BEFORE: I got lucky for, what is this, the 587th time? Last night's film name-checked the infamous Donner Party, which makes for a great transition to this film about Alfred (or is it Alferd?) Packer. The creators of "South Park", Trey Parker & Matt Stone, love pointing out that the dining hall at the University of Colorado was named after the famed frontiersman & cannibal.
Linking's going to be tough tonight - but Ethan Phillips from "Wagons East" was also in "Star Trek: First Contact", and so was Brent Spiner, who did a voice in "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" with Trey Parker. That's the best I can do.
THE PLOT: The sole survivor of an ill-fated mining expedition tells how his taste for gold was replaced by that of human flesh.
AFTER: I watch most of my films after midnight, and sometimes I have trouble finishing a movie - either because I'm very tired, or the movie doesn't interest me, or both. My rule is that if I fall asleep, I'll rewind and try again, but if I fall asleep a second time, I'll give up and go to bed, and finish it later in the day. In this case, that meant I had to wake up, catch a train all the way back to New York and watch the 2nd half at my office while trying to do a week's work in just a few hours.
I made it through half of this film early this morning before dozing off, and I don't think I was that tired, so I'm left with the conclusion that this is largely unwatchable. I'm not sure if I should cut it some slack, since essentially it's a glorified student film. And one shouldn't expect much in production values or special effects from such a project. This one has it all - bad sound, bad acting, low-rent effects, cheezy music. Really, it was never meant for general release, and I assume it only found distribution after the gigantic success of "South Park".
Which is the reason this film has been on the list since before there even was a list - but without the list, I might never have gotten around to watching it at all. I bought it because of my great respect for the makers of films like "Baseketball" and "Team America: World Police". I met Trey Parker at the Toronto Film Festival years ago, at one of the first screenings of "Orgazmo". This was after just a few episode of "South Park" had aired, and it helped that I was able to introduce him to my boss, who he really wanted to meet. He drew me a picture of Eric Cartman and autographed it, which was very cool.
Oh, yeah, back to the film. Packer's story is ambitiously told in flashbacks, but you know how I feel about those. There's just not enough comedy here to overcome the bargain-basement production values. And what comedy does exist gets killed by bad timing and mumbled lines. The only glimmer of future greatness comes in the songs, especially "Let's Build a Snowman". It shows a flair for the ridiculousness that later permeated every aspect of "South Park" and "Team America". But it was made at a time where greatness was still beyond its creator's reach.
Starring Trey Parker (here credited as "Juan Schwartz" for some reason), Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, with a cameo from Stan Brakhage (!).
RATING: 2 out of 10 musical keys
No comments:
Post a Comment