Glasgow still makes me laugh - you'll probably laugh too

ryanmet

DISCLAIMER OK as a journalist I'll come right out with the disclaimer that the writer/director, Glasgow Phillips, was on my youth soccer team (a scrappy goalie) and later a classmate in high school (a class clown who could be philosophical along with a sharp wit). But we aren't best friends and hadn't been in touch for 20 years, but I had to try to track him down about the South Park/Muhammad hubbub and for verification that we went to school with the original Cartman - Matt Karpman -- who was an honest to goodness ginger, which is ironic in the real sense of the word not the Alanis Morrisette mixed up sense that too many fools use, but that's another topic for another time.

REVIEW There were some excellent casting choices. Kattan plays the sensitive scared cowboy well. One critic had a good comment that the other cowboy by Will Farrell could have made it that much funnier and saved it from straight to DVD fate, but it also could have become too silly and this movie had some good campy horror -- enough to make you jump, but not so much you loose your lunch like those who get a bad case of the Geronimos (I would have liked a few more good fart jokes like Cletus). Cletus was a hilarious and best captured the spirit of the film - bumbling, bloody and undead -- he manages to scare you then embarrass himself for your laughing pleasure and keeps coming back for more. Brian Poshen also had the right touch for a goonie goon and Glasgow scored it well in the commentary that Poshen's whimper was a pitch perfect punchline for what this movie was meant to be: good silly fun. While the budget might not have been high enough for Ferrell, the make-up and effects created a crisp feel of gruesome without being gore. Meanwhile, Denton as Elmer plays the right kind of straight man to get frustrated with Kattan's struggles without being too strong or silent to sympathize or show his struggles with the unusual undead. The old class clown put together a fun popcorn flick for horror and slapstick buffs without relying on the South Park creators. Too bad this movie didn't get a chance in theaters. I hope it gets picked up by TBS, Spike or Syfy and gets enough buzz that Glasgow gets the backing for another flick.

TO THE OVERSENSITIVE CRITICS ... I've scanned some other comments and think the complaints about the movie being racist or sexist are way off and made by folks way too sensitive. I go with the Carlos Mencia philosophy on all that stuff and think all people are fair game to tease, even mock. Racism is forcing one group to live in substandard conditions to your own or thinking that they should because those other people are inferior to you. All the characters were equal opportunity insulters. The Indian (native American) culture is not belittled and the actress who played the heroine (yes the Indian was a 3D good-guy without a feather or talking like Tarzan) Navi Rawat is an actual Indian, perfectly cast for much more than ethnicity, she had a comic touch with sass, sexiness without selling her skin and sporting enough to pull off most of her own stuntwork fighting off bad guys with swords. She had no qualms with the picture and gives it as good as she takes it with the cowboys. If the movie chose to show a little more skin (already R for the violence, and straight to video, I'm surprised it didn't) she could have made for the better ending some suggest with the other meaning of eating, though sacrificing a couple toes would have made for the happier ending audiences yearns for without the humor. Needless to say, if you didn't laugh, it was because you were too busy telling yourself that good people don't laugh at such stuff. You stiff probably wouldn't laugh at Blazing Saddles either. This movie may not be on that level, but a decent comparison, poking fun at some standards. Anyone so sensitive should have read the cover to know to creator was a former South Park writer and expected politically incorrect humor -- to be honest I was hoping for a few more people to poop their pants when they died. What can I say, as a South Park lover, I love fart jokes and toilet humor so this movie was right up my alley.

score 9/10

ryanmet 22 May 2010

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2253339/