Movie Review: The Gods Must Be Crazy
Last Sunday, after a two-week hiatus, we got back to our usual breakfast and movie night. It felt great to pick up our weekly tradition, knowing that a lot of things change when adding a baby but much can go on as before.
On tap for the evening’s entertainment was a quirky, low-budget comedy from 1980 called The Gods Must Be Crazy. This film was Jeff’s pick and even so he was a bit nervous that either of us would like it. My comedy tastes are, well, hard to pin down. I’m pretty picky when it comes to this genre.
I’m happy to report that we both LOVED this film. (Hence why I felt compelled to write this review.) It starts out sounding very much like a National Geographic documentary with a narrator introducing a group of isolated African bushmen living in the Kalahari Desert and their run-in with a glass Coke bottle. We leave that story to see a bumbling guerilla group attempt an assassination in the capital city. We cut away again to introduce a woman leaving her city newspaper job to teach at a mission school in the African countryside and a [soon-to-be love struck] scientist living and researching in the same area. These three story lines all come together with hilarious results. It boarders on the absurd, and yet I don’t always (usually?) like absurdist comedies. Or slap-stick (which is also hysterically included). And yet this movie hits everything just right.
In some ways I feel hard pressed to recommend it because I find it hard to predict who will enjoy it, yet at the same time I found it so laugh-out-loud funny that I can’t imagine anyone not liking it. Maybe I like it because it feels genuine, something many modern comedies lack (in my opinion).
The trailer gives a pretty good taste of what to expect:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GorHLQ-jLRQ]
If you’re looking for something funny, clean, and out of the ordinary, The Gods Must Be Crazy might be for you. Or not.
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Sarah! Good to see you on the blog! Thanks for this movie review. My DH is having knee replacement surgery in about a month and we may be wanting some new entertainment while he’s off his feet. I enjoyed the movie trailer.