Review of National Lampoon's TV: The Movie (2006) by Dave A — 09 Jun 2007

If you want to see a movie that pokes fun at channel hopping through bad television-- reruns, to movies, to so-called news programs, to gawd-awful reality shows, and commercials--then this might be a film for you.

If you want to see a consistently funny movie that has the features mentioned above, then you definately want to take a pass on this one.

"TV: The Movie" is a film that mixes sketch comedy with "Jackass"-style stunts, performed mostly by cast-members of "Jackass." Like on the show they are most well-known for, the performers here dish out material of wildly different levels of quality, ranging from pretty funny to just plain gross, stupid, and unfunny. Unfortunately, "unfunny" describes most of what you'll find here.

The highlights of the film includes mock commercials featuring Steve-O (one for Trojun condomns and another for a cruiseline catering to pedophiles and other sexual perverts); a spoof of "XXX" titled "XXX-L" featuring Lee Majors in the role of the villain, and the horribly obese Preston Lacy standing in for Vin Diesel in a battle against Minjas (midget ninjas); a great bit with a band of flamingly gay maximum security prison inmates spoofing "Sex in the City" titled "Sex in the Pen; the reality show "Trading Races" where Abraham Benrubi plays against Weeman Acuna and other midgets in black-face; and a segment from the reality TV show "Intervention" where Steve-O's family attempts to turn him away from his life of excessive drug-use and clown-performances with disastrous results.

The funny bits are outweighed, however, by the overlong and tedious "Cops: Tijujana", an embarrassing bit with Chris Pontius as a gay slacker Jesus Christ; and some really lame skateboard stunts.

Between the extremes is plenty of mediocre material (such as the reality show spoof "Real Fear Factor") that might make you smile, but will also make you reach for the remote, until you realize that you can't change the channel for something better, because you're watching a DVD.

Unless you're looking for something that you'll be able to concentrate on and that you will find funny while you're as wasted as Steve-O appears to be in the "Intervention" and "Pads" segments, this might be a movie you want to take a pass on. (The Minjas are damn amusing, but there's really too much crap here to make this film worthwhile.).

By the way, this is one film where you want to watch the special features on the DVD. The cut scenes have some bits that are funnier than the stuff that made it into the movie.

National Lampoon's "TV: The Movie".

Starring: Steve-O, Preston Lacy, Jason "Weeman" Acuna, Lee Majors, Dian Bachar, Abraham Benrubi, Chris Pontius, Judd Nelson, Jason Mewes, and Danny Trejo.

Director: Sam Maccarone.