Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Silly comedies,
Likes: Yahoo Serious
Dislikes: Dude, Where's My Car?
Hates: Stupid movies

The Movie
First off, I absolutely like Yahoo Serious, and I appreciate his auteur approach to filmmaking and off-kilter sense of humor. Though I never saw Reckless Kelly, I love Young Einstein and actually own Mr. Accident, so you can believe I am a fan. But at the same time, I understand why people write him off as an Australian oddball. What does that have to do with this movie, which has no noticeable connection to Serious? Not much, but I felt the need to point out my appreciation for at least one thing Australian before proceeding to trash this absolute waste of time.

Outside of Bill and Ted and Wayne and Garth, I've never took much of a shine to moronic duos in films, like Cheech and Chong or the Dude, Where's My Car? guys. Phillip (Nathan Phillips, Snakes on a Plane) and Jeffrey (Angus Sampson, Darkness Falls) are one of the worst examples of the convention, as there's hardly a redeeming value about them, outside of Phillip's involvement in the Boy Scouts, and even that seems to come with a set of less-honorable intentions, as he spends his time working on their "Gang Show," a talent pageant he hopes to use as a spring board to success. But at least he has an ambition in life. That's a lot more than Jeffrey has going for him, as his sole purpose in life is running an unofficial web site for his favorite soap opera, "Sons and Surf." Together, they are going nowhere fast, living on welfare in a trailer park, spending their time watching TV.

Of course, a film that centered around that lifestyle would be rather boring, so they have to give the boys something to do. Their mission is two-pronged: find a job they can keep for more than a day, and save their favorite show, which is being canceled. The mission plays itself out in a series of scenes that's rather predictable and rarely all that funny. Perhaps it's the stars of the show, a duo that looks like the lovechild of Tim Curry and Mick Jagger paired up with Patrick Swayze's other brother, that just make this a struggle to watch, but they aren't helped by a script that just doesn't make much sense. From Rachel Hunter's presence as an odd white-trash fertility goddess to the use of the Somalian civil war for what amounts to a throw-away joke, there's no lack of WTF moments here, culminating in a great big WTF ending that denies all logic and sense.

Despite these shortcomings, the thing that bothered me most about the movie, more than the unlikeable leads or the questionable sense of humor, is the insanity of the story progression. The term plot hole has been used plenty of times before, but this film is actually the reverse of a plot hole in that there's more hole than story. There's a distinct lack of reality at play, a result of the film trying to do too much with too little, splitting it's time between 3 or 4 half-baked storylines. And when the movie hits the home stretch, it has the audacity to ask us to actually care about these characters and to take their troubles seriously. It's a big mistake to make such a tone shift, only to follow it up with yet another change and a dud of an ending.

The Quality
The anamorphic widescreen transfer on this film looks good, but not great, with solid color, a good deal of detail, and a minimum of specks in the mix. The image could certainly be sharper, but I've seen worse transfers. I've also seen better.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is pretty straightforward, presenting the dialogue cleanly and the music with strength. There was nothing noticeably dynamic about the sound, but there was nothing wrong with it either.

The Extras
The only extra included is a reel of previews of Lionsgate releases.

The Bottom Line
There's not much to say about this movie that's positive, outside of it's relatively short length. Perhaps it's a great pick for a stoner, but that's not my specialty. What I was looking for was an entertaining time with a couple of outback oddballs, and I got an overlong jumble starring a couple of unmotivated losers. It's hard to generate a lot of interest in characters who probably wouldn't even have interest in themselves. The DVD looks and sounds fine, but has nothing going on as far as supplements go, which provides no reason to pick up this disc. Instead of taking a look at this movie, go check out one of Yahoo Serious' films and see what singular creativity looks like.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.