Word: slapstick
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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John Woo has been making films in Hong Kong for more than 10 years. After making his way through sex comedies and slapstick, he settled on action films as his genre of choice. But more than that, he came to dominate the genre and all of Hong Kong film. "A Better Tomorrow," his 1986 gangster film, remains the biggest money maker in Hong Kong cinema history...
Moreno's critiques, however, steer clear of slapstick approaches and stay with harsher evaluations, with references to Dean Robert Clark as "Mein Dean" and Law School men as "dateproof to the bitter...
Shakespeare, who laced his plays with big fight scenes, multiple murders, romantic bantering and plenty of slapstick, was an ace screenwriter. Occasionally the movies have realized this and allowed distinguished actors to put one of his plays on film. Problem is that by the time they receive this reward for services rendered, it may as well be a gold watch. When MGM made Romeo and Juliet in 1936, it cast Leslie Howard, 43, and Norma Shearer, 36, as the star-crossed teens. Laurence Olivier brought sepulchral dash to his Hamlet, but at 41 he was a bit too mature...
Even if you don't follow the production's deeper meaning, Ross Benjamin's excellent direction provides for laughter, tension and release at more immediate levels. Making "symbolic," often frustrating dialogue accessible to the audience, Benjamin includes many episodes of welltimed, appropriate slapstick that bring the audience to laughter in the midst of this grim play. When the main characters begin their picnic, Frank eats barbarically while Ernest carefully slices his hot dog; as time goes on, Ernest begins to spit out hot dog chunks just as disgustingly as Frank. Ernest's long hair gradually falls out of his ponytail...
...only one lacking conviction. The production never engages fully with the play. In the comic scens, instead of cracking Shakespeare,s jokes, the actors parody themselves by sending up the obscure language of the humor. Alfred Divenuti, as the pimp Lucio, gradually surrenders his creative characterization in favor of slapstick hamming. The prostitute Pmopey (Jessica Viertel) decides to make a joke out of her delivery, apparently because she doesn't know how to make the jokes themselves...