I don't think I'm exaggerating excessively when I say that the last time Steve Martin was really, TRULY funny was probably in the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - thirty years ago now - and that I honestly had no idea that Martin Short was still alive.
To be fair, they play with this unfortunate situation in the show, but everything they do and say - right down to the 'seated conversation' part of the act - is so lifeless and scripted and overrehearsed the whole thing felt like an Oscars Ceremony number spun out to over an hour, or corny patter from a Bob Hope and Dean Martin telethon from the sixties. I honestly never even smiled once.
Steve Martin seems like a really nice guy, and I'd love to see him make a comedy as great as The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains or the Three Amigos again. But he doesn't HAVE to, he's certainly done enough, and I like it that he's out there picking his banjo and playing music instead. He's earned his comfy retirement and his hobbies.
But I can't say this is any good when it isn't. And in truth, I really don't know who this is even meant for, except for maybe the guys playing golf at the country club.
There's nothing glaringly, astoundingly WRONG with this special, there's just nothing at all appealing or interesting either. And you really will forget it ever existed just as soon as you stop watching it.
To be fair, they play with this unfortunate situation in the show, but everything they do and say - right down to the 'seated conversation' part of the act - is so lifeless and scripted and overrehearsed the whole thing felt like an Oscars Ceremony number spun out to over an hour, or corny patter from a Bob Hope and Dean Martin telethon from the sixties. I honestly never even smiled once.
Steve Martin seems like a really nice guy, and I'd love to see him make a comedy as great as The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains or the Three Amigos again. But he doesn't HAVE to, he's certainly done enough, and I like it that he's out there picking his banjo and playing music instead. He's earned his comfy retirement and his hobbies.
But I can't say this is any good when it isn't. And in truth, I really don't know who this is even meant for, except for maybe the guys playing golf at the country club.
There's nothing glaringly, astoundingly WRONG with this special, there's just nothing at all appealing or interesting either. And you really will forget it ever existed just as soon as you stop watching it.