European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 26, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                 a comedies Are no laughing matter by Peter Rainer the los Angeles times Ummer is traditionally the time the movie studios unpack their loudest whoopee cushions and some of the v loudest this season will go by such names As City slickers life stinks naked gun 2vi and soap dish. So this might be a Good time to ask Why is it so darn difficult for Hollywood to make a Good comedy. We be had almost nothing to laugh at a i mean really laugh at something on the order of Tootsie a for years. Tic movies have even fallen Down in their joke Book function. Its been a Long wait Between naked gun and naked gun Zvi. There have been some wonderful comedies of course in the past year there have been . Story and the freshman and gremlins 2 and the Tail Guy. Flawed As Many of them arc they All try to make you laugh in ways that make them different from other comedies. They Delight in their ticklish Ness. There san innocence in that Delight and innocence More than anything else except a cutting Edge is what is lacking in most of the studio engineered comedy jobs. Movies like Oscar and the marrying Man to take two current examples try to make you Guffaw by assaulting you they re about As innocent As laugh meters. And this is largely True even of the new Blake Edwards comedy switch although it at least has a Star a Ellen Barkin playing a Macho pig inhabiting the body of a Slinky woman a who is Well Worth the assault. But with so Many gifted funny makes in show business right now How come the movies have so Little use for them quot1 part of the reason is that As the movie business becomes increasingly expensive ii is far Jess a available to the kind of audacity and personal touches that make for memorable comedy. Like much of popular culture now Hollywood is functioning As custodian of the done to Rock the boat status quo. Satire is barely a Blip on the screens these Days. Certain studios like Disney have developed almost a House style its comedies from ruthless people to three men and a baby to three fugitives to pretty woman Are engineered like High powered sports cars though the inspiration that drives them is often Low octane and these Are the kinds of comedies that the Industry holds up As shining paragons. A a the test Market approach to comedy has re suited in some strange melange. Comedies Are increasingly outfitted with incompatible dramatic elements like kindergarten cop which was mar pc cd As a kiddie Romp but actually contained gobs of routine Arnold Schwarzenegger shoot a pm ups. The commercial thinking behind this kind of bait and switch ploy is very different from the work of artists like Jonathan Demme who made. Something wild and Paul Mazursky who made enemies a love Story. These directors collide tones and genres As a Way of voyaging into the Faro mount will this Summers comedies a among them a soap dish above and a naked gun 2v,�?� below he really funny one reviewer has his doubts. Pictured above Are Cathy Mori arty Sally Field and who Pic Goldberg. Below Leslie Nielsen. J. Human comedy. They mix things up because they recognize and want to capture the grab bag Quality of modern life which they  essentially if darkly comic. Quot not so Long ago there were dozens of i Lemak cars and actors one might have predicted would change the face of movie comedy. Instead they have gone in other directions or punted out Steven Spielberg who has perhaps the most commentary galvanizing visual comic sense of any director who has Ever lived has become Overly fond of his self anointed role As the Industry a Premier movie Movic fab list his inc world is my them Park rambunctious ass has begun to seem v crotchety. John Waters in cry baby has become disconcertingly Strait laced Stuart Gordon re animator Hasni to topped himself. Ron Howard seems farther away from splash with every Pic Turc these Days he a putting out wide screen fires. Albert Brooks who with lost in America became one of the few filmmakers to take aim at a the great unexplored comic theme of the �?T80s a Yuppie yearnings a seems sweetly blessed out in defending your life. In the �?T90s, As the average age of moviegoers appears to be inching upward we re supposed to be seeing More adult oriented comedies. But it s still True that Many of the hit comedies a Home alone leads the pack a Are essentially kid fuss. The reason John Hughes is comedy King is he a King of the demographics. Its no Accident that Many of the wildest and most original comic talents in film came up in the Early �?T70s, when the american movie was at its highest creative Peak since the silent Era and Quot when not coincidentally studio controls Wei a r lot Luxora a Rit Wasny to just because of directors like  by Woody Allen Robert Altman Riidu do Palma Mel Brooks Hal Ashby and striven Spiel  was also pet Foi mors like the Young Robert do Niro and Al Pacino and Elliott Cloudland George so jut and Libra Streisand Pei former who were so explosively alive that even their darkest renditions had the Impact of Hon lowing a a  burlesque Pacino in dog i a of 1 Ter noon and de Niro in mean streets Weie Insa Nely comic the Jumble of moods they conveyed blurred the1 usual distinctions of comedy and tragedy and that a what made them so  movies desperately need that kind of exp a Cit cent  j Quot \ i May 26, 1991 sunday Page 17