Review of Gentlemen Broncos (2009) by Melinda C — 26 Jul 2010

Napoleon Dynamite was flat-out hilarious. Maybe it was because nobody knew who Jared Hess was at the time and nobody knew his style of filmmaking. Maybe it was because nobody knew who those actors were at the time and nobody knew their range. Maybe it was because Jared Hess knew what he was doing and he made a geniunely funny movie. Maybe it was all John Heder's fault and he made it funny. Whatever the case, Napoleon Dynamite was a quirky and funny comedy that has become a cult classic, and one of my favorite guilty-pleasures.

It's been a while since I've seen Nacho Libre so I can't comment.

So how about Gentlemen Broncos? Well, there are more recognizable actors with this movie and we know what to expect in terms of quirkiness. Is that why the movie dissapointed? Because we were expecting too much? Is it because we all associate Sam Rockwell, Michael Angarano, Jennifer Coolidge and Mike White with other roles? Maybe, just maybe.

Or is it because Jared Hess made a crap movie with a crap script and crap actors? Maybe, just maybe.

I don't get it. I don't understand anything about this movie. It's as if Jared Hess tried to make two different movies with this one: A quirky sci-fi comedy with quirky characters as the best friends, and a serious film about a kid's dissapointment and frustration he endures when he finds out that his hero stole his idea. Both of these concepts might have worked as two different movies, but combining them for no real reason screws this entire film.

I laughed twice in this film. The hand massage bit in the first act and Sam Rockwell's tranny portrayal- which is seen in the trailer, by the way- were the only parts that tickled my funny bone and both of these gags only pushed out a light chuckle. Everything else was unnecessary and dumb. A snake crapping on somebody isn't funny. Machine guns that come out of boobs aren't funny. This entire film felt like a Napoleon Dynamite re-hash sans the funny.

This movie was bad.

*Ahem* badanous.