SYNOPSIS:
Mount your battle
stag, grab your popcorn balls and get ready to laugh your
head off at Gentlemen Broncos! The director of Napoleon Dynamite
(Jared Hess) and co-star of HBOs "Flight of the Concords"
(Jemaine Clement) team up to bring you the story of Benjamin
Purvis (Michael Angarano), a lovable loner whose life is turned
upside down when a pretentious fantasy author steals his story
at a writers camp. Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie) and Mike
White (School of Rock) join a hysterical cast of oddball characters
in this "fun, quirky comedy." (People)
MOVIE REVIEW:
Jared Hess’ debut feature was the offbeat comedy “Napoleon Dynamite” whose surprise success-I must admit- was lost on me. Ditto for the Jack Black comedy “Nacho Libre”, another tired exercise in mostly juvenile kitsch that didn’t endear to this reviewer as well. So it is with much trepidation that I approached his third feature, “Gentlemen Broncos”, an outright flop in the United States that is getting the direct to video treatment here.
To put it simply, if you didn’t enjoy “Napoleon Dynamite” or “Nacho Libre”, then you’ll definitely not going to like “Gentlemen Broncos”. Once again, Jared indulges in his deadpan nerd fantasises to take aim this time at the sci-fi geek community- his lead character the shy teenager Benjamin (Michael Angarano) who wants to be a science fiction writer and whose latest book is entitled “Yeast Lords: The Bronco Years”. What is it about? Well, it’s the story of Bronco and his search for his missing gonads stolen by the villain Lord Daysius.
Like the premise of “Yeast Lords”, the humour throughout this movie is of the same infantile nature. How else would you explain the jet-propelled deer with rockets, Cyclops warriors in golf carts and gonads in solution called puddings in the re-enaction of “Yeast Lords”? Or the numerous anus, poop and vomit gags that are supposed to pass as humour? And no, just because they are done in the same muted fashion as “Napoleon” and “Nacho” doesn’t make it any classier.
Nonetheless, the film isn’t without its inspired moments- fitful though they may be- with the indisputable highlight Jermaine Clement’s portrayal of Dr Ronald Chevalier, a pompous science-fiction writer whom Benjamin meets at a convention. Clement steals every scene he is in, whether teaching budding writers how to make the names of their characters more science-fiction like, or going up against Benjamin after stealing Ben’s Yeast Lords manuscript for his next book.
But Clement only appears in about a third of the movie, the rest of it made up of the annoying sexually ambiguous filmmaker Lonnie (Hector Jimenez from “Nacho Libre”) and his homemade adaptation of Yeast Lords, as well as Ben’s single mom and his weird snake-fondling, dart-shooting “Guardian Angel” Dusty. Despite potentially interesting characters, Jared (who co-wrote the movie with his wife Jerusha) keeps their stories mostly separate and firmly in potty humour territory, wasting any comedic potential within.
There is also a distinct sense that Jared is trying his very best- perhaps too hard- to imitate the cult classic success of “Napoleon” and the result is a film that comes up too self-consciously quirky for its own good. Even a sweet ending doesn’t make up for the tedium that is “Gentlemen Broncos”, its “gentlemen” title a clear misnomer considering the type of humour and the nature of the characters. Once again, the appeal of this Jared Hess movie is lost on me, but this time I suspect I’ll have plenty of company.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
There is a obligatory 15-min making-of featurette “One Nutty Movie: Behind the Scenes of Gentlemen Broncos” whose collection of behind-the-scenes footage of cast and crew laughing at the jokes within isn’t particularly insightful. Other than that, there are six completely unfunny deleted scenes and slightly more amusing outtakes.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 is surprisingly solid for a mostly talky picture like this, using the soundtrack and indie tunes for surround effect. Visuals are crisp and clear, and colours look lively onscreen.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Gabriel Chong
Posted
on 2 January 2011
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