Dealin’ With Idiots

MPAA Rated – Not Rated
It’s 1:27 Long
A Review by:
The Dude on the Right

Dealin’ With Idiots
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Jeff Garlin, Nia Vardalos, Bob Odenkirk, Gina Gershon, Timothy Olyphant, J.B. Smoove, Jami Gertz
MPAA Rated: Not rated.
Released By: IFC Films
Release Date: November 12, 2013
Kiddie Movie: Lots of adult humor and some swearing. Put them to bed.
Date Movie: My wife liked the parts she didn’t sleep through.
Gratuitous Sex: Nothing gratuitous.
Gratuitous Violence: Nah.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: I chuckled and laughed from start to finish.
Memorable Scene: Hans running the bases.
Memorable Quote: She’s just a big bowl of “Dear God!”
Directed By: Jeff Garlin
Cool things about the DVD: Nothing.

During “Dealin’ With Idiots” there is a point in the movie when one of the characters is intrigued that Max (Jeff Garlin) will be making a documentary about their little league baseball team, even though Max’s intention is to make a comedy based on the various “characaters/parents” at his son’s events. The thing is, after watching the movie, it might as well have been a documentary instead of a comedy because sure, maybe the character antics are dialed up a notch or two, but if you have ever been to a little league game lately, or heard the stories, I’m guessing the difference between the “real” and the “comedy” isn’t much different.

Let’s get to the movie…

Max is a comedian. He’s kind of famous, or at least he says he is up there in the top twenty of comedians. He’s also having some father/son bonding by hanging with his son, Jack (Max Wright), at his little league games and practices. While in the stands, watching the various parents, he sees comedy gold in a movie based on the parents. With his new-found inspiration, Max decides he needs to do his research by interviewing the various parents, finding out what makes them tick so to speak, all the while reflecting in a series of “moments” with his own father, about raising a son and baseball.

Max begins his research, and we are taken deeper into the lives of the parents and the coaches, finding out things like Coach Ted (J.B. Smoove) lives quirkingly in a trailer park with his own odd groups of friends and their “book” club, that Coach Jimbo (Bob Odenkirk) runs a printing shop and doesn’t follow his own coaching advice, and Hezekiah (Steve Agee) decides to do research of his own in order to write his own movie about little league baseball. I’d say it would be easy to round out the rest of the “idiots,” but that might ruin the movie.  Let’s just says there are lesbians with wonderful parenting advice (Mom: “What does mommy always tell you?” Son: “Go big or go home?” Mom: “Don’t fuck up.”, a “She’s just a big bowl of ‘Dear God’” nanny, the self-proclaimed “Team Mom” who keeps asking for donations and doesn’t know her husband subscribes to S.O.F. (Soldier of Fortune), and Marty (the always great Fred Willard) who has the coolest chair ever, shaped like a baseball mitt. And, of course, there is the normal mom, Max’s wife Ava (Nia Vardalos), who becomes just like the rest of them when it’s time for the game that can take the team to the playoffs.

The movie plays out like a Christopher Guest mockumentary (think “Best in Show”), with Max “interviewing” everyone, but it also has a touching side with the moments of Max and his father (Timothy Olyphant), and with that comment, if you like the “Best in Show” style of humor, or “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for that matter, you will probably like the movie. Me, I found it a quirky and funny look at the nuttiness that can be the parents involved with their children and their sports, and I’m also thinking if you like baseball, and you aren’t one of the “idiots” at your kid’s events, you will find the movie funny. If, however, you are the “idiot,” you will probably wonder, “What’s so funny?”

My wife, who was dead tired and fell asleep while we watched the movie, said, “What I saw was pretty good.” Me, I kept laughing and chuckling throughout the entire film, trying not to wake her. I was originally going to go with 3 ½ stars out of 5, but then I remembered one scene with Hans (Robert  de Keyser) and it made me remember a time we almost got our buddy, Big Cooter, to run around a baseball field during a game, and I’ve got to up the rating a bit. With that it’s 4 stars out of 5 for “Dealin’ With Idiots.” Hopefully you’re not one of the “idiots.”

And, oh yea, I almost forgot the antics of the nutty assistant (there’s an extra scene at the end of the credits – kind of weird), so yes, it’s a solid 4 stars for me.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Epic Movie

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:26 Long
A Review by:
The Dude on the Right

Epic Movie
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Jayma Mays, Faune A. Chambers, Crispin Glover, Darrell Hammond, Carmen Electra, Fred Willard
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 2007
Kiddie Movie: Lots of “shits” and killing the “White Bitch.”
Date Movie: Only if she’s 16 and easily amused.
Gratuitous Sex: Carmen Electra was hot as Mystique.
Gratuitous Violence: There’s some fighting. They are trying to kill the “White Bitch.”
Action: Nah.
Laughs: A few.
Memorable Scene: Nothing in particular.
Memorable Quote: Nah.
Directed By: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer

As I was sitting, waiting for “Epic Movie” to start, I saw what I’m assuming was a mom with four girls that looked to be about the age of ten. By the end of the film I wondered if she second-guessed her choice of bringing those girls to a movie where the main goal of the movie was to kill the “White Bitch.” And yes, that was the name of the character, not her nickname.

Alright, I won’t give too much of a synopsis for “Epic Movie” because pretty much it follows along the “Scary Movie” franchise of spoofing other films, but sadly, it doesn’t do it very well. The main course of this movie is “The Chronicles of Narnia,” where for “Epic Movie” we get the quartet of Kal Penn (poking fun at himself in his Kumar days) as Edward, Adam Campbell as Peter, Jayma Mays as Lucy, and Faune A. Chambers as Susan, set in the land of Gnarnia (the “G” is silent), where they have to kill the White Bitch (Jennifer Coolidge), a.k.a. Stifler’s Mom, which Edward quickly points out when he first sees her. Our quartet of kids (even though they are in their late 20’s or 30) start as orphans who each find a golden ticket, ala “Willy Wonka,” where a demented Willy (Crispin Glover) torments the kids. Of course the kids find the wardrobe, make their way to Gnarnia, and find out their true destiny.

Oh hell, that’s enough of the synopsis because sadly the movie isn’t creative, at all, in spoofing the movies it tries to. Case in point: For whatever reason, Susan is on a plane that gets infested by snakes, and the fake Samuel L. Jackson keeps spouting the “get the snakes off the plane” line, throws Susan off the plane, where Susan proceeds to break her fall by landing on the fake “Paris Hilton.” Rather than trying to truly intertwine the movies it was spoofing into some sort of cohesive story, “Epic Movie” just seems to take a scene, and haphazardly make fun of it. And maybe the movie folks were trying to be funny by not even trying to cover-up the fact that Fred Willard, as Aslo, wasn’t really doing the fighting, but I guess I missed the joke.

There were a couple of funny things in the movie, but none to really warrant any kind of recommendation to see it other than maybe running across it on cable. And parents, there is something you have to remember about a PG-13 movie: You may only be able to say the “F” word one time, but killing the “White Bitch” and saying “shit” can happen pretty much all the filmmakers want. And, oh yea, sexual innuendo (in this case pretty bad sexual innuendo), can be pretty rampant, too. It’s 1 star out of 5 for “Epic Movie.”

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Best in Show

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:30 Long
A Review by:
The Dude on the Right

Best in Show
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Parker Posey, Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Warner Bros.
Kiddie Movie: Not too young.
Date Movie: If she’s a dog person.
Gratuitous Sex: Just talk.
Gratuitous Violence: Nah.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: I almost laughed my butt off!
Memorable Scene: The entire dog show competition.
Memorable Quote: Too Many to quote.
Directed By: Christopher Guest

If you are a dog owner, a dog lover, or just really like dogs, I implore you to see “Best in Show.” You will probably find it one of the funniest movies of all time. If you are a cat lover, got bit by a dog as a small child, are deathly afraid of them, or don’t really like dogs, I can still recommend “Best in Show” as a funny movie, but you just might not get it.

“Best in Show” is kinda a mockumentary about, well, a dog show, and some of the contestants vying for the prize. We get introduced to a Florida couple bringing their terrier. She used to sleep with everyone and he has two left feet, literally, but they love each other and their dog. We also meet a fishing shop owner who really wants to be a ventriloquist and owns a cool bloodhound. There’s also the neurotic weimaraner owners whose dog is traumatized by seeing his owners do it, well, doggy style, and gay couple with their Shih Tzu, and the Nicole Smith-like with the standard poodle. We get their initial stories, their trips to the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia (where our Florida folks are looking forward to see where they make cream cheese), and of course, the dog show.

And it is at the dog show where I nearly bust a gut as sports-style commentator Buck (Fred Willard) trades every sexual innuendo and lewd comment he can with Trevor (Jim Piddock), the dog expert who can’t be shaken, no matter what Buck says.

“Best in Show” mixes subtle humor (four clocks on the hotel wall showing what time it is in various cities, except all of those cities are on the east coast so they all read the same time) with all-out bust-a-gut humor (Eugene Levy as Gerry Fleck, with two left feet, and nearly every comment by Buck). But a lot of the jokes are about dogs, so unless you are fond of dogs, you may chuckle but you won’t laugh. I laughed my ass off.

I’ll give you two ratings for “Best in Show.” For dog lovers it’s 5 stars out of 5. Just outright hilarious. For cat lovers it’s 3 stars out of 5. You’ll just think we’re nuts.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!