Plot: What’s it about?
Written by, Directed by, and Starring Albert Brooks, Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World is about one mans quest to find out what makes Muslim’s laugh. Albert Brooks, playing himself, is sent a letter from the United States government asking for his assistance. After flying out to Washington D.C. he is informed that they want him to travel to India and Pakistan , and over a months time write a 500 page report on what makes Muslim’s laugh. The government feels that their normal ways of torture and fighting weren’t working, so this is their new plan. Even though he’s very concerned about writing a 500 page paper, Albert accepts the governments offer after they tell him he will receive the Medal of Freedom for his services. Thinking the medal can boost his acting career, Albert sets off for India. He is assigned two Department of State workers to guide him and help in out in his research, although they turn out to be very little help. The first stop on the trip is India where Albert sets up a comedy showcase to try and find out what makes Muslim’s laugh. It doesn’t go so well when nobody gets the jokes and only one or two people laugh. After only 2 weeks of being in India, things start to heat up at the borders of India and Pakistan and Albert is forced to go back to the United States. Having only about 6 pages worth of information for the U.S. government, he doesn’t receive a medal and never hears back from them again.
This movie didn’t hold my interest very long. The hour and 40 minutes did fly by pretty quickly, but as far as the storyline goes, it dragged on a bit and never really concluded with anything. The humor is very dry humor and only works at a few parts during the movie. There were no parts where I actually laughed out load, but I did chuckle to myself a little bit. I’m not very familiar with Albert Brooks’ work beyond is voice work in The Simpsons and Finding Nemo, so I may not have seen all the humor that he is known for. But as far as this film goes, it wasn’t very funny or entertaining even in a satirical sort of way, most of the time.
Video: How does it look?
The video looks good. There was some edge enhancement, but the colors look crisp and clear, no artifacts could be seen and very little grain. It is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio is presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital and it sounds just fine. There aren’t a whole lot of things going on in the movie to really utilize the surround sound, but everything sounded crisp and clear. No complaints here.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The only extras on the disc are about 4 minutes worth of deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer.
