The major problem here is that the world of a Napoleon Dynamite in-joke is far less accessible to the general publics sense of humour than Apatow's. Hence Sasquash really comes off as a far less enjoyable than it's predecessor (the entire Napoleon cast make cameos throughout), albeit, a far better structured film.
The
monotonal comedic adventures continue amidst lazy summer days of
laser-tag and medieval sword fighting with Gavin Gore and his group of
nerdy friends, Hobie, Maynard and Sophie who discover (what
appear to be) Bigfoot tracks while hiking in the woods near Gavin's
house.
As a media frenzy erupts, the crew of outcasts finds
themselves as the prime witnesses for quirky police officer Chillcut's
investigation, as well as prime targets for a gang of neighborhood
bullies. Meanwhile, Gavin's metal-rocking, beer-drinking
neighbour, Zerk (Justin "The Mac Guy" Long) and his slow-witted
sidekick Shirts who are actually responsible for the fake
footprint-execute their ingenious plot to raise the cash they need in
order to pay off their credit card debts. With BIG quantities of
plaster-cast replicas of the "BIG footprint" to sell on the web, the
pair are absolutely convinced that their masterplan is about to pay off
BIG-time! However once the clues have been authenticated, their idea,
like everything else they've ever done, begins to rapidly and fall
apart.
While the flick looks great and flows really well (the use of Comic Book chapters to break up events, and a Pulp Fiction-esque
narrative gives the comedy a great sense of originality) there isn't
much to laugh about. The performances all try to capture the monotonal
style of Napoleon but never quite get it right (kind of like a bunch of nerds who have tried to re-create scenes from Dynamite on YouTube) but clearly lack the surprising amount of skill it takes to pull of 'good-bad-acting'.
With
the performances not quite working, it ultimately leaves most of the
jokes to fall flat - with only the odd line here or there really
standing out despite it's completely miss timed delivery.
Justin Long does OK here (occasionally summoning one of the more accurate Matthew McConaughey impersonations going around),
but is really half arsing it - most likely due to him being the biggest
name in the cast. Joey Kern provides most of the laughs as Shirts - but
borders on simply stealing the best bits of Butthead & Napolean's Pedro.
Worth checking out, but it might be best to stick to superior nerd flicks like Dynamite and Clerks, because this is somewhat underwhelming.
EXTRAS
Not
much here. Just an original trailer which seems like it's only half
finished - but a good way to promote the fact the film won so many damn
festival awards.
Other than that - Special Features are as scarce as Big Foot himself...
Conclusion:
Movie 65% Extras: 30%
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