving him. In my reading of him, I've always seen him as this mysterious force that would write and write and write and then disappear, only to come back and prove himself all over again until he fell into a whirlwind of drugs and depression and faded away from this reality. I've always found myself more drawn to the pure menace and in your face nature of Michael O'Donoghue, who is portrayed in the film by The State's Thomas Lennon. His intro scene, where he goes into a manic rant that sounds life and death and is really only directed to a record club operator is perfect. So if you're looking for a memoir of his greatest hits, this film is for you (indeed, the movie ending food fight has Beatts and O'Donoghue locked in a romantic embrace, making him near heroic).This is almost a game to spot the comedian and who they are playing, kind of like The Greatest Story Ever Told, but for comedy. That's Will Forte and Martin Mull as Kenney (I hoped against hope that I had been Mandala Effected into a world where Kenney survived, but no dice). Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux!) as Henry Beard. Pittsburgh's own Jon Daly as Bill Murray. John Gemberling (Bevers from Broad City) as Belushi. Ed Helms as a picture perfect Tom Snyder. Natasha Lyonne as Anne Beatts. Even Joel McHale, portraying his old Community castmate Chevy Chase, who comes off as much an enabler as a friend. Tony Hendra is the only person who really gets a hatchet job here, coming off as a joke and girlfriend thief (and his daughter's allegations of sexual abuse make him a troubling figure to enjoy these days). Paul Scheer even shows up as Paul Schaffer! Seriously, this film is just about a laundry list.I really liked some of David Wain (The State, Wet Hot American Summer) transitions in the film, such as how he uses the Lampoon Foto Funny style to explain Kenney's divorce and then how he decides to escape to Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Kathryn Walker. There's also plenty of explanation for why no one really looks like the people they're playing, an attempted explanation for the Lampoon's lack of minorities and a laundry list of the way the movie plays fast and loose with what really happened ("some other things we changed from real life for pacing, dramatic impact, or just cause we felt like it.").Obviously, this is a movie basically made for me to enjoy. And I did, but it's difficult for me to recommend it to anyone who doesn't really care about where comedy comes from.

rabbitmoon The film moves along with a sense of invention and wit, like the supermarket economy version of an Edgar Wright movie, and feels like it might shift up a gear at any moment. But that 'intro' style vibe just kind of continues... right through until Kenney starts to unravel, where it just loses steam and doesn't have much of interest to say. Whereas say, in Fincher's The Social Network the film revolves and relies upon a compelling theme of loyalty's breaking point, or the value of ideas, AFASG's theme seems to never transcend 'hey, some people unravel the more successful they get!' I don't know what it is with these Netflix films, they all seem to be very eager to be impressive and likeable, but without really having a heart and soul. Its like a new genre aimed at people distracted on their phones or something.