Comedy?? Excuse me!

Rating: 1/10 (22 January 2005)

I suppose I have to be classified a contrarian now because I like the way movies once were. These days it seems by far the vast majority of the films the critics rave about are ones that are "different". Movies that are there just for enjoyment just don't seem to get made as often these days.
I missed this film because it only played at our local art theater. I never do see anything there because the movies are always given extremely favorable ratings but are always lousy (IMHO) films from an enjoyment standpoint.
I finally broke down and rented the DVD of this because of the number of Golden Globe nominations and good stars involved. When will I ever learn that if it is considered great by the critics and the "in crowd" in Hollywood, it is practically guaranteed to be a waste of time as entertainment. If I could give a zero rating, this would get it for sure. The fact it is so high in the IMDb all time ratings is to me a sad commentary on the state of our world.
I may be old and I may come from another era but one thing I know for sure. By definition a comedy is supposed to be funny, like ha-ha laugh out loud funny - especially if it has Jim Carrey. To classify Spotless Mind as a comedy requires someone with a very twisted mind indeed. I can concede the acting was good and that it was well filmed and quite different. There is no way however that it is a comedy. Comedy is Chaplin, Abbot & Costello, Lemmon and Matthau, et. al.
If you are expecting to laugh or find anything funny in this piece of trash, save your time and money. I suppose they are making so few real comedies now that they have to stretch like Jim Carrey in Mask to call fantasy/sci-fi drama a comedy.