Pauly Shore Is Dead

Pauly Shore is one of my favorite comedians, and probably long forgotten about. Stoners in the nineties have turned into fast food workers who no longer know or need Pauly, and since he's milked his fifteen minutes of fame, no one really has followed the man himself since the late nineties most likely. Which is probably why he made this mockumentary faking his own death. Leave it to Pauly! Pauly Shore is Dead is just what it sounds like; Pauly Shore's career has taken a turn for the worst, and he is desperately begging his friend Kurt Loder, a more successful actor, for any role. Pauly begins to realize his purpose on this planet is none, and after getting some strangely morbid advice from Sam Kinison, Pauly fakes his death. This becomes a genius plan on his part because now he sees how the world reacts to him being dead. Surprisingly, everyone is sympathetic, and Pauly proves death is better than life itself.

Along the way, Pauly captures the reactions of celebrities of music and film like Pam Anderson, Ja Rule, Chris Rock, Carrot Top, Kurt Loder, etc. The interviews are very humorous, and sometimes make me forget I'm watching a film about Pauly Shore. Todd Bridges also makes a very memorable, and humorous cameo. The stars make the film without a doubt.

There isn't too much to say about this. I am a Pauly Shore fan, but it saddened me to watch him fake his own death. I enjoyed Bio-Dome and In the Army Now, and think there are far worse actors than Shore. He is rather funny in this film, and asks a very good/deep question in this film - "would you rather be a dead genius, or a living idiot?" Living idiot for myself.

But obviously this will spawn a line of more mockumentaries by Shore. I think his VJ, MTV, stoner comedy movie days are over. That was clear by Pauly Shore's Adopted that came out a few years after this.

Starring: Pauly Shore, Ashley L. Anderson, Pamela Anderson, Camille Anderson, Adam Sandler, Eminem, Charlie Sheen, Todd Bridges, and Ben Stiller. Directed by: Pauly Shore.

This "movie" is so amateurish it feels intentional. There's tons of unfortunate sexism, racism & homophobia, made worse by the fact that Shore is playing himself. The amount of star cameos implies a bunch of random favors were called-in. However, the oddity of this project's conceit is undeniable. A pseudo-genius mix of autobiography & complete fiction, it shows a Pauly Shore who is more self-aware & self-effacing than I would've imagined.

It's always great to see someone who can laugh at himself, and even make fun of himself in ways that most people aren't brave enough to do. Pauly is totally exposing what has to be at least a little painful: His "has-been-ness". It's too bad this wasn't able to be released in theaters. My boyfriend even thought it was really funny, and he's always despised Pauly Shore's movies and "weasel" stuff. Many will also find it at least somewhat inspirational, his being so vulnerable and open. Lots and lots of familiar faces too, plenty of great cameos. It's hard to believe how many people came on board to help out with this project. Check it out, chances are you'll be pleasantly surprised.

A narcissist is one who has excessive love or admiration of oneself. You'd think a person who writes, directs and stars in a movie about himself would fit that definition. But it's the exact opposite.

"Pauly Shore Is Dead" is a satirical, self-deprecating (self-loathing?) autobiography by a man who was once on top of the world but now he's flattened by it. The movie is mostly predictable, with silly gags and one-liners typical of the plastic 80s and early 90s partycoms we loved so much. Pauly stayed true to the genre that made him a hit.

But what I liked were the introspective moments peppered throughout, particularly toward the end, where we see that maybe Pauly could, in fact, be another Robin Williams or Adam Sandler... a typecast slapstick comedian who manages to break out of the mold and become a legitimate actor. The story is superficial, and if you choose to read between the lines--realizing that this movie itself is part of the autobiography--it's a grand experience.

Dozens of great cameo appearances make this film a treat. From the opening scene with arrogant Charlie Sheen, to the clips of angry Ben Stiller, to the scene with penniless Gerardo rapping on the side of the road (remember "Rico Suave"?), to the bit with ditzy Paris Hilton or clueless Britney Spears ("Pauly Shore? Oh you mean the guy who was on MTV *before* I was born!") there's tons of comedic eye candy, especially for the 90s pop culture crowd. I think that's the key to all the fun. You don't necessarily need to be a Pauly fan in order to be entertained, as long as you recognize some of the big & upcoming stars of the late 90s.

"Pauly Shore Is Dead" is not a big budget production, so don't expect polished Hollywood finesse. It seems like a lot was shot on digital cameras, giving it a cheap, homemade feel (deliberately?). The soundtrack is sorta cheezy (again, deliberately?) but with a few big hits like The Cars "Let the Good Times Roll", a tune by Eminem, and ironically a tune by Limp Bizkit, whose singer appears in a cameo handing a demo cd to Pauly and subsequently getting into a fight, yelling "You'll see! My band is going to make it big and we'll never ask you to be in our video!" (the irony being that Pauly has appeared in several).

So brush up on your 90s pop culture, then pop this movie in & have a blast. Movies I would compare this to are "Best in Show" (or any of the excellent Christopher Guest mockumentaries, "Napoleon Dynamite", and a weird, undiscovered dark comedy called "Circus Maximus ".

Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003)

** (out of 4)

The entire gimmick of this "documentary" is that Pauly Shore realizes that he can't get a job anywhere so the only way to get any respect is to fake his death. After his "death" he starts getting talked about as a comic genius but his cover is blown and there's a backlash when people realize he's not really dead. I was twelve years old when Shore's career took off and I must admit that I enjoyed both ENCINO MAN and SON IN LAW. I continued to watch his movies but stuff like IN THE ARMY NOW, JURY DUTY and BIO-DOME were just three of the worst comedies ever made in history so it's good to report that this movie is much better than them. Shore directed, produced, wrote and stars in this comedy that is pretty much a spoof of Hollywood and it tries to answer the question as to why some fall and get back up while others just stay dead. The most amazing thing about this picture is that Shore got an incredible number of stars to line up for cameo appearances and this includes Charlie Sheen, Chris Rock, Tommy Chong, Pamela Anderson, Britney Spears, Todd Bridges, Carson Daly, Ellen DeGeneres, Andy Dick, Snoop Dogg, Dustin Diamond, Fred Durst, Dr. Dre, Corey Feldman, Paris and Nicky Hilton, Clint Howard, Kato Kaelin, Mario Lopez, Tommy Lee, Michael Madsen, Bill Maher, Jason Mewes, Adam Sandler, Tom Sizemore, Jerry Springer, Vince Vaughn, Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Stiller and Sean Penn. Yes, that Sean Penn. The amazing number of cameos here does make you wonder why these friends couldn't have gotten their buddy Pauly into a few more movies. Or, perhaps this was their way of helping and getting him to shut up about asking them to get him into movies. Either way, the end result really isn't anything special as it's clear Shore needed a better writing to whip the story together and make better sense out of it. I'm sure a more talented director could have made a much funnier film but PAULY SHORE IS DEAD works as a minor film that will mainly appeal to those who want to see all these stars and to see what Shore has been up to.