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UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Some Like it Hot -- in 4k UHD (2 Viewers)

Peter Apruzzese

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I suspect that all the people who don't find this laugh out loud funny have never EVER seen it with an audience. In 1959, I can assure you it was not only laugh out loud funny, you frequently couldn't hear the dialogue because the laughs were so loud and so long. Comedy is hard when you're sitting at home alone and especially when a film has been ripped off by so many lesser films as much as Some Like it Hot has.

I ran this for good sized theatrical audiences twice during the past 20 years and both times the reaction was sustained laughter during many parts of the film. Same with Mad Mad World, Duck Soup, and Buck Privates. An audience is needed for comedies.
 

GlennF

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Reading through this thread I am actually kind of surprised some people don't find this movie funny. For me, it comes down to either this film, or the original The Producers, as the best comedy film produced by Hollywood. Some scenes IMHO are simply priceless such as Jack and Marilyn in the upper berth of the train or Jack lying on the bed telling Tony he is "engaged". This makes me curious as to what movies people DO think are funny.
 

TravisR

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I ran this for good sized theatrical audiences twice during the past 20 years and both times the reaction was sustained laughter during many parts of the film. Same with Mad Mad World, Duck Soup, and Buck Privates. An audience is needed for comedies.
Yeah, I don't think it's particularly controversial to say that any comedy plays better when you see it with a crowd rather than at home. If someone is laughing at something that you might not be laughing at, their laughter may cause you or someone else to laugh too. It's the reason that standup comedians have an opening act- laughter helps create more laughter.
 
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ManW_TheUncool

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BREAKING NEWS ALERT
People differ on what they find funny.
Human senses of humor may not all be identical as previously thought, experts say.

Not to mention there are other variables (like a person's mood and particular situation) that can change that (at just about anytime) even for the same person. And really, that can be true not just of humor, but other aspects of the human subjective experience and feelings... influencing how we react and feel about all kinds of movies, not just comedies...

_Man_
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Yeah, I don't think it's particularly controversial to say that any comedy plays better when you see it with a crowd rather than at home. If someone is laughing at something that you might not be laughing at, their laughter may cause you or someone else to laugh too. It's the reason that standup comedians have an opening act- laughter helps create more laughter.

True that... and of course, TV sitcoms would usually air w/ live audience (or even fake generated) laughter because the producers know and understand that...

_Man_
 

Malcolm R

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If someone is laughing at something that you might not be laughing at, their laughter may cause you or someone else to laugh too. It's the reason that standup comedians have an opening act- laughter helps create more laughter.
Then they're probably laughing just to be part of the crowd and not stick out as a non-participant. You don't want to be the only person sitting dead silent while others are howling around you. You'd get comments similar to, "what's wrong with you?" or "what's your problem?"

The material doesn't actually become funnier when other people are present. People would just laugh to blend in even if they don't find it particularly funny.
 

PMF

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Have you seen it with an audience, yes or no?
No doubts here, Bruce, attending an entertainment is always a greater experience with an audience.

All the more interesting, though, would be if you could direct everyone to a theater that’s actually showing Some Like It Hot outside of L.A. or NYC on an annual basis. Sadly, Bruce, the dynamics and opportunities towards audience participations do drastically change within our American landscape when dealing with the exhibition of classic films in Tiny Town, U.S.A.
 
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ManW_TheUncool

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Then they're probably laughing just to be part of the crowd and not stick out as a non-participant. You don't want to be the only person sitting dead silent while others are howling around you. You'd get comments similar to, "what's wrong with you?" or "what's your problem?"

The material doesn't actually become funnier when other people are present. People would just laugh to blend in even if they don't find it particularly funny.

That is certainly one possibility (and may often enough be true)... though not the only (certainly not in my experience anyway)...

_Man_
 

Gerani53

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Summing up: While proclaiming one movie as the "funniest movie ever made" is hardly scientifically accurate, given subjectivity and all, we do tend to amuse ourselves with "best this" and "best that," perhaps mainly to call attention to exceptional works of art. Choosing SOME LIKE IT HOT as the best comedy ever made (aka, one of the best), is a logical and intelligent thing to do, as the film not only offers laughs, but A-plus filmmaking within an intellectual context that perfectly blends with the humor and results in something uniquely remarkable, as least in the judgment of an overwhelming number of sharp observers. If all I want are belly laughs, I'll put on BLAZING SADDLES or even Laurel and Hardy's THE MUSIC BOX. If I want a brilliantly made comedy movie, that is socially sassy as well as funny, it's time for SOME LIKE IT HOT.
 
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PMF

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[…]The material doesn't actually become funnier when other people are present. […]

Although I’ll defend anyone’s right to not find something funny, I’ll have to disagree on this one opinion of your above post.

Everything is absolutely all the funnier with an audience. Crowd reactions, or various pockets of audible responses throughout the auditorium, alerts our attentions towards things that would otherwise be missed.

BOTTOM LINE: Laughter is infectious.
 
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bujaki

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Although I’ll defend anyone’s right to not find something funny, I’ll have to disagree on this one opinion of your above post.

Everything is absolutely all the funnier with an audience. Crowd reactions, or various pockets of audible responses throughout the auditorium, alerts our attentions towards things that would otherwise be missed.

BOTTOM LINE: Laughter is infectious.
But TEARS are not. I laughed through the ludicrous ending of Love Story while the audience around me was audibly sobbing and blowing their noses.
 
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PMF

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But TEARS are not. I laughed through the ludicrous ending of Love Story while the audience around me was audibly sobbing and blowing their noses.
bujaki, we’re on the same page !!!

I also laughed throughout the ending of Love Story. I was even laughing at the boo-hooing audience. And get this…I was only 10.
 
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darkrock17

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But TEARS are not. I laughed through the ludicrous ending of Love Story while the audience around me was audibly sobbing and blowing their noses.
bujaki, we’re on the same page !!!

I also laughed throughout the ending of Love Story. I was even laughing at the boo-hooing audience. And get this - I was only 10.
Boy You Are Not Right Leslie Jones GIF by Saturday Night Live
 
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benbess

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I only saw the last half of Love Story on TV in the late 70s, but I remember one of the final lines about love means you never have to say sorry, or something like that, seeming kinda nonsensical to my 12-year old mind—and it seems even more that way to me here in my late 50s.
 
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