Thursday, April 9, 2020

Honesty or blunt truth.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

Theme: Humor in film -- what makes me laugh:


Honesty or blunt truth.

Sometimes the truth can hurt, but hey... sometimes the truth can make me laugh!

Liar Liar (1997) banks on the use of honesty for laughs as Fletcher (Jim Carrey), a notorious liar, is compelled to speak only the truth for 24 hours.

A favorite scene...

Fletcher gets off an elevator and it's obvious from the expressions and actions of the occupants that someone passed gas. Fletcher confesses, "It was meeee!" (Hilarious 8 second clip found here.)

In Justice League (2017), Aquaman (Jason Momoa) doesn't realize he is sitting on Wonder Woman's lasso of truth while he expresses his opinions. His moment of honesty provides comic relief.

(skip the first 40 seconds to get to the main scene)
Movieclips: Justice League - Lasso of truth scene

A scene in True Lies (1994) not only uses honesty for comic relief, it could count for yesterday's post about gallows humor. Harry (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has been leading a double life as a spy. Captured by the bad guys, along with his wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) who is only just learning about this, he is given a truth agent.

HELEN
That makes you tell the truth?

HARRY
(in a drugged voice)
Uh huh.

HELEN
Is it working?

HARRY
Ask me questions I'd normally lie to.

HELEN
Are we going to die?

HARRY
Yep!

HELEN
I'd say it's working.

HARRY
They're gonna shoot us in the head.
Or they're gonna torture us to death.
Or they're gonna leave us here
until the bomb blows up.

Clip found here.

In the following scene from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) Evelyn (Judi Dench), a guest in the hotel, is having trouble with her phone and another guest, Douglas (Bill Nighy), tries to help.

I couldn't find a clip, so this is from the screenplay:

DOUGLAS
Did you try jiggling it a bit?

EVELYN
Yes, did that.

DOUGLAS
Did you kind of bang it lightly
on the desk a few times?

EVELYN
That too.

He twists off the mouthpiece of the receiver, lifts the receiver carefully. And blows on it.

...

Then Douglas puts the mouthpiece back on, holds the receiver to his ear.

DOUGLAS
There you are. As good as new.

EVELYN
Really?

DOUGLAS
No, of course not. I've got no
idea what I'm doing.

Evelyn bursts out laughing.

DOUGLAS
Now, would you like me to to,
um, not fix that chair?
Because I can almost certainly do that.

The honesty in that scene makes me laugh, making it a favorite in the movie. 

Can you think of honest movie moments that made you laugh?

6 comments:

  1. Love that scene from Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

    One of my favorite honest movie lines that made me laugh was in When Harry Met Sally when Sally mentioned someone to her friend Marie and said "He's just your type - married." It always cracked me up.

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  2. I think I remember the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as a movie i wanted to see but never did. I'll have to look for it. Thanks for the reminder.

    Janet’s Smiles

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  3. @Dyanne ... I haven't seen When Harry Met Sally for years. I need to see it again!

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  4. @Janet ... I really enjoyed The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I hope you'll have a chance to see it sometime.

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  5. Liar Liar is a great example of a film with the entire premise about honesty. I loved Jim Carrey in that film! And the True Lies scene is great. Fun film to watch again and again!

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  6. @Sue ... Writing these posts has reminded me of numerous films I want to see again. As usual, I will need a binge day (or binge week) for watching movies after the A to Z Challenge ends.

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