Duct Tape Forever

I enjoy watching The Red Green Show, and when I found out the cast made a movie, I was curious to see how it held up. Movies adapted from 5-minute sketch comedies have a reputation for spreading their routine too thin. Red Green benefits in having a large ensemble to draw on, and the antics of the other famed Possum Lakers break up the plot at intervals.

The gist of the story is that a land developer is demanding compensation for his limo that fell into a sinkhole outside the lodge. While the gang finds it fishy that a limo would be driving anywhere within 10 miles of the lodge, Harold comes up with a plan to enter a duct tape sculpture contest with a third-place prize large enough to pay their obligation.

It's a goofy movie, and while occasionally the actors still seem to have their TV-hamminess stuck on, the film is broken up to give different members of the cast a spotlight - highlights including scenes with Mike, Edgar, and Ranger Gord. While it does deviate a little from the show for some dramatic tension, it does so with Red's wry commentary and never feels terribly forced or out of place.

If you're a fan of the show, approach this as more of an extended outing with the gang than something that's really theatrical in scope. There's a little more budget (but not much), a little more story (again), but it's an enjoyable break from the norm of the series overall.

I don't normally write these, but I just watched the movie again last night and came here today, only to find a disgustingly negative review of the movie. Everyone is entitled to their opinion - hence my being able to write this - but I honestly don't understand how someone who is a self-proclaimed fan of the show can be that negative of the big screen debut.

I'm happy to say that I actually saw this in the theater. My parents and I, being huge fans of the show, drove from upstate New York into Canada to the nearest theater playing (about a 2 hour drive). I wasn't disappointed at all.

The script was exactly what I expected - all the usual Red Green-isms and Harold-isms, a few good lines from the supporting characters, and a healthy dose of heart mixed in. The physical comedy was... well, physical comedy! You either like it or you don't.

Granted, the plot was a little forced, but I didn't see the movie to see plot. I saw the movie to see my beloved Red Green characters on the big screen making me laugh. Upon repeated watching, I still laugh hard.

On a side note, my wife, who was only superficially familiar with show, loves the movie to no end. So it does extend to those not familiar with the show, even if it's in a small way.

Sure, it has it's problems, but it beats the pants off of most comedies being pumped out by Hollywood these days.

I was not familiar with "The Red Green Show", a long-running Canadian TV series, right when it started out in 1991, since I was only around five years old at the time, but became familiar with it a few years later, and watched it quite a bit for a while. However, I'm sure I haven't seen the vast majority of the episodes, and I didn't know about this movie based on the show until a few years after its release. I have finally watched it after six years, and since I hadn't seen any episodes of the show in a while, I wasn't sure what I would currently think of the Red Green humour. Also, looking at its rating here, I wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised!

Robert Stiles is a big-shot executive who comes to Possum Lodge in his limousine, but when he arrives on the property, his vehicle gets stuck in a sinkhole! With some effort, the lodge members manage to get the limo out of that hole, but it goes right from there into the lake! Stiles sues Possum Lodge for the damage, and the members are found guilty by the judge! They will have to pay $10,000 within the next ten days, or else the lodge will be shut down! The lodge members then think of ways they could make that much money, and Red Green's nephew, Harold, informs the others about a duct tape sculpture contest taking place in the United States, where whoever comes in third will win the exact amount of money they need! After the lodge members are finished making a duct tape goose sculpture, Red, Harold, and Dalton Humphrey set out with it. However, Stiles is determined to have Possum Lodge shut down, and he has Sheriff Tompkins and Deputy Dawn on his side! So, on the way to the contest, the Sheriff and Deputy will make the trip more difficult, as they try to stop them from making it in time!

"The Red Green Show" is partially sketch comedy and partially a sitcom, and I wondered how turning the formula from that to a full-length story would work out. Movies based on TV shows sometimes don't work out too well, and I wouldn't have been surprised if "Duct Tape Forever" turned out to be an example of that. Fortunately, it didn't. The characters may not be able to carry the humour consistently throughout, but they usually do, and it's usually quite amusing, sometimes even hilarious! The main characters here are usually a big part of the humour, especially Harold with his usual goofy antics. The film also features a lot of slapstick to add laughs, and the bizarre things the characters from Possum Lodge on the road do to try and outsmart their enemies are sometimes very funny! Personally, I found that the film gets better after a while, eventually goes downhill a bit a while after that, but then picks up again.

Some may think "Duct Tape Forever" was a poor attempt to bring the characters from "The Red Green Show" to the movie format, but if you ask me, it worked, and this 2002 Canadian comedy is underrated. Yes, it is pretty silly, maybe more so than the show, but it's silly in a fun way. The premise may not be the greatest ever written, but this is a comedy, and there are plenty of laughs make up for it. The next thing I will say may not mean anything to most people, but for me it was interesting hearing Harold talk about James Bond, just after I watched a bunch of early Bond films! Anyway, if you're not a "Red Green Show" fan, then I doubt there's anything for you in this movie, but if you are a fan, you may still find "Duct Tape Forever" inferior, and that it doesn't work as well as a movie, but I can't see why you wouldn't find any amusement in it at all.

More often than not..... Excuse me, MUCH more often than not, a TV show that has been turned into a movie is a complete failure, Red Green had an even larger challenge because the show had so many daily segments that couldn't be thrown into the movie (e.g. Handyman's corner) however he uses his genius to throw in the same concepts into the movie. It was pretty nice on plot and hilarious. Been a while since I laughed that hard at a movie.

The one thing this movie fails to do at no fault of its own or anybody elses is appeal as greatly to the non-watching audience (of the TV series), and had it tried to be more sucessful in that aspect the entire movie would have failed in every way. Sure there was some lost potential revenue, however the Red Green fans should have loved it.

If you watch the show, you cannot hate this movie. Many TV shows that become movies SUCK, sometimes this ruins the show too cough...cough...Power Rangers...Cough... Excuse me there. LMAO.

It was good because Red Green stayed in character for the movie and didn't make a new personality for the movie. Same goes for the rest of Possum Lodge.

Being this never came to my local theater, I figured that I would have to wait for it to come out on video. As luck would have it, out local PBS station played it, and I loved it.

Red, and his buddies are trying to save Possum Lodge by winning third place in a duct tape contest. Of course, the fun was getting to the contest. I was a little disappointed though that some of the characters that I like weren't in it, like Hap, the ferry boat captain who is the biggest liar one could meet, or Douggie, the guy who thought his monster truck is a symbol of his manhood.

That aside, I enjoyed it very much. Like the t.v. show, it is a good poke of fun of the male ego.