Funny Bones (1995)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Sorry, this movie sucks

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The reviews so far give it away. I have read most of them and virtually all are positive.This is a film with many hidden messages and themes. I will leave the viewer to discover these at his leisure. Suffice it to say that the overall theme is a sort of dark comedy with unexpected and unconventional twists and turns, and tremendous performances by the actors. Oliver Platt is at his best, Jerry Lewis is himself (!) and Lee Evans is nothing less than sublime. And the rest of the cast do pretty well, too.This film leaves a lasting impression, and should not be missed by serious movie-lovers.

After reading most of the comments on this film, I feel relieved. When I saw it the first time in cinema, I really liked it, so I persuaded some friends o see it too. They were disappointed. All others I talked to about this film were not liking it too. I thought I may be the only one to find it a brilliant, deep movie but here I find more of my kind.What makes the movie so outstanding in my opinion, is the fact that it is none of Hollywood's favourite genres...in fact it can't even be categorized to one genre or two. Adding to it there is no small criticism about today's comedy and entertainment culture and how our modern society treats people not fitting in so well.All this is wrapped in a more than bizarre story about some mystic elixir hidden in wax eggs,french mariners, American comedians, family secrets, a long lost glamorous time of vaudevillian entertainment and two guys on the search of their role in life.One is Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt) the rising star of stand up comedy, son of a comedy great. Overcome with self doubt and after getting his spotlight stolen by his father, he begins looking for the heart of comedy in Blackpool, England. Many may not know this, but Blackpool, like Brighton, was once the center of cabaret and varieté culture in England. Platt delivers a great performance (I should say as often, because that he does) as the self-doubting comedian, who thinks he cannot be funny anymore.But what he lacks in comedian talent, he has in social talent. He is a natural leader and charismatic person.Then there is Jack, a guy who is born to a family of entertainers, too. He is a natural comedian, in such an extreme that he cannot interact with society on a normal level. He has somewhat of a dark past, but that gets apparent during the movie. Jack is played by Lee Evans, and this boy is FABULOUS! Look at his Radioman performance and tell me you did not laugh...i call you a liar.Both actors are surrounded by a more than strong supporting cast including Jerry Lewis, Leslie Caron and Oliver Reed.Together with its almost hauntingly sublime and beautiful cinematography this film becomes a very clever and deep movie about character development.My advice: Rent it, see it and make your own opinion. You may be disappointed, since this is not a movie for everyone. But if you like it, you will appreciate it the more.

I agree that the marketing is completely wrong. Funny bones IS a funny film (extremely funny), but it is a humour which has its routes firmly set in the tragedy of life. George Carl's only speech in the film is deliberately emphasised (His illustration that the tragedies which befall their family are the dark canvas against which the laughter and joy become brighter is deliberately given poignancy by him being the silent role up until then).This assertion is the very basis of the film. Comedy is rooted in the fear of tragedy. The film is about this tragic aspect of comedy. Tommy Fawkes is a privileged son living an extremely comfortable life yet is not inherently funny despite all the money and effort thrown into his act; his step brother (Lee Evans) has a life of almost unbearable tragedy and yet exudes comedy from every pore - he has Funny Bones.This film is beautifully set, acted and conceived. Everything from the astonishing ensemble performances, the exceptional script, the sublime choice of music through to the totally bizarre (and yet perfect) choice of cinematic angles all help portray the tragedy and comedy in their natural state; as two sides of one whole.Brilliant film.. terribly terribly marketed.

Not really a comedy - more a surreal, sometimes weirdly comic piece about comedians, about families, about the awfulness of having a famous father, about genius, about the problem of what makes a comic funny, about the sublime sadness of failure. Lee Evans is absolutely haunting as the tortured comic genius, the natural comic who is so purely a comedian that he can barely communicate except in gags, yet who will never be allowed to perform in public because of his dark past. Leslie Caron is heart-rending as his mother, a brave, faded French beauty stranded for ever singing mildly risque songs in Blackpool pubs, and their tender scenes together are for me the best thing in the whole film.The whole cast is incredible...right down to Oliver Reed camping it up gloriously in a bizarre sub-plot which at first I thought might be part of the Evans' character's fevered imagination. It is a movie absolutely crammed with magic but in one of my favourite scenes, Oliver Platt arrives in Blackpool and instantly sees it peopled with characters from Donald McGill postcards - fat ladies, saucy girls with flouncy skirts, burly men. The ending is a bit wonky and looks to my eye to have been changed from a tragic one to a "happy" one to please audiences. In the two opening sequences, both Evans and Platt utter the words "I'm going to die" in very different circumstances, and mean very different things, and other variations on the theme of death and laughter follow - all this seemed to be pointing down a much darker alleyway than the one we got. Doesn't matter, though. Still a great movie.