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Review #614 of 365
Movie Review of Wild West Comedy Show (2008) [R] 100 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $5.00
Where Viewed: United Artists Colorado Mills Stadium 16 & Giant Screen, Lakewood, CO
When Seen: 8 February 2008
Time: 12:20 pm
DVD Release Date: Unscheduled (please check back)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Soundtrack: order the CD below
Directed by: Ari Sandel (West Bank Story)
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Ahmed Ahmed (Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World) • Peter Billingsley (The Break-Up) • John Caparulo ("Comedy Central Presents" ) • Bret Ernst (Beer League) • Justin Long (Strange Wilderness) • Sebastian Maniscalco ("Complete Savages") • Keir O'Donnell (Wedding Crashers) • Vince Vaughn (Fred Claus)
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Fans of Vince Vaughn can rejoice in the philanthropic nature of their dramedy hero who got one of his breaks on an "After School Special" about steroids in which he starred with now life-long friend, Peter Billingsley (still best known for his role as Ralphie in A Christmas Story) or so we learn as part of the Oscar®-winning director Ari Sandel's documentary of Mr. Vaughn's 30-day comedy tour. The idea, apparently, was for Vaughn to headline a 30-day road trip tour for four semi-known or unknown comics. Their notion is that stand-up is having tough times right now, and this will help these guys get an opportunity to get noticed. Probably anyone would gamble on the idea that a documentary of the trip would be a great thrill for there would be antics galore, hilarious inside information, and real Vince Vaughn—an actor who is pretty universally adored by both genders in both outrageously good fun comedy like Wedding Crashers and psycho thrillers like…um…Psycho (the remake). All these gamblers would have lost a lot of money. Maybe because the set-up just seemed to be too good to be true or maybe because there was no Johnny Knoxville along, but first there are no antics unless you consider Justin Long (in a cameo) piling a couple boxes on top of a sleeping Peter Billingsley who gets really grumpy, the cream of high jinx. There was no hilarious insider information unless you consider that John Caparulo's sister used to dress him up as a girl when he was a little kid or a tour of Sebastian Maniscalco's dry cleaning uproariously funny. Lastly, while Vince Vaughn was real, very real, it turns out that maybe the real Vince Vaughn is just a really nice, sort of charming with a smirk, genuinely good guy and his zany persona on screen really is acting—go figure that he'd turn out to be a really brilliant actor, huh? Yeah. He's acting folks. That guy you see on screen isn't him. The real Vince Vaughn can gush for 20 minutes about how much he adores Buck Owens. No, I'm not making that up.
…largely un-amusing, semi-insomnia-busting, and barely entertaining…
Anyway, moreover, without meaning to diss the comics too much, because only snippets of their acts were shown—probably because someone got paid a lot of money to make the computer animated map of their trip to show between scenes—but none of the guys seemed funny enough to make it past the preliminary rounds of "Last Comic Standing" let alone headline a Vince Vaughn-backed comedy show. The guys come across looking pretty snarly when they are initially reluctant or, at least, blasé about going to a make shift camp for Hurricane Katrina victims to give out free tickets to their evening show. They warm up after a few minutes of being there, but before hand spend a lot of time complaining of not having proper meals or proper amounts of sleep or, in the case of John Caparulo, time to shop at Best Buy. Wow. The film's editors probably should have exercised the option to cut this part out altogether.
In any event, the "wild west" comedy show which spends half its time in the mid-west and south vs. the real wild west never going to Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, or Montana, was largely un-amusing, semi-insomnia-busting, and barely entertaining. The cuts to interviews with the comics' families, especially and extended one in Cleveland with Caparulo's family (whom while all very nice people and well-meaning), were generally about as interesting as watching the comedy troupe's tour buses wheels go round and round. Only Bret Ernst's heartfelt tribute to his older brother who died of AIDS came across as truly meaningful and significant. The film's most worthy comedy, which might have gotten old, but never was given more than a couple of trials were Vince Vaughn's inspired moments with Keir O'Donnell (the artist brother from Wedding Crashers) whom he asks along to draw inspired pictures on stage during Vaughn's monologues. Vaughn asks the audience for a theme idea for the paintings, and no matter what, Keir incorporates stick figure likenesses of himself and Vaughn into awkward encounters of an innuendo-laden nature—the best of which was the two of them playing Twister. If this says anything about the film, an entire film of just this, actually seems like it would have been a better film, but then it would have also been fronting the guy with the real talent—Vince himself—which wasn’t the point of the tour or the film.
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Other Projects Featuring Wild West Comedy Show (2008)
Cast Members
Ahmed Ahmed • Peter Billingsley • John Caparulo
Bret Ernst • Justin Long • Sebastian Maniscalco
Keir O'Donnell • Vince Vaughn
Director
Ari Sandel
Review-lite
Wild West Comedy Show (2008) [max of 150 words]
Hopefully the Academy won't ask for Ari Sandel's Oscar® back when they get wind of his documentary of Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show. The documentary is not poorly made, it's just largely un-amusing, semi-insomnia-busting, and barely entertaining. The comics on the tour: Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, and Sebastian Maniscalco, might be really funny, not so as that one could have told that from their routines in the film. Justin Long was brought in for comic relief and contributes hi jinx including piling boxes ontop of a sleeping Peter Billinsley—oh my, sign him up for Johnny Knoxville's next film with that one. The funniest parts turn out to be Keir O'Donnell's routines with Vince Vaughn who's doing this for philanthropic reasons not to be the star of the show. Oh well, you win some you lose some.
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