ImmatureJerry Seinfeld and Melissa McCarthy’s new film about Pop Tarts, reached the top of Netflix’s global movie charts despite a decidedly undelightful 39% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Seinfeld’s stated goal of making a brand-based film was not Barbie seems to have been achieved, and many reviews point to this Barbie was funny, well written and entertaining – while Immature is ‘messy and unfunny’ (InSession Film), ‘nothing particularly noteworthy’ (The Times of India), and a film that ‘often seems to focus on people who were dying at the time’ Seinfeld ended, or at least whose TVs broke and were never repaired” (MattPais.com).
Immature It’s supposed to be a parody of, say, Air or BlackBerry, but it lacks “snap, crackle and pop” (says CNN), so here are three much more entertaining alternative spoofs you’ll find among the best Netflix movies.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Benoit Blanc returns in another wildly entertaining comedy murder mystery, currently sitting at a 91% critic and 92% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Refuting Seinfeld’s claims that they don’t make them like they used to, this is a distinctly old-fashioned comedy with lots of charm, lots of brains and some absolutely great performances – and what appears to be a special one too. savage parody of the antics of a certain social media-owning billionaire.
CNET called it “hugely satisfying” and praised, like many critics, especially Daniel Craig, who is clearly having the time of his life, while rich gave it 4/5 stars: it’s “a vibrant, flashy, joyfully entertaining few hours. If there’s any right in the world, Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig will continue making films in the Benoit Blanc Cinematic Universe forever.” (There’s at least one more Blanc film to come.)
Top secret!
To suggest Aeroplane!, but with Nazis and a particularly memorable joke about sex toys. That is Top secret! I’ve often found myself laughing insensibly at this deeply silly film, not least because the impossibly young Val Kilmer’s star here is absolutely (and deliberately, but po-faced) hilarious. Kilmer plays a popular American singer who travels to Germany and comes into contact with the resistance, often with hilarious consequences.
The film channels everything from Elvis movies to spy films and the like Aeroplane!, is so packed that it doesn’t matter if some don’t land. As Gene Siskel wrote upon its release, it’s “not even half as funny as” Airplane! but still… a lot smarter than most movie comedies being made these days”; the San Francisco Examiner said that filmmakers “Abrahams-Zucker-Zucker spread the jokes like farmers spread corn around a chicken coop. They’re shameless.” It’s a very crazy movie and a very funny one.
The disaster artist
Based on a true story, A24’s The disaster artist tells the story of aspiring filmmaker Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) and his attempts to make the really bad cult classic The room. According to Filmmakers magazine“Disaster artist is a movie with one joke, and that joke is a person, but it’s a very good joke”; Deep focus review says it reflects “the same balance of admiration, mockery and craftsmanship as Tim Burton Ed Hout”. The film being made is “one of the worst films ever… it’s a film so terrible, so limitlessly, majestically surreal that it has achieved cult classic status”, NME says, but his story is “the subject of one of the best of 2017.” It’s “a very funny, affectionate celebration of a man who did everything he could to achieve his dreams and failed.”