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Brian Jaudon
Reviews
Run Ronnie Run (2002)
Not up to the standards of the TV show, but still pretty funny
"Run Ronnie Run", which has been on the shelf at New Line since being completed nearly two years ago, has been so eagerly anticipated by fans of the cult HBO sketch comedy series that no matter how funny the movie was, it was bound to be a disappointment after such a buildup. Having recently seen the film, I can say that it definitely is not the modern comedy classic that we might have hoped for from Bob and David, but it is still a more consistently funny and clever film than most of what passes for "comedy" in movies today. The main problem is that in transferring Bob and David's style of humor to the necessary limitations of a 90 minute feature film, a lot of the free-association and weird left turns characteristic of Mr. Show had to be toned down. On the show (as in MONTY PYTHON before them), sketches could blend into each other, start and stop and start again, characters from another sketch could wander in to comment on the proceedings, etc. When you're telling a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end, and focusing on basically one character throughout, the results are obviously going to be a lot more stereotypical. As it turns out, the best and funniest moments of RRR are those moments where the film does stop to go off on extraneous tangents that have little to do with the main storyline: the Jack Black musical number, the "gay conspiracy" scene, the Three Times One Minus One music video. The rest of the movie, while frequently amusing, just doesn't seem to have the Mr. Show "feel" to it that one would expect, at times seeming more like a "Joe Dirt"-ish Saturday Night Live spinoff. The delay in releasing the movie has caused some of the jokes to lose their freshness as well; at one time a "Survivor" parody would have seemed the height of cleverness, but now it just seems stale. Again, this is not really Bob and David's fault, but it doesn't help the chances that this film will ever get a theatrical release. Nevertheless, the movie does have some good honest laughs, and I wish Bob and David success on their next theatrical venture (I for one hope their "Hooray for America" script sees the light of day someday). I hope that in the future that studio meddling does not result in the watering down of their true vision, but I fear this may be the case.
Frank McKlusky, C.I. (2002)
Goofy, "Ace Ventura"-style fun
I guess I am the only person to see this movie. I think it's only playing in about 10 markets right now, all of them in Florida. I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would from the ads- the star, Dave Sheridan, is a very funny comedian who is an alumnus of Second City and appeared in small roles in "Scary Movie" and "Ghost World". He is reminiscent of a young Jim Carrey in the role of the helmet-sporting Frank McKlusky. During the movie, he dons several "disguises" that are pretty funny- the female gymnast scene probably being the best of the bunch. For some reason, there were a lot of '80s references in this movie too- from Scott Baio to Willie Tyler and Lester to ALF (ok, a poster of ALF on a wall in one scene), there are a lot of cult icons in this movie that give it a kitsch status. Cameos by funny people like Saturday Night Live's Tracy Morgan and an embarrassed-looking Andy Richter help make it watchable too. In fact, I think this is probably the single weirdest cast ever assembled for one movie- and wait until you see female wrestler Chyna in her assortment of "sexy" outfits throughout the film.
So if it is playing in your area, take a chance on this movie and you might just get some laughs out of it. Or look for it on video in a few weeks where I am sure it will soon appear. Maybe next time Sheridan will be given a chance rather than having his movie dumped into a handful of theaters with little promotion.