Arrested Development may finally get one in the can
Publication date: Feb 7, 2008 4:04:57 PM
Could there be an Arrested Development movie in the near future? The New York Post certainly thinks so. I miss that show like a fat guy misses his johnson, but I’m honestly not sure if I really want to see that exercise in bizarre, Freudian (but painfully funny) free-association compressed into a 2-hour feature film.The humor in the eccentric rich family who suddenly lost it all came from about about 60 percent story, sexual innuendo, ironic narration, and slapstick. The other 40 percent was how the show would repeat or reference the same gags across 53 episodes. It was fantastic if you managed to follow Fox’s arbitrary airings of new episodes (or simply bought the DVDs), but it ultimately made the series impenetrable to new audiences and arguably led to its downfall. So the movie will either keep repeating those inside jokes, which probably feels tired by now to even loyal AD fans, or will try to reel in a new movie-going audience by attempting to put every reference in context, which will surely deflate any inherent comedy.Of course, another problem was that Arrested Development, like The Office, is set up as kind of a mock reality show. And with the exception of The Real Cancun, there are no reality movies. (I’m sure if you saw The Real Cancun – admittedly, I never bothered – you understand why that is.) The AD movie might be better off if instead of rehashing low-budget reality TV conventions, the writers made it more like a real film documentary. Those things have become such awards whores since Michael Moore struck box office and critical gold, they’re ripe for a send-up. (King of Kong was awesome, though.) [And they're making a fictionalized version of KOK, right? -the editors]
That said, if they did produce an Arrested Development movie, you better Goddamn well believe that I would be there on opening night. That show can zing its arrow into my buttocks anytime.
In the meantime, former Arrested Development star Michael Cera, he of recent best picture nominee Juno, is available and willing to be in your viral internet video. Here he is reenacting the death of Alexander Hamilton, and here’s a hilariously awkward interview with Zach Galifianakis. Okay, that’s only two videos, but I swear it feels like that kid is everywhere these days.
