In my opinion our sitcoms are vastly superior to American ones. However when it comes to comedy films they seem to win hands down. Most British comedy films are frankly embarrassing.
Does anyone agree - and can anyone put their finger on why this is?
a) We don't have a film industry
b) The ambitions of (a lot of) comedy writers in the UK are to make great sitcom rather than great films
That's not to say in the past there haven't been great British comedy films, because there have.
I just watched "The boat that rocked" and whilst it was amusing I didn't find it laugh out loud funny.
Also we use the same actors and writers over and over again. It worked with stuff like Carry on but it's always Nighy or Grant. Not funny people at all really.
I think in recent years our films have got funnier. Mostly due to Simon Pegg and that crowd etc with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Although the latter is a lot more American influenced.
Always gritty working man bollocks or middles class shite! Then you have Billy Elliot which mixes em both together... kind of.
British films always feel like TV movies and look like TV episodes of American films, yes.
We need to say f**k it and create our own genre, like Pineywood. Or we need decent stars to attach to them.
I dunno...
Hollywood is a magnet for the world's talent. With the biggest budgets and the best people it is going to be a long time before any of the other film market can surpass America. I always see articles, like Jonathon Ross now, questioning a star's plans to "make it in America". In America, you mainly read about the other countries under the term "national market" and primarily in reference to movie grosses.
Now with TV on the other hand you do see the occasional article here in America given praise to UK TV. Anytime it's mentioned working in the UK gives you more freedom then the USA. The 'best' current American TV is coming from HBO and other cable channels; which shares more in common with the UK model then American network TV.
Quote: Griff @ January 6 2010, 12:09 AM GMTI actually think Hugh Grant is a terrific comic actor, but he does seem to be in everything when there are plenty of others that don't seem to get much of a look-in.
He's a good actor, but he seems trapped in romcom hell. I'd like to see a director like Paul Thomas Anderson use him in a different way.