Steve Martin was awarded the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Award last weekend, recognizing his life achievements in comedy (and certainly not just to help promote his new movie “Shopgirl”).
There’s no denying that he changed the face of comedy in the late 1970s with his albums, “SNL” appearances, and arena-sized comedy shows. He also had a good 13-year run of movies (1979-92), including “The Jerk,” “The Man With Two Brains,” “All of Me,” “Roxanne,” “Planes Trains & Automobiles,” “Parenthood,” “LA Story,” and “Leap of Faith.”
But the last 14 years haven’t been as kind — for every “Spanish Prisoner” or “Bowfinger,” there’s a “Mixed Nuts” and “Bringing Down The House.” Then there are those miserable remakes of “Father of the Bride,” “Cheaper By The Dozen,” “The Out-of-Towners,” and the execrable “Sgt. Bilko.”
I wonder how many of those were mentioned at the Kennedy Center ceremony and will end up on the edited telecast next month.