Word: comically
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...approach used to paint this depressing picture is straightforward narrative, an approach apparently out of style these days. Woodward, quite simply, wants to let the facts speak for themselves, and he describes in generally chronological order Belushi's rise from a Wheaton, III high-school wimderkind to ace comic of Chicago's comedy troupe Second City, to blubbering star of NBC's Saturday Night Live, to the mega-star of Animal House and half (with partner Dan Ackroyd) of the Blues Brothers, and finally to his death...
...such new categories as arrests, court cases and resignations have been added. The column's length, however, has remained about the same, as have the extreme compression of the form and the sometimes ingenious portmanteau descriptives. Dinah Shore was once referred to as a "scorch singer," Silent Film Comic Harry Langdon as a "deadpantomimer," and Mickey Rooney as a "Hardy family perennial." No longer in use are the TIME-coined neologisms that once peppered the section, such as "socialite," "tennist" (tennis player) and the myriad variations on "cinemactor/tress," such as "cinecomedienne," "cinemoppet" and "cinemingenue...
...ghost wranglers, the pair played by Writers Aykroyd and Ramis are sweetly earnest about their calling, and gracious about giving the picture to their co-star Bill Murray. He obviously (and wisely) regards Dr. Peter Venkman as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop fully his patented comic character...
These spectacular confrontations are well handled by Director Reitman, who always finds the time for the funny aside, the wittily telling detail. He and the visual-effects director, Richard Edlund, also have the sense to let the special effects look just a little tacky, so they provide a comic comment on all the ghoulie-ghostie movies we have been asked to suspend disbelief for in recent years. Whoever thought of having evil's final manifestation take the form of a 100-ft. marshmallow deserves the rational mind's eternal gratitude. But praise is due to everyone connected with...
...rock-'n'-roll comedic sensibility. He was a volatile combination of Lou Costello and Vlad the Impaler, a performer with a wide appeal but a narrow range, whose talent could ignite television sketches but was quickly being tapped out in movies. He did not have the generative comic gifts of an Albert Brooks, say, or an Andy Kaufman, but he had a gruff, tough persona that exuded phantom wisps of tenderness and set him quite apart. He was the most intriguing of the Saturday Night troupe even as he was demolishing a set with his samurai sword...