Run Ronnie Run

I'm not familiar with the Ronnie Dobbs skits on 'Mr. Show' but I really enjoyed 'Run Ronnie Run'. It's funny from start to end. In the beginning there's a cartoon which mocks the cine-goers and the movie itself is a spoof of the 'trailor trash culture', reality shows, censorship and stardom in Hollywood. The film is full of cameos and all the actors show excellent comic timing. Dot Lancaster's opening sequence and his reappearance are hilarious. But, the stars of 'Run Ronnie Run' are Bob Odenkirk and David Cross who also co-wrote the screenplay. It is their tremendous comic abilities that make this one a joy to watch. Even though both Ronnie and arguably Terry are dumb, the viewer roots for them no matter what. The offbeat and adult humour might not be considered as everyone's cup of tea but I believe that it's an underrated film. The humour works on multiple levels as satire, slapstick, dark humour and yes, there's something poetic about it too. Go and watch 'Run Ronnie Run'but remember that it isn't real, it's a movie.

I am one of the biggest Mr. Show fans on Earth, I watched the first episode when it originally aired, and every episode after that. I've bought the 1st through 3rd season DVD's, and I'm convinced it is the funniest show ever. So when you know the comedy potential of Bob and David, then you see this movie, you wonder what they were thinking. Even now if you visit their site they will tell you themselves it was a horrible movie. You are just left wondering, how can these two hilarious guys not make a hilarious movie? I loved the Ronnie Dobbs segments on Mr. Show, but even when I heard they were going to turn it into a movie long ago, I couldn't imagine how they planned to stretch it out into a full-length film. Having seen the film it's apparent they didn't know how to either. The funniest parts of the film we've already seen in the Ronnie skits on Mr. Show. There were a few chuckles in the movie, but Mr. Show made me roll on the floor. There are a few Mr. Show characters in the film other than Ronnie and Terry, such as "Three Times One Minus One" the reporter Tim McCracken, and possibly a few others, I forget. The funniest part of the movie was Jack Black and his musical number, but it had nothing to do with the plot of the film itself, and this wasn't even one of Jack's best performances.

An average episode of Mr. Show began with one idea and, by the end, returned full circle to that original idea. Run Ronnie Run follows that cycle. Ronnie Dobbs was first introduced in the first Mr. Show episode, and now years after the show was cancelled, we return to Ronnie in his very own movie to close the circle.

The movie, as an inside joke filled with many inside jokes that only fans of the show will get, is a disappointment. Many situations can only be fully appreciated if you have seen the series from HBO. Those who haven't will find themselves wondering why so many jokes fell flat. For those who have seen the full series, we find ourselves wondering, once again, why so many jokes fell flat.

The movie, a loose plot based on one portion of the first Mr. Show episode, anchors a handful of poor skits that just don't have the wit or anti-establishment humor that the series showcased.

At three times the length and only half the jokes of a Mr. Show episode, it makes sense that Run Ronnie Run has been sitting so long waiting for someone to take a chance on distributing it.

Ronnie is a mullet headed redneck who lives in a trailer, drinks a lot of beer, raises hell and gets arrested. A failed infomercial pitchman sees Ronnie and decides to have him star in a new reality-based TV show where Ronnie goes from city to city, gets drunk and in trouble, and ultimately ends up getting arrested. It's like "Joe Dirt" meets "Cops".

The show becomes a big hit. Ronnie gets to mingle with the stars, buy a big house and finally nail the hot girl who is in his favorite beer advertisement.

Ronnie begins to feel the hallowness of his fame and then goes through the stereotypical soul searching that we've seen in a lot of movies.

This movie had some great, almost classic moments. And I was loving it, up until the last 20 minutes. It's another example of a movie that would have benefitted from a re-edit or two. The story just ran out of steam.

There are a boatload of very funny celebrity cameos, some uncredited. Also, there is an animation at the beginning of the movie which looks like a classic 1950's style "Please refrain from talking during the movie" cartoon, but it ends up being anything but. It looks like a Cricfalusi animation and it's pretty funny.

Look for the fake music video which also is very good.

Also, the ending credits have a few surprises including a great send up of Jackie Chan closing credits.

Supposedly, this movie failed to get a distributor. It is certainly strong enough to be released. I just wish they'd punch up the ending.

I give it a 6.5 to 7 out of 10. The team that made this movie is certainly talented. Be sure to check out the memorable quotes.

A swamp of wasted comic ingenuity, Run Ronnie Run has about 10 minutes of clever, even hilarious parody to its name before being cleaned out of laughs. For the remainder of the time, this Sundance handout spun off from David Cross and Bob Odenkirk's hilarious HBO program Mr. Show With Bob and David, stumbles along, confusing with trendy and audacious all the infantile throwaways and pop culture references that it tediously stretches to frame its running time. Camouflaged behind a bulletproof mullet, Cross plays the Ronnie in question, a beer-gorging deadbeat hayseed who whiles away the hours wreaking havoc on his Georgia hometown. His exploits are caught on tape by a Cops-like reality show called Fuzz, and he's noticed by pathetic infomercial personality/inventor Terry Twillstein, played by an astute Bob Odenkirk, who sees Ronnie's popularity with lowbrow viewers. He promotes the idea to TV executives for a show in which he is arrested in a different city each week. The show becomes phenomenally successful, making Ronnie rich and famous, surprise surprise.

But while the text isn't up to Mr. Show's lofty benchmark, some big laughs do emerge, as when Hollywood stars beseech Ronnie to rob them, or when Ronnie's one semblance of soul-searching on death row involves his last meal: waffles, squarely nosing out corn dogs. Cross and Odenkirk, who ultimately disowned this movie, hardly reproduce a shred of the wit of any one of various sundry sketches from their show, but David Koechner has some time here to do his thing as an illiterate alcoholic redneck moron and Sarah Silverman Program regular Brian Posehn is one of the writers.

Ronnie's guilelessness is essentially a one-dimensional gag. Cross can be hilarious, but he's just more fitting when he's bald. Here his act is eclipsed by the innumerable celebrity cameos such as Jack Black, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, John and Rebecca Romijn Stamos, Ben Stiller, Jeff Goldblum, Mandy Patinkin, Kathy Griffin, etc., and episodes which don't follow at all from the premises, including one that reveals the "gay conspiracy" overseen by Patrick Warburton and forces them to give up their plot for world domination. It's completely non-sequitary in the film, and it's particularly memorable.