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Danny Roane: First Time Director

Lionsgate Home Entertainment // R // November 6, 2007
List Price: $26.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]

Review by Nick Lyons | posted October 30, 2007 | E-mail the Author
The Movie:
Mockumentaries are tough to pull off. Unless the genre is tackled by Christopher Guest or Rob Reiner, mockumentaries rarely work as the material often feel like more of an inside joke. Case in point- Andy Dick's "Danny Roane: First Time Director."

The story: Danny Roane had a fairly successful career as a comedian until his drunken appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" ruined his life. Now, years later, Danny is sober and is ready to make his comeback with a film he wrote and directed titled "Death Dream." Will Danny be able to stay away from booze? Will "Death Dream" be even remotely good? Tune into find out (or not).

Whenever Andy Dick tries to steal the spotlight, I find him to be obnoxious. He often tries way too hard to be funny and he ends up bothering not only the people he's around (remember the Ivanka Trump incident?), but the viewers as well. In "Danny Roane," he falls into a similar trap as he runs around naked (thankfully it's censored), drinks heavily, has gags about shaving body hair, bloody butts, vomit, Nazis, etc. Seeing Roane's character self-destruct on screen just isn't funny, especially when it mirrors Dick's own troubled life. I'm glad Andy can make fun of himself, but to me it's just sad.

Andy Dick should really stick to supporting roles. He is best when he's not front and center. Take "Newsradio" for example. Andy Dick played a great supporting character in that show. Granted, this film hints at how Andy Dick lives in the shadow of that role, but to be fair it was his best work. He seemed to be funnier and more restrained on a television set.

The film does have its moments. I got a kick out of seeing Danny Trejo as a drunken Indian Chief and Jack Black as God. I also thought that Andy Dick did a commendable job of mocking indie films with his own fake indie film "Dead Dreams." He nailed the terrible editing styles, wooden acting, and pathetic F/X.

The DVD

Video:
The 1.78:1 widescreen picture quality is rather ugly and grainy, but that's to be expected as the film was shot documentary style.

Sound: The 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio is adequate for this mockumentary. A 5.1 Dolby Digital is obviously not required for a dialogue driven comedy like this.

Extras: * Trailers for "Employee Of The Month" (which also stars Andy Dick), "The Long Weekend," "Fido," "Delta Farce," and "The Bros."

* Nearly 10 minutes of outtakes of Andy Dick laughing, Jimmy Kimmel messing up, etc. I have to admit these are funnier than the film itself.

* 6 extended scenes (running 21 minutes). The most notable of which involve James Van Der Beek and Bob Odenkirk ignoring Danny Roane.

* English and Spanish subtitles.

Final Thoughts:
"Danny Roane: First Time Director" should only be viewed by Andy Dick fans. Everyone else should stay away.

Film and television enthusiast Nick Lyons recently had his first book published titled "Attack of the Sci-Fi Trivia." It is available on Amazon.com.

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