IHAO on ... Leonard Part 6

I've found in the past, doing video reviews, that reviewing good movies was the hardest thing to do.  It was hard to find things that were funny, entertaining, and actually critical to talk about.  And in written reviews, this is similar, though not quite as hard.  No, writing written reviews of terrible movies is much harder.  You may think "what are you talking about, just rip it a new one!"  But I'm trying to avoid hyperbole and trashing of films, and trying to be actually critical.  I want to be made aware that a film fails on a bunch of levels, and why.

I say all that because Leonard Part 6 is easily the worst movie I've ever seen that I also like the least.  Some movies make me angrier.  Some movies are objectively worse.  But Leonard Part 6 is a failure that I absolutely hate.  It was awful in almost every regard, with the lead song and two jokes being the only saving graces of this terrible James Bond parody film.

Leonard Part 6 is a film so notoriously terrible that Bill Cosby, star and producer and story-writer, told people after making it to avoid seeing it.  He wanted no one to see this film.  Cosby was box office poison, and this film just continued to cement that fact.  The premise of the film is that a retired CIA operative is called back in to stop an evil group of vegetarians from brainwashing animals and using them to kill other CIA operatives.  And what is terrible is that it SOUNDS like it could have been funny.

I watched the movie with a roommate, and he said described the film perfectly: "It's like ... they are trying so hard on the jokes, and they aren't good ... they are just so cute."  This film endeared itself to him, which is great.  I'm a big fan of films that are terrible but you love, like Barbarian Queen or The Room for me.  But Leonard Part 6 to me is just ... well, it is just this reaction over and over.

Every single bit of comedy comes from a place that seems like they knew what they were doing with jokes, but almost none of them work.  They are too subtle or just don't actually have a punchline or are so into themselves they just continue to circle on themselves over and over.  Here's a great example.  In a briefing sequence, there is a chair that is a little too far out, right next to Leonard.  And every time someone walks by it, they trip a little.  Just a stumble.  That's the joke.

That reaction is how I felt with EVERYTHING.  When the ex-wife tries to make nice and offer Leonard food, she just poors it on him because she is subconsciously still furious with him.

There is a 2 and a half minute long montage that uses bloopers from previous scenes, and culminates in a joke where Leonard went through all his ties before settling on one of the last 5 for his suit.  Yeah, that was the punchline, that he was finally happy with one of the last six.

The movie has a lot of long boring non-joke scenes as well, which makes the film almost unwatchable.  I would not recommend ... but it could be really entertaining for a group get together to just watch something absolutely terrible.  Because that is what this is.

Grade: F--