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| Available at Amazon.com |
Anyone else remember when National Lampoon movies were good?
Oh how times have change. Another in the line of National Lampoon movies that make you question who is green lighting these. Obviously there are people who are drawn to National Lampoon movies and as such the movies always make a profit. But it really is a wonder.
This one is based on three guys who, in an attempt to meet the girl of their dreams, decide to create a fake casting agency to fill roles in a movie they’re not making. And that takes up a good portion of the first half of the movie. It’s just three guys, Richie Rey, Glenn, and Sherman, sitting behind a table watching girls do cheesy auditions. The film making here isn’t terrible, as the audition’s look like their being shot through a small handheld digital camera that cheap guys like that would use.
After the auditions, the guys do more personal auditions with some of the girls until, get this, one of the guys falls in love and wants to tell the girl the whole plot. I know, crazy. So the next half of the movie is his moral struggle whether or not to tell her. And he eventually does.
And right after he tells her the story, one of the other girls reveals that she’s an undercover police officer that is running a sting operation to get the guys busted for fraud. And instead of doing what any cop I know would do – take the evidence and arrest them – she decides to get revenge for something that had absolutely no affect on her what so ever. I don’t know why she wanted revenge, but hey, anything to get roided up women in leather tackling a guy in whitey tighties.
This leads to a jail scene that plays out like a joke about hell. As soon as the guy started it I knew exactly where it was going. Then the movie just continues down with a joke of a court room scene.
The movie isn’t a complete waste. Diedrich Bader (Oswald from the Drew Carey Show) plays the role of Glenn and is hilarious. He’s that distant, seemingly retarded guy. He steals every scene he’s in. And considering his acting history isn’t exactly glowing, it gives a little hint as to the acting of the rest of the cast. Thomas Ian Nicholas (Kevin from the American Pie movies) plays the lead role of Richie Rey. He doesn’t do terrible, but I think he was a supporting actor in American Pie for a reason.
The camera work switches from bad to fair, spending most of the time on the poor side. What makes it worse, is the more important the scene, the worse the camera work gets. The big, heart-changing montage at the end is full of bad camera work. The spin is terrible, and the car shot is pretty bad too. The scenery is okay, the casting office has all the movie posters from the previous terrible National Lampoon movies all around, which was actually kind of cool and I liked it.
National Lampoon’s Cattle Call is presented with in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The audio for this release is good; the songs fit the film perfectly.
Trailers for Danny Roane: First Time Director, Witless Protection, Surf School, Dorm Daze 2, Van Wilder: Gone Wilder Edition.
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It’s a new-aged National Lampoon movie, so you should know what you’re getting by now. Questionable script, questionable camera work, questionable acting, and nudity for no apparent reason.
Astrablu Media and Sunset Pictures presents National Lampoon’s Cattle Call. Staring Thomas Ian Nicholas, Jenny Mollen, Andrew Katos and Diedrich Bader. Written by Martin Guigui. Running time: 87 minutes. Rated R. Released on DVD: May 13th, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.
About Chad Jorgenson
