A film review by Craig J. Koban |
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BROKEN LIZARD'S CLUB DREAD
2004, R, 103 mins. Coconut Pete: Bill Paxton / Putman: Jay Chandrasekhar / Juan: Steve Lemme / Dave: Paul Soter / Jenny: Britanny Daniel / Sam: Erik Stolhanske / Lars: Kevin Heffernan Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar / Written by Broken Lizard |
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Ouch! How could the same comedy troupe
that gave us the ridiculously funny SUPER TROOPERS provide such a disappointing
follow-up? All the material is
here: laughable and loveable characters, some inspired moments of satire, and a
couple of big, gigantic laughs. I
emphasize “a couple” because the jokes in this one are few and far between,
and I expected a lot more out of Broken Lizard.
Unfortunately, their CLUB DREAD is a real let down. The group’s first film was
uproariously funny, as it poked fun at highway state patrol officers.
It had several classic scenes, as with the one where one patrolman makes
a wager how many times he can say “meow” to a speeder they’ve pulled over,
or yet another where several of the troopers engage in a pancake syrup chugging
contest (“You got to relax your jaw more,” one patrolman advises the
rookie). It also had a funny
performance by team leader Jay Chandrasekhar, whose officer made several funny
hints at his ethnic origins.
But CLUB DREAD is a misfire for
the troupe that looked poised to be a major comedy force.
It’s a largely hit or miss affair, with more jokes and pratfalls that
bomb instead of ones that succeed, and a plot that is all over the map.
Perhaps they were trying to lampoon too many themes at once (i.e. - exotic
resort clubs, slasher flicks, etc), but the film is nevertheless weak and about
a twenty minutes too long. That’s
a shame, because Broken Lizard has talent, they just need to discipline it a bit
more effectively. The basic premise of the film is chuckle inducing. The movie was filmed in Mexico but allegedly set on "Coconut Pete's Pleasure Island" off the coast of Costa Rica, a pleasure palace of exotic locales and events. Oh, it’s also the setting of a mad slasher who’s picking off resort members one by one. C’mon, Broken Lizard, has this genre not been spoofed to death by the SCARY MOVIE franchise already?
Pleasure
Island is run by Coconut Pete (Bill Paxton, in a role that you would think would
inspire big laughs but instills more feelings of embarrassment).
Pete, a long time ago, had a record that was a hit for five minutes. The
record, the very amusingly named "Pina
Colada-burg," reached heights of the charts unseen of before.
Pete’s resort is one of those endless 24/7 orgies of drinking and sex.
The women wear next to nothing, the men are as hornier as ever (and
stoned)…all in all…a well rounded resort if I’ve ever seen one. Unfortunately,
this crazy island has a crazy on it.
A mad slasher makes his presence felt and starts picking off people one
by one, ala I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.
He’s kind of dressed like the slasher from that film, but also looks
like death crossed with the UNDERTAKER. It's
amazing to think, but if you were a made serial killer, would you not want to
dress in the most conspicuous manner possible not to make people recognize
you? Wouldn’t a black outfit and
a ski mask do? The movie is amusing in one respect:
The killer only targets staff members, who make every attempt to conceal the
murders from their paying customers. Clearly,
if the vacationers knew about the mad slasher (like they wouldn’t?) something
like that could spoil a vacation. One amusing moment has an aerobics instructor
trying to flee the murderer in a golf cart, in the least good way to flee from a
murderer as I could ever see.
Slasher flicks, at least ones that are
trying to be spoofed, and both hard to do and pointless and redundant at the
same time. Broken Lizard's
Jay Chandrasekhar does inspire many laughs, however, as a pompous tennis coach.
He may be British…or Jamaican…we really don’t know.
He does have one mean serve though, as he tries to dispose of the slasher
with one of them (in a funny scene). Yet,
as good as he is in the film, as its director, he misses some real opportunities
for great broad comedy, and many scenes in the film induce watch checking more
than bend-over-backwards laughing. There are some amusing characters in
the film. There’s a “funcop”
that is in charge of, well, enforcing fun, a Swedish masseuse, and an aerobics
instructor who seems to do her best work in the bedroom. Steve Lemme is quite
funny as a Latino diving teacher with a hefty accent, ditto for Kevin Hefferman
whose the masseur with the magic touch to send women to instant ecstasy.
Bill Paxton is the film’s real disappointment, who seems to sleepwalk
and slum through the part. He’s
funny for about five minutes, and then painfully wears out his welcome.
The problem with this film is that
it’s just not funny enough. The
best of the recent screen comedies (i.e.
ANCHORMAN) have a consistent laugh
rate. The five troupe members are
funny, yes, but only intermittently, and the film seems to have a great deal of
difficulty deciding whether it wants to be a lampoon of slasher or resort
films. It’s really more or less
an uninspired T&A film with a few giggles and a surprising amount of gore.
But the real place the film lacks is in energy and wit.
SUPER TROOPERS worked hard for its laughs, and achieved, more or less,
consistent success. CLUB DREAD is a
horror/comedy that’s not very scary, nor too terribly amusing. Not only that, the plot is all over the place and is so
lethargic that it provided moments of intense boredom.
BROKEN LIZARD’S CLUB DREAD a
meandering mess of a comedy. I say
this with a great amount of displeasure, seeing as I found SUPER TROOPERS to be
such a hilarious 90 minutes. If you
like a lot of gross out humor followed by lots of babes in bikinis and the
occasional witty prank punctuated by violence and beheadings, then this is
the film for you. For the rest
of us that have modestly high hopes for Broken Lizard, I hope they rebound in
their third film, and they need to do so right “meow” |
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