This is not a movie. It might be a Groundlings Theater exercise. Or a practice for an SNL sketch. Or a junior high school play. But whatever it is, this ain't a film, no way, no how.
Doing a spoof of an old movie requires a certain belief in the genre, an understanding and respect for the source material. It also, and perhaps most importantly, means having actors who believe in what they're doing, believably inhabiting the characters they're portraying and the universe in which the story is set.
There is not a single moment in "Dark and Stormy Night" where anybody watching this misfire will ever mistake the caricatures and cartoon figures presented here for real people... or even real movie characters. The acting is all of the overblown, wink-wink, nudge-nudge variety, as if presented on stage and pandering to the audience's reactions.
Shooting on HD and converting to black and white is also no substitute for the rich 35mm film look of the movies this is supposed to satirize.
"Mad" magazine used to do hilarious movie and television spoofs, and they always worked - for the simple reason that the characters believed what they were doing, interacting in their own peculiar universes and never alluding to the fact that it was all a sendup. Mel Brooks knows this. So does Carl Reiner... and Woody Allwn... and whoever wrote "Austin Powers."
This is exactly why "Stormy Night" does not work: every single second, we're acutely aware the actors are doing a sendup... as if they're constantly trying to TELL us it's all a big joke. It's like comedians laughing at their own jokes.
That, of course, never works. And neither does this.
Doing a spoof of an old movie requires a certain belief in the genre, an understanding and respect for the source material. It also, and perhaps most importantly, means having actors who believe in what they're doing, believably inhabiting the characters they're portraying and the universe in which the story is set.
There is not a single moment in "Dark and Stormy Night" where anybody watching this misfire will ever mistake the caricatures and cartoon figures presented here for real people... or even real movie characters. The acting is all of the overblown, wink-wink, nudge-nudge variety, as if presented on stage and pandering to the audience's reactions.
Shooting on HD and converting to black and white is also no substitute for the rich 35mm film look of the movies this is supposed to satirize.
"Mad" magazine used to do hilarious movie and television spoofs, and they always worked - for the simple reason that the characters believed what they were doing, interacting in their own peculiar universes and never alluding to the fact that it was all a sendup. Mel Brooks knows this. So does Carl Reiner... and Woody Allwn... and whoever wrote "Austin Powers."
This is exactly why "Stormy Night" does not work: every single second, we're acutely aware the actors are doing a sendup... as if they're constantly trying to TELL us it's all a big joke. It's like comedians laughing at their own jokes.
That, of course, never works. And neither does this.