I’m not gonna lie, when I first got it, I didn’t think this movie was going to be good at all. Not the first time I’ve been wrong.
While not The Hangover it is funny at moments and over-the-top stupid at others. It is B-movie personified, but it knows that and never takes itself seriously. Not for a minute. Because never a minute goes by where there isn’t at least one joke. A lot of the jokes don’t have a big payoff, but it sort of a cumulative effect that makes up for it in the end. But it’s definitely a quantity over quality style of humor. There are a few that hit the mark, when Rock is listing his faults to try and get into the church, he lists one of his faults as liking Dane Cook’s comedy.
The movie is pretty simple; Patrick Warburton (Puddy from Seinfeld) plays a private investigator that is very good at his job while being completely clueless. The transitions between the two make no sense, one minute he can shake a person and figure out the exact model of lock pick the person is holding in his hand, the next he doesn’t notice two people running into his office.
Warburton takes the case of Rena Sofer who thinks someone is following her and she wants him to find out who and why. While he’s on the case, he also has to deal with the House of Bartology trying to take his office from him. The House of Bartology is a “religion” that brainwashes the followers with cookies.
Warburton stumbles through Sofer’s case and finds that it leads to Bartology and comes up with a plot to bring down the house of Bartology. Like all the best plots, it all starts with gay pirate porn.
The movie has a pretty decent B-list cast list. Jason Alexander, Lea Thompson, Ron Bergeron, and the list goes on. All of them have pretty small parts, but their names are on the box.
Rock Slyde is presented in 1.78:1 video format with Dolby Digital audio.
It has a blue tint to most of it, and some of the shots look grainy. It looks like they shot in low light and tried to boost the light in post and made the video look wonky from time to time.
There is a behind the scenes feature. Just footage from behind the scenes, so it fits the name better than most the features that have the same name.
Rock Slyde is a lot better than I expected. If you’re into stupid comedy, this is really right up your street, as it is, I think this is certainly at least worthy of putting in your Netflix queue.
Monarch Home Video presents Rock Slyde Private Eye. Directed by: Chris Dowling. Starring: Patrick Warburton, Rena Sofer, Jason Alexander and Andy Dick. Written by: Chris Dowling. Running time: 86 Minutes. Rating: PG-13. Released on DVD: June 22, 2010. Available at Amazon.com.
