Since a private advance screening of The Hunted I went to yesterday was cancelled, I decided to go see Notorious C.H.O. at the ghetto fabulous UA theater down the street. Rotten Tomatoes had some pretty decent things to say about it, and I usually find Ms. Cho to be pretty funny.
The movie begins with a poorly animated short (with live lip-sync a la Conan O'Brien's talking heads) about how Koreans and Black people should stop hating each other and "hate white people instead." The scenario is more of a public service announcement suggesting how a Black man should walk into a convenience store and order Funyuns without getting shot by the "slant-eyed ching chong."
If the preceding seems like it could even REMOTELY offend you, you'd be ill-advised to continue reading this review, much less see the movie. The short is merely a teaspoon-full of the 55-gallon drum of profoundly bad taste and flaming bile of wicked commentary that lurches forth from Margaret Cho's mouth during her two-hour stand up comedy routine that follows.
To me this routine, Cho's 2nd to be made into a movie, shows that she's comfortable with her level of fame (especially among the "alternative" crowd) but still waiting to make that leap from "big" to "huge" (and I'm not talking about her waistline
). Still, she does manage to fill up Seattle's Paramount theater and keep a good portion of the crowd laughing during the better part of her act. Judging from the reactions of my fellow moviegoers, she has no problem in getting people to double over in both laughter and repulsion as well. At any given time throughout the film, the majority of the 20 people watching the movie were either choking on their laughs or cringing at Cho's graphic mental imagery, most of it involves issues too risque or atrocious for me to discuss here.
Indeed, repulsion is the order of the day in Cho's house, as she brings up a plethora of issues ranging from colon hydrotherapy to gay marriage to menstruation to fisti...er..."alternative sexual activities." As can probably be inferred, most of her rants are related either to sex or some part of the female anatomy. If it makes you squeamish to hear a girl talk about her cycle, you'll most likely vomit when Cho brings it up in her own blunt style. If you're not familiar with the nature of the Cho, cross a drunken redneck trucker with an oversexed frat boy, and make him talk about those "issues" that women bring up when no guys are around. I can imagine the only proper reaction at this point is ":Q". The ferocity and lack of concern for the fragile-minded with which Cho brings up such subjects are what makes the show such a riot to watch.
To sum up, Notorious C.H.O. is a shocking, vile, auto-da-fé of good taste...and certainly not for the squeamish or for the unitiated; new recruits are highly suggested to prime themselves with one of the comedienne's tamer HBO specials instead of diving headfirst into this cesspool of locker room humor. It is, however, very much worth the matinee price of admission at a second-run / indie theater if you're already a "Chonie," if you want to be thoroughly revolted, or if you want to permanently warp the mind of a younger sibling.
amnesiac 2.0's rating: :Q:Q:Q / :Q:Q:Q:Q
The movie begins with a poorly animated short (with live lip-sync a la Conan O'Brien's talking heads) about how Koreans and Black people should stop hating each other and "hate white people instead." The scenario is more of a public service announcement suggesting how a Black man should walk into a convenience store and order Funyuns without getting shot by the "slant-eyed ching chong."
If the preceding seems like it could even REMOTELY offend you, you'd be ill-advised to continue reading this review, much less see the movie. The short is merely a teaspoon-full of the 55-gallon drum of profoundly bad taste and flaming bile of wicked commentary that lurches forth from Margaret Cho's mouth during her two-hour stand up comedy routine that follows.
To me this routine, Cho's 2nd to be made into a movie, shows that she's comfortable with her level of fame (especially among the "alternative" crowd) but still waiting to make that leap from "big" to "huge" (and I'm not talking about her waistline
). Still, she does manage to fill up Seattle's Paramount theater and keep a good portion of the crowd laughing during the better part of her act. Judging from the reactions of my fellow moviegoers, she has no problem in getting people to double over in both laughter and repulsion as well. At any given time throughout the film, the majority of the 20 people watching the movie were either choking on their laughs or cringing at Cho's graphic mental imagery, most of it involves issues too risque or atrocious for me to discuss here.Indeed, repulsion is the order of the day in Cho's house, as she brings up a plethora of issues ranging from colon hydrotherapy to gay marriage to menstruation to fisti...er..."alternative sexual activities." As can probably be inferred, most of her rants are related either to sex or some part of the female anatomy. If it makes you squeamish to hear a girl talk about her cycle, you'll most likely vomit when Cho brings it up in her own blunt style. If you're not familiar with the nature of the Cho, cross a drunken redneck trucker with an oversexed frat boy, and make him talk about those "issues" that women bring up when no guys are around. I can imagine the only proper reaction at this point is ":Q". The ferocity and lack of concern for the fragile-minded with which Cho brings up such subjects are what makes the show such a riot to watch.
To sum up, Notorious C.H.O. is a shocking, vile, auto-da-fé of good taste...and certainly not for the squeamish or for the unitiated; new recruits are highly suggested to prime themselves with one of the comedienne's tamer HBO specials instead of diving headfirst into this cesspool of locker room humor. It is, however, very much worth the matinee price of admission at a second-run / indie theater if you're already a "Chonie," if you want to be thoroughly revolted, or if you want to permanently warp the mind of a younger sibling.
amnesiac 2.0's rating: :Q:Q:Q / :Q:Q:Q:Q
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