Albert Brooks’ Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

A new release in video stores this week is Albert Brooks’ Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. Here I will review this new release and let you know if it’s worth the rental fee.

I got the film in the mail (thanks Netflix) and was pretty excited. I assumed that a film about looking for comedy would produce a lot of laughs. I enjoy a good laugh and like to take a break from the typical Blockbuster film. So, this movie seemed like a perfect match for me.

The premise of the film is Albert Brooks traveling to Pakistan and India in an attempt to learn what makes Muslims laugh. The United States government is using well dispersed tax money to send Brooks to Pakistan and India for one month in order to compile a five hundred page report on what makes Muslim’s laugh. It is believed that Americans will better understand the Muslim people if they know what makes them laugh. So, Brooks feels as though he is doing a great service to his nation by taking on this role in a post 9/11 society.

The film follows Brooks in his travels over seas in a rudimentary attempt at interviewing the Muslim population. The movie starts out all right. However, it becomes pretty slow. One can only hear “What makes you laugh?” so many times, and hearing the same dull joke over and over again gets very repetitive. In some scenes Brooks tries out his own comedy to see what the Muslims like and dislike.

Brooks seemed shocked when they did not find humor. Maybe the humor got lost because English was not their first language. Or maybe not. Speaking English as my native language I did not find the humor either. I still do not see how telling bad jokes and getting negative results will allow anyone to understand the Muslim’s better.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed. The only humor I found in the film did not come from Brooks, but from a few minute background details. The film was not the typical Hollywood Blockbuster, but that was not necessarily a good thing. The film progressed very slowly, and there no action scenes, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, there was not enough comedy to break up the monotony.

The overall idea behind the film was great, but it was executed poorly. Luckily I have unlimited rentals from Netflix so I am not out any additional money from this rental. Do yourself a favor and rent something else!