When a joke doesn’t work the first time, the filmmakers tend to repeat it ad infinitum, hoping that it will reach the viewer through mere repetition – sort of like an obnoxious ring tone you keep hearing in your head even after shutting your phone off. Trying to dish out at least one joke every thirty seconds, Adams and company go to great lengths in their quest for laughter, with lots of expensive f/x-driven gags (magic carpets hotwired like cars), requisite pranks involving the star’s hair (which continues to be his principal attraction, and is seen here in both frizzy and blow-out form) and a number of lewd stabs at sex comedy (including one scene where Benzaquen, who plays an overtly gay magician, jabs his index finger into Adams’ ear, in a bizarre form of man-on-man molestation).Īll of this is meant to bring Aladdin/Adams down to earth during the final act, with a morale that amounts to: “the best one can wish for is to be oneself.” But the journey that takes us there is both tiresome and redundant, sometimes excruciatingly so.
Along the way, he faces the wrath of the evil Vizir ( Jean-Paul Rouve), while reconnecting with his partner-in-crime, Khalid (Lebghil, again), who winds up caught in the palace intrigues of the reigning sultan ( Michel Blanc). There, the titular street thief and shyster (also played by Adams) goes through the usual ropes of the plot, uncovering a magic lamp and a genie ( Eric Judor) granting him not three but five wishes, which Aladdin uses to win over the beautiful princess, Shallia ( Vanessa Guide). Nor is humor, for that matter.) Before the heist can happen, Sam gets ambushed by a bunch of kids begging for a holiday story, and so, he launches into an improvised version of the Aladdin tale, whisking us away to an imaginary Baghdad straight out of a CG picture book. (Don’t ask how or why – plausibility is not Adams’ forte.
#Adventures of aladin serial
(One character is constantly referred to as a “limp d-k,” while a princess in a summer dress is told her “tit is sticking out.”) It’s a silly, pricey and ultimately vulgar affair that should continue Adams’ winning streak in Gaul (his summer comedy, Serial Teachers 2, has made over $30 million), but won’t find many takers outside the French-speaking desert.įramed by a semi-clever narrative device set in the present, the film begins and ends with a pair of losers – Sam (Adams) and Khalid ( William Lebghil) – working as department store rent-a-Santas on Christmas Eve, although their real plan is to rob the place once the doors shut for the evening. Like other homegrown commercial comedies, Aladdin – which was directed by co-star Arthur Benzaquen and written by Daive Cohen ( The Date Coach) – often toes the line between broadly dumbed down entertainment and slightly transgressive adult fare, hitting below the belt as much as possible in order to score easy laughs.
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