Word: humorless
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...result of their research: the joke below was found to be the world's funniest. But I must have missed that, too. Some 65% of those polled allegedly rated this joke "very funny" or "funny." I couldn't rouse a chuckle. A little worried that I might be a humorless freak, I decided to call psychologist Richard Wiseman. He had to be able to help: he led the research team that, after a grueling year of joke collecting, online surveying and number crunching - 2 million ratings from people in 70 countries - uncovered this alleged gem along with all kinds...
...reputation dipped following his 1944 death and the rise of modernism, a new generation of critics has discovered the enduring beauty of his creations. Shy, reluctant to face facts, indifferent to his children and driven by his work, Ned Lutyens never taught his wife to understand his architecture. The humorless Emily, meanwhile, showed no interest in her husband's work and was unable to persuade him that any of her passions - literature, feminism, theosophy (an occult religion), pacifism - was worthwhile. Her "litany of grievances" began on her honeymoon and never ceased. Sex was an issue from day one and came...
...Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi--the two that Lucas didn't direct. That may be the bargain a director makes when he goes over to the digital side. He can animate a pixel but not a Portman. An often enchanting presence, the young star is stiff and humorless here. Christensen has to carry the emotional load. And he does a fine job: his Anakin is both a petulant, impetuous boy and a young man with an appraising stare. He suggests a mind eager for action, restless and conflicted, ready to turn--as Anakin will next time--into Darth...
...work may have more soul than substance. And sometimes even his fellow liberals sell out to The Man, as The New Republic did in 1995 when its Leon Wieseltier famously called West’s work “almost completely worthless...noisy, tedious, slippery, sectarian, humorless, pedantic, and self-endeared...
...choosing to be true to the words, he's made a movie by the numbers. Stopping to admire his film's production design (good work by Stuart Craig), he slows the action down; it's often stodgy, humorless. His reaction shots are clumsy; each gives you just one piece of narrative or emotional information at a time. That doesn't help the three young stars, on whose slim shoulders the whole project rests; they are competent but charisma-free. The film lacks moviemaking buoyancy--the feeling of soaring in space that Rowling's magic-carpet prose gives the reader...