[8.7/10] I love this show’s sense of farce. Doing a parody of Million Dollar Baby and Fight Club and Rocky and boxing movies of all stripes, in the most ridiculous tones possible, is a winning formula. I enjoyed the various stories and homages, and how they all came together in the right way.
For one thing, the trio of Mac, Dennis, and Charlie is just a recipe for success. I don’t know if it’s the three of them having a close enough friendship in real life that it translates on the screen, but there’s such a stellar comedy rapport that just putting them together and letting them be terrible and funny almost always leads to great stuff. Their brutally misguided attempts to “train” Charlie by getting drunk and bashing him with stuff is a comedic highlight, and the resolution, that Mac has to step in and Dennis bets against him, with Mac leaving him to the mugger when they get found out, is tops.
The other story, with Frank training Dee in boxing as a means of self-defense, pays some good comedy dividends as well. Frank’s utter misguidedness in his training leads to some funny lines (which reminded me, of all things, of Homer’s exercise advice to Kim Bassinger). Dee taking steroids and getting angry and unstable led to some funny bits as well. And Frank inadvertently causing a Million Dollar Baby situation and then just getting the hell out of there was an amusingly farcical note to end on.
But man, the montage! Using “You’re the Best Around” is a cliché, but it totally works for the bonkers “training” Dee and Charlie are doing, and the fact that it leads to them butting heads, scaring off a random dude, and going to jail is great. Super funny episode that embraces the silliness of the movie genre its parodying and takes it to the show’s typical absurd extremes.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-04-09T18:04:32Z
[8.7/10] I love this show’s sense of farce. Doing a parody of Million Dollar Baby and Fight Club and Rocky and boxing movies of all stripes, in the most ridiculous tones possible, is a winning formula. I enjoyed the various stories and homages, and how they all came together in the right way.
For one thing, the trio of Mac, Dennis, and Charlie is just a recipe for success. I don’t know if it’s the three of them having a close enough friendship in real life that it translates on the screen, but there’s such a stellar comedy rapport that just putting them together and letting them be terrible and funny almost always leads to great stuff. Their brutally misguided attempts to “train” Charlie by getting drunk and bashing him with stuff is a comedic highlight, and the resolution, that Mac has to step in and Dennis bets against him, with Mac leaving him to the mugger when they get found out, is tops.
The other story, with Frank training Dee in boxing as a means of self-defense, pays some good comedy dividends as well. Frank’s utter misguidedness in his training leads to some funny lines (which reminded me, of all things, of Homer’s exercise advice to Kim Bassinger). Dee taking steroids and getting angry and unstable led to some funny bits as well. And Frank inadvertently causing a Million Dollar Baby situation and then just getting the hell out of there was an amusingly farcical note to end on.
But man, the montage! Using “You’re the Best Around” is a cliché, but it totally works for the bonkers “training” Dee and Charlie are doing, and the fact that it leads to them butting heads, scaring off a random dude, and going to jail is great. Super funny episode that embraces the silliness of the movie genre its parodying and takes it to the show’s typical absurd extremes.