This Weekend At The Movies

This past weekend, two new films provided further proof that mainstream Hollywood comedy currently exists at two opposite poles – profane shock humor and kiddie friendly pap.

Seemingly gone are the days when films such as “Groundhog Day” and “A Fish Called Wanda” could appeal to a wide range of age groups by intermingling adult themes, broad humor and wit.

For the most part, the comedies of the past few years have blurred the line of what can be considered funny. I think I drew the line during a recreation in “The Hangover Part II” of Eddie Adams’ famous photo of an execution during the Vietnam War.

It’s as if modern comedies are aiming to channel the bawdy humor of Lenny Bruce or George Carlin, but minus any context. 

Seth Gordon’s raunch-fest “Horrible Bosses” is one of the more tolerable examples of this recent slate of films, namely due to the solid work of a cast that includes Jason Bateman, Kevin Spacey, Jaime Foxx and a deliriously over-the-top Colin Farrell. 

The humor hits just slightly more than it misses and there are a few exceptionally funny sequences, including one involving a sneaky cat, a discussion of company cutbacks between Farrell and Jason Sudeikis and a reference, of all things, to the 1999 film “Snow Falling on Cedars.”

The film follows the miserable lives of three schlubs who are tormented by their sinister employers. Bateman is harassed by a seemingly psychotic Spacey, who insists on drinking Scotch at 8 a.m., while Sudeikis must face off against Farrell, who is his boss’s cocaine abusing son.

Charlie Day rounds out the group as a dental assistant who is repeatedly sexually harassed by Jennifer Aniston, who fills the perfunctory sex object role that is typically assigned to women in these types of films.

Much like other comedies in this vein, “Horrible Bosses” exists to elicit laughs through coarseness and outrageous behavior. Its best set pieces work, but others – for example, an uncomfortable series of tête-à-têtes between Day and Aniston – are merely egregious.

For a much better comedy of ill manners, check out “Bridesmaids.”

If “Horrible Bosses” represents one extreme on Hollywood’s comedy spectrum, then “Zookeeper” is at the far end of the other pole.

On the one hand, I find it difficult to be too unkind to this film, which is obviously meant for little children and stars Kevin James, who appears to be a perfectly pleasant guy.

On the other hand, the movie is thin even by the standards typically set by these types of comedies. And it’s pretty desperately unfunny – that is, unless you find the sight of a gigantic mechanical gorilla getting drunk at T.G.I. Friday’s (don’t ask) or James repeatedly falling down and bumping into stuff humorous.

The film follows the story of James’s milquetoast zookeeper who is heartbroken after his girlfriend refuses his marriage proposal. He finds an opportunity to win her back and, inexplicably, enlists the help of his zoo’s creatures big and small, who happen to speak in the voices of Nick Nolte, Sylvester Stallone, Cher, Adam Sandler and Jon Favreau. Paycheck, please!

The picture also includes a supporting role for the ubiquitous Ken Jeong, who has managed to find work in the summer’s three biggest stinkers – this one, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “The Hangover Part II.”

May his agent next land him in a film including neither talking Hasbro toys nor gorillas.