Review of Incident at Loch Ness (2004) by Jeremy R — 04 Jan 2009

Kitana Baker - Zak, why exactly am I wearing a g-string bikini?

Zak Penn: -Because you are a model and you're a sonar operator.

A scream for those who will get it.

Itâ??s been said that the best people are those with the ability to poke fun at themselves. That being said, German director Werner Herzog gives a commanding performance as himself in this mocumentary about Herzog leading a team to discover the Loch Ness monster.

Some background: Herzog is famous for filming not only documentaries but features with a constant theme of man verses the elements and his filming style is about full immersion. They are legendary for what they achieved (hauling a steamboat over a mountain in the Andes, hiring native peoples for actors, intentionally stranding the cast and crew in the jungle for films, etc.).

Accordingly, the movie is about Herzog making a documentary but being undercut at every turn by producer Zak Penn who is trying to make Herzogâ??s film something they never are; commercially viable.

With everyone playing themselves, the filming lurches from disaster to disaster but Herzog is not easily fazed. Think of Lost in La Mancha with a very tongue in cheek attitude.

Herzog steals the show with his suspicions that either something is up that he canâ??t figure it out or knows it and wants to make the live of his producer hell because Herzog has been through worse.

The humor is subtle and requires a bit of knowledge about Herzog and his films but it is not necessary. My wife had never seen any of his films and was laughing her head off.

The best part is one of the deleted scenes where the crew is going to die on the boat. A cameraman makes his final plea to the camera as does Kitana Baker (one of the catfight girls from a Bud ad years ago). Herzog sit, stares into the camera, and declares, after the previous people have poured their hearts out, that he is not going to die on this boat in an exactingly deadpan manner.

Not for everyone but I liked it.

When I look back, and I hear people talk about what suffering, I say to myself, "Who suffered more than I did"? I mean, other than the people who died. I mean, obviously, they suffered more because, well, they're dead. But, you could make the argument that they're dead, so they're not really dealing with it, whereas I live with the guilt, and I live with the sadness. - Zak Penn.