I don’t know what it is about Jack Black, he tries too hard to be funny and falls flat. I don’t think I could name anything of his I’ve found to be particularly amusing or enjoyable. His “TT” character was just grating. I even thought Robert Downey, Jr.’s performance was not as good as made out to be (certainly not groundbreaking) and only had a few sporadic laughs. I couldn’t believe he received an Oscar nomination for it. The film itself sounded like a good idea in theory and perhaps on paper, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Satires are REALLY hard to do (think of a film like Paddy Chayevsky’s “Network”, which is probably one of the best ever done, predicting too well of the decline of network tv from the ‘70s onward).
I was thinking of other so-called comedians today, and although he is a very polarizing figure on FR, with folks either loving or hating him, I rather like Sasha Baron Cohen (Borat), but he just ain’t for the kiddies.
Eddie Murphy, Jeff Foxworthy and Steve Martin seem to me to be good examples of decent contemporary comedians. (Well, maybe Steve Martin transcends generational-classification?)
I liked Jack Black in this film. It's about the only one