Summer of Arnold Post #2: The Comedies

*Red Heat
Admittedly, calling this a comedy is a bit of a stretch, but it attempts to fit into the mold of Beverly Hills Cop & Lethal Weapon. However, James Belushi never tries to be as funny as Eddie Murphy, & Arnold is certainly no Danny Glover. Overall, it works well though. It's 1 of the 2 I skipped when I was young, but I'm glad I saw it. Not only is it a solid film, but Arnold, as the Soviet cop, gets to enlighten Belushi's benighted dufus about the importance of friendship & openmindedness. 3 1/2 out of 5 jiggly pectorals
*Twins
My favorite of the comedies, Twins pairs Arnold w/ Danny DeVito for the 1st of 3 winning films. I was thinking about DeVito & realized that I've never seen a Danny DeVito film I don't like. Maybe next year we'll have a summer of Danny... we've already seen 4 this summer (along w/ the Arnold's, we watched Romancing the Stone w/ the kids), Aiden is already dieing for a viewing of Batman Returns, & I'd get to watch Johnny Dangerously again. Anyway, the chemistry between the 2 is strong, & the ridiculous premise works well... much better than when they revived it years later w/ Junior. 4 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*Kindergarten Cop
We watched this 1 twice, once by ourselves & then later w/ the kids. We liked it & so did Solstice & Aiden. Plus, we get our 1st & 2nd Schwartze-quips on the list. Of course, "It's not a tum-mah" is good & has been a favorite of mine for years, but I realized there's a better 1: "I'm the pah-rty poopah" is just fantastic. 4 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*The Last Action Hero
This post-modern action-comedy starts strong but fails miserably by the final act. DeVto provides the voice of Whiskers the Cat, & the long train of cameos is clever, but the kid isn't good enough to hold the comedy together, & the self-referential film w/in a film is sort of forgotten after 15 minutes of decent comedy. The other problem is that it takes a while to get going. Those 15 minutes of decent comedy are actually the 2nd 15 minutes of the film. 2 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*Junior
Again, Arnold teams w/ Danny DeVito in an homage to Frankenstien, & again it works pretty well... not reall well, but pretty well, & certainly not as well as Twins. Once the disbelief is properly suspended, we get to enjoy Emma Thompson who is always good. The role-reversial is fun, but we made the mistake of watching it w/o the kids. I'll have to see it again w/ them because they'll like it more than me. 3 out of 5 jiggly pecs
*Jingle All the Way
One we didn't forget to watch w/ the kids; it teams Arnold w/ Sinbad & a young Anakin Skywalker plus we get a cameo from Jim Belushi as the mafia santa selling shoddy toys to yuppie parents. Complete w/ dwarf tossing, this goes beyond the other comedies in an attempt to reach a dumbed down audience & it works in spades. Solstice wants to make it a X-Mas tradition. 3 out of 5 jiggly pecs