Like a lot of other largely improvised mockumentaries, the biggest problem with Stuntmen is that it clearly never knows what's funny and what isn't. It just puts people in front of the camera and lets them go off, but writer/director Eric Amadio obviously could never tell when his actors were soaring, when they were falling flat and how to get more of the former and less of the latter. And things certainly aren't improved when a tired plot about gay acceptance, of all things, tries to assert itself toward the end.
Steve (Chris Tarantino) has been hired to shoot some interview footage for the upcoming Stuntman Awards. The sort of ambitious nincompoop who thinks feigning a British accent on camera will be good for his career, Steve decides to hijack the filming and turn it into a documentary about the rivalry between top stuntmen Eligh Supreme (Marc Blucas) and Tank Macho (Ross Patterson). Besides talking to the obscurely metrosexual Eligh and the non-Southern redneck Tank, Steve interviews a whole host of others as the animosity between the two nominees for Stuntman of the Year destroys the awards ceremony until it has to be put on at the local Elk's Club in front of a crowd bussed in from a nearby retirement home. Along the way, Steve discovers a dark family secret about Eligh and must decide whether to reveal it or not.
If you've ever seen one of these things, you know what the drill is. The cast is stuck in front of the camera, given some basic material to work off and told to just vamp until they come up with something funny.
Sometimes it works. In this film that's usually when it's Marc Blucas or Ross Patterson on screen as the two feuding stuntmen or when it's Lance LeGault as Eligh's Ultimate Old School grandfather or Ray Wise as an intense, middle aged stuntman who claims to have been born without a sense of humor. Dominique Swain also gets off some good lines as the stuntwoman who married Eligh but then ran off during the wedding reception to be with Tank.
Sometimes it doesn't. That's usually when anybody else is on camera, particularly Eligh and Tank's ultra-phony, ultra-competitive agents (Joel David Moore, Zachary Levi and Brandon Routh). It's not that they're unfunny. It's that they're trying so hard and not even getting close to comedy. Even at it's best, improve tends to be moments of brilliance breaking up long stretches of mediocrity. Stuntmen has the long stretches of mediocrity, but it's interrupted by moments of only the somewhat above average.
Now, humor is very subjective. What's hilarious to one is boring to another, especially when the humor is fairly scattered and unformed. So, you might enjoy this movie much more than I did. It's reasonably well made and is never aggravating or wastes too much of your time. If you like the mockumentary sub-genre, this is probably worth a look. If you've seen a few and they leave you cold, Stuntmen isn't going to be any different.
Steve (Chris Tarantino) has been hired to shoot some interview footage for the upcoming Stuntman Awards. The sort of ambitious nincompoop who thinks feigning a British accent on camera will be good for his career, Steve decides to hijack the filming and turn it into a documentary about the rivalry between top stuntmen Eligh Supreme (Marc Blucas) and Tank Macho (Ross Patterson). Besides talking to the obscurely metrosexual Eligh and the non-Southern redneck Tank, Steve interviews a whole host of others as the animosity between the two nominees for Stuntman of the Year destroys the awards ceremony until it has to be put on at the local Elk's Club in front of a crowd bussed in from a nearby retirement home. Along the way, Steve discovers a dark family secret about Eligh and must decide whether to reveal it or not.
If you've ever seen one of these things, you know what the drill is. The cast is stuck in front of the camera, given some basic material to work off and told to just vamp until they come up with something funny.
Sometimes it works. In this film that's usually when it's Marc Blucas or Ross Patterson on screen as the two feuding stuntmen or when it's Lance LeGault as Eligh's Ultimate Old School grandfather or Ray Wise as an intense, middle aged stuntman who claims to have been born without a sense of humor. Dominique Swain also gets off some good lines as the stuntwoman who married Eligh but then ran off during the wedding reception to be with Tank.
Sometimes it doesn't. That's usually when anybody else is on camera, particularly Eligh and Tank's ultra-phony, ultra-competitive agents (Joel David Moore, Zachary Levi and Brandon Routh). It's not that they're unfunny. It's that they're trying so hard and not even getting close to comedy. Even at it's best, improve tends to be moments of brilliance breaking up long stretches of mediocrity. Stuntmen has the long stretches of mediocrity, but it's interrupted by moments of only the somewhat above average.
Now, humor is very subjective. What's hilarious to one is boring to another, especially when the humor is fairly scattered and unformed. So, you might enjoy this movie much more than I did. It's reasonably well made and is never aggravating or wastes too much of your time. If you like the mockumentary sub-genre, this is probably worth a look. If you've seen a few and they leave you cold, Stuntmen isn't going to be any different.