"English people always make such funny movies!"

[Documad]

So I saw Layer Cake. It was still playing in one theater. I knew next to nothing about it. I was running late.

Two 30ish women were standing next to me at the ticket window. They apparently couldn't decide what to see. So because my movie was starting any minute, I said "I'll take one for Layer Cake." The women said "Layer Cake, what's that?" I pretended not to hear, but they turned into me and said it again. I said "British movie" as I tried to walk around them. One of them said, "Oh, English people make such funny movies!" and the other agreed that indeed they did. I said, "not this one, it's a crime movie." But one of them insisted that no, English people do always make funny movies.

I overheard them buying two tickets to Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants as I finally tore away.

So all during the movie (which I loved) I kept wondering what English movies they had seen. They didn't seem the type to see any. I'm guessing the unemployed men strip to Donna Summer movie--whatever that was called.


My friends who had seen it said had told me the movie was confusing. That didn't put me off because I'm good at following plots. I'm smart that way, and I love a movie that challenges me. So when it wasn't confusing at all, I called one of my friends to ask what was so confusing. She said, "the accents--I couldn't understand what the actors were saying half the time." I think there was one sentence I couldn't understand in the whole movie--when they were interrogating the three junkies.

[enree erzweglle]

I had a similar experience. Someone in line asked me about a movie--the only one left for which seats were still available. All I could think to say about it was, "English movie." He got out of line and left the theater altogether. I guess not everyone appreciates them. :)

[Documad]

Remember the movie Life Is Good? It won a couple of major Oscars. There were clips of it on TV for weeks because the actor/director was so amusing yet irritiating. And they were always playing clips from the movie.

I went to see another movie right after the Academy Awards that year and there was a giant sign at the ticket booth saying that Life Is Good "is not in English" and "there are subtitles." My friends and I bust a gut laughing so hard, like "who wouldn't know THAT!" and the ticket seller said that a huge number of people who went to see the movie came out after about 5 minutes to complain that it wasn't in English.

What puzzles me is that I think English crime films and mysteries are the best anywhere and have been forever. Whereas English comedies have really gone down hill in the past couple of decades -- at least the ones that make it to our theaters in Minneapolis. We get only the mildly amusing yet sicky sweet hearttugging kind of comedies--usually involving a small village and a down on his luck nobody with a plucky old man who helps/inspires him.

[Gareth]

i cant stand when people watch asian movies with voice-overs

[insertnamehere]

life is beautiful?

[Documad]

life is beautiful?
Ha Ha! Thanks! :p I thought and thought and almost just tried to describe it and then Life is Good popped into my head and that sounded right. I'm usually about 80% correct. :)

[jabumbo]

i enjoyed snatch, and i couldnt understnad about half the dialogue