Forget The Golden Compass! If you want to see a movie questioning the significance of religious belief watch The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais, who stars in it, produced and directed it.

Gervais is the first and only person living in a world where everybody can only tell the truth, who discovers he can lie. At the moment his mother is dying he decides to tell her about afterlife—obviously, he is lying. Others accidentally overhear him as he describes the pleasures of living in heaven and insist to know more. I’ll stop here.

Not exactly a Woody Allen movie, nevertheless, worth watching.

I’m waiting for it to come on InDemand for free here on Comcast cable. The premise sounds hilarious and it is refreshing to see such a topic can be parodied in a movie. I’m sure there will be protests.  Also, I think the guy is funny, although he got panned for his Golden Globe hosting (I don’t think McCartney liked the jokes about him too much).

Do you like Flight of the Concords, or the old 1990s Mr. Show?

UlsterScots432 - 24 January 2010 03:45 PM

Do you like Flight of the Concords, or the old 1990s Mr. Show?

Sorry, I have never seen those.

Also, I was hoping Gervais’s movie would have been a bit wittier. I think he could have done much better, but maybe he was trying to attract a larger audience.

George - 24 January 2010 04:39 PM

UlsterScots432 - 24 January 2010 03:45 PM

Do you like Flight of the Concords, or the old 1990s Mr. Show?

Sorry, I have never seen those.

Also, I was hoping Gervais’s movie would have been a bit wittier. I think he could have done much better, but maybe he was trying to attract a larger audience.

I just saw him in a movie the other night, although I cannot remember the title, it’s the one with the folks from BEST IN SHOW, and A MIGHTY WIND…it’s about the making of an independent film.  He was pretty good in that one.

Flight of the Conchords is a comedy duo from New Zealand who started out performing songs.  They refer to themselves as “New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk folk duo.”  They parody all kinds of music styles and the live shows are notable for the banter between the two.  They got a special on HBO and then an HBO series where they played 2 struggling musicians in NYC.  They used their songs as part of the plot for the show.

These guys are quite funny and the parody is pretty smart, here’s a good example from the HBO special:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmLHOGT0v4c&feature=related

JRM5001 - 24 January 2010 11:16 PM

Flight of the Conchords is a comedy duo from New Zealand who started out performing songs.  They refer to themselves as “New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk folk duo.”  They parody all kinds of music styles and the live shows are notable for the banter between the two.  They got a special on HBO and then an HBO series where they played 2 struggling musicians in NYC.  They used their songs as part of the plot for the show.

These guys are quite funny and the parody is pretty smart, here’s a good example from the HBO special:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmLHOGT0v4c&feature=related

I think “Jenny” and “if you’re into that kinda thing” or whatever it’s called, are classic.  Kind of humor that is good a few times thru.  There show was ok, nothing spectacular.  If you watch Mr. Show or FOTC, you can see that Python inspired so many.