7 Days in Hell (2015)

I watched Tour de Pharmacy about a month ago and it was hilarious. Cycling will never get as compelling and entertaining as it is in Szymanski's mockumentary. Which is the reason I decided to watch 7 Days in Hell, the previous mockumentary by Szymanski. 

As you probably guessed from the poster, 7 Days in Hell is about tennis, and more specifically about the rivalry between an American tennis player, Aaron Williams (Andy Samberg), and an English tennis player, Charles Poole (Kit Harrington). The main focus of this mockumentary is the 2001 Wimbledon match between the two of them that lasted seven days. 

Just like cycling, tennis is one of those sports that are boring to watch (personally, I love playing tennis but there's nothing worse than watching other people playing it) so making the film more entertaining than the actual sport was pretty easy. And Szymanski didn't miss the easy ball. 

7 Days in Hell is throughout entertaining, it makes fun of the sport and crazy rivalries without being offensive, and it's got an engaging story that is well developed. 

There also are some pretty absurd, eccentric, over-the-top and interesting characters and the actors nail them. Andy Samberg is hilarious as Aaron Williams,  a man with quite a temper who is also Serena and Venus Williams's adopted brother (Serena makes a cameo in this), and Kit Harrington really impressed me as Charles Poole, a not-so-bright momma's boy who is supposed to make Britain proud. I didn't know Harrington could do funny.

HBO Films

That said, 7 Days in Hell is no Tour de Pharmacy. While the latter was hilarious from start to finish, some of the jokes and gags in this mockumentary just didn't work for me. Sometimes I laughed pretty loudly, like when Aaron Williams is snorting cocaine during the match, but sometimes I just had a blank face and couldn't believe that was actually supposed to be funny.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

I was scrolling through Emma Stone's filmography when I first saw Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. It sounded like a really dumb movie from the title and having not heard of it before, I figured she only had a small cameo in it. Turns out I was right, but the film was pretty entertaining so I guess it's a win. 

The film is a mockumentary about Connor 4 Real (Andy Samberg), an internationally renowned pop star who became rich and famous at a young age. He is used to people loving him and his music, but when his new album turns out to be a failure, Connor does everything in his power to maintain his celebrity status. He is really willing to do anything, anything except reuniting with his old rap group, The Style Boyz.

Though it takes a few nice turns, there's nothing surprising or clever about the plot. It couldn't get any more predictable than this, especially at the end, but it's a parody movie, people, and seeing Connor getting himself in such shitty situations is amazing. Also, there are many cameos from real-life celebrities, most of them in the music business, that makes the story more interesting. 

As a parody, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping effectively makes fun of many of nowadays celebrities. It shows the too many benefits these people benefit from due to their celebrity status, how juvenile some of them acts, how absurd fans can be. But it also shows that these people are often surrounded by fake people, fake friends who are by their side only for the money and fame, and how mean people can be/are to celebrities on the internet (I saw an interview with Riccardo Scamarcio a while back, the green-eyed Italian guy in John Wick 2, and he was saying how mean guys were to him on the internet back in 2004 when he became famous, and that toxicity is the reason why he is not on social media).

Universal Pictures

The reason why Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping works so well is Andy Samberg. He brings the right amount of selfishness, superficiality, cluelessness, insecurity and charm to the character of Connor 4 Real, he makes him feel real which eventually will make us root for him. He is fun to watch as the perfectly embodies the kind of self-obsessed guy who is a dick but doesn't even realise it. The rest of the cast is amazing too.

As for the comedy, it does rely on vulgarity at times --it's not like I was expecting something different after seeing the opening credits-- and some of the jokes are cheesy and kind of flat, but overall the jokes are stupid funny. 

Ultimately, this is not the greatest comedy of all times, but it's perfect if you just want to have some good laughs. I almost forgot, the soundtrack is dope 4 real!