Monday, May 9, 2016

Film Review - Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead (2015)

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead is a documentary about the history of National Lampoon magazine beginning with its origins at Harvard University and its eventual success into the mainstream.

I had a lot of fun watching this doco, the origins of the magazine were done in a very interesting way and I thought it handled the ups and downs of its success very well, it was also great to hear from people like Al Jean and Mike Reiss, Judd Apatow, Chevy Chase and John Landis among others especially as they started to branch out into Radio and Film.

One other thing that came to mind as I watched it was that so much of the comedy they did you would probably never get away with today though some of it particularly from the Apatow group does have some of that rambling feel that is talked about in regards to the magazine in the doco and there is also some wonderful tribute footage of John Belushi who died in 1982.

The doco also nicely covers the making of Animal House, Caddyshack and the first Vacation though part of me wishes it had delved more into those more but I can see why it didn't as it would've thrown the doco off course.

And so that was Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead a very good doco that is worth watching, 3 and a half out of 5.

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