Get a Job

Like the other reviewer who mentioned it - you must have to be from the area to find it funny. Willie was a fun and natural actor but the dude playing the other guy is. Not. Funny. Like at all. Nothing he said was funny. Nothing he did made us laugh.

All he did was make dumb little kid style jokes that you used to make in junior high and think we're hilarious. He's supposed to be the fish out of water and the simpleton but he was just annoying.

The story and people are simple and that's totally fine. But the jokes just aren't funny. All of us watching say in silence waiting for it to get funny and it never did.

I'm sure if you're from there and know the places, stores, parks, people, etc it's probably a lot of fun. As someone not from there it just kind of says and does unfunny things for 90 mins until it ends...

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Michigan-- I came across this very funny movie while reading a review in the Clare County Recorder. As I was enjoying the serenity of Northern Mid-Michigan and a cup of Irish coffee at the famous Doherty Hotel, I became intrigued by GET A JOB the movie. The first eye-opener, was noticing all the star-power in GET A JOB. Yes, I was impressed.

The leads, Willie K, and Eric Gilliom deserve a sequel. The film was well received in their Film Festival run, including getting a top honor at the Las Vegas International Film Festival. Most importantly, I came across some of their previous music and I was sold. Willie K and Eric Gilliom are veterans on the Pacific entertainment circuit. They also have had some award winning CD's as the BAREFOOT NATIVES. The movie journey has William (Willie K), an employment agent, who is trying to save his own job. He can do it if he finds a job for the stumble-bum Merton (Gilliom). Watch for the Japanese granny scene mid-movie, the sequence steals the show.

How did writer/director Brian Kohne pull all this all together? I do not know but I sure enjoyed the ride. The movie entertained thoroughly. The team of Willie K and Gilliom reminded me of 'Lewis and Martin'. The Maui musical entertainers were as spectacular as a Hawaiian sunset. The movie camera lens showed an underground Hawaii and sustained the laughs throughout.

The goat scenes and 'Goat Wrestling' championships had me howling. Maui is sure more than beaches, sunrises and umbrella drinks. The movie showcased how regular folks have to make a living.

I noticed also in the trades that GET A JOB has received a nomination for a 2013 Na Hoku Hanohano award (Hawaiian Grammy) for the movie soundtrack. Another featured artist in the movie, Amy Hanaiali'i, and world renowned ukulele player, Jake Shimabukuro, also got nominations. Augie T, added some comedic support in the film. I was even more surprised when Mick Fleetwood opened the finale wedding band scene pounding percussions. The cameos by Willie Nelson and Pat Simmons were an added bonus. I knew of Carolyn Omine's fame from the Simpsons on FOX-TV. What a thrill to see some girl-power. Again, the movie screams sequel and the soundtrack gets raves.

The GET A JOB musical soundtrack was so compelling; I went to the movie website and bought the DVD and CD. It was cheaper than a Hawaiian vacation and I can enjoy the experience over and over.

This is one I can watch over and over, and laugh, out loud, every time. I love to share it with friends for that reason.

Why? Unlike some so-called "regional" films that only tickle funny bones locally, "Get A Job" uses an island voice to tell a universal story about work, play and love. Yes, you will laugh more if you're from Hawaii, if you've been to Hawaii, if you like mangoes, love Hawaiian music or have ever heard of Willie K, Eric Gilliom or Jake Shimabukuro. And, yes, the film delivers even without those connections.

Willie K is "William," the employment recruiter walking in two worlds. He wears a wild 'Fro with his noose of a suit and tie; he's got a meditation fountain on his desk, a guitar in the closet, a wheezing old car, and a girlfriend who wants to get married.

"Merton," played by Eric Gilliom, is the clueless surfer who goes with whatever, waiting for the big wave or cruising around the neighborhood. When a random encounter with a bicycle, a mango and a traffic jam bring the two together, William makes it his mission to help Merton get a job.

Hilarity ensues, of course. But what is more interesting, and important, is how Maui filmmaker Brian Kohne manages to bring the story to the screen with such affection and insight. By using, rather deploying, some of Hawaii's best-known entertainers like musicians Willie K, Gilliom, Henry Kapono, Amy Hanaiali'i, Augie T (as a motorcycle cop) and Jake Shimabukuro (as a Japanese tour bus guide), Kohne makes Hawaii folks feel like we're in the company of friends.

For other folks, there isn't a neighborhood in the country that doesn't have a William and a Merton - and all the others who think they know what's what and what's best for them. Their journey might play out in the snow instead of surf, or on the streets instead of sugar cane fields, but we know these characters because they are us, and we are healed by laughing at ourselves, our missteps and our funky successes in whatever form they take.

Plus it's got a killer soundtrack.

'Martin and Lewis' are revisited in Hawaii Comedy Barbara Bushta Schoolcraft College LIVONIA-- We've got some summer fun in the new comedy indie that bills itself as, "Hawaii's first major motion picture comedy." GET A JOB is madcap fun in Hawaii.

The protagonists are Willie K and Eric Gilliom. Willie K is the straight man to Eric Gilliom's crazy, burned-out surfer character. Willie K is a job search agent who keeps sending Gilliom on various employment searches. Gilliom is a surfer, out-of-water, who needs a job to help his Hawaiian auntie. There is also a subplot about Willie K trying to marry his girlfriend Laura (Carolyn Omine).

Willie K and Gilliom remind you of some of the 'Martin and Lewis' motion picture comedies from the 50's. This would play well in France also. One of the best bits entails Gilliom driving a school bus full of Japanese tourists. Ukulele sensation, Jake Shimabukuro, steals the scene. The bus is being chased by a crazed Maui cop, Augie T. This Filipino comic is a very real and he has plenty of likable sequences.

The duo gets into numerous funny and silly situations. Some are PG-humorous and some are soft R-rated fun. Gilliom becomes the comedy center of the film. The soundtrack is great and summer-fun bouncy. The music is one of the film's best assets and there are cameos from Mick Fleetwood, Willie Nelson and Pat Simmons.

Of course, there is the beautiful Hawaiian scenery throughout the film. The movie ends with a hilarious wedding scene. Cinematographer, Dan Hersey, gets kudos and praises for plenty of close-ups.

Written and directed by Brian Kohne, GET A JOB is good-natured fun for the summer party and backyard bar-b-que crowd.

xxx

Hilarious. Yes. Belly-laughing hilarious! Yeah, and some parts are crude and in bad taste, but the rest of it is so funny, I forgave those parts. Willie K was really impressive in his role...a natural...he's just a brilliantly good entertainer. He's left me in tears with his arias only to follow one up with dueling banjos and Your Cheatin' Heart...so this was a totally different experience of him. Way to go Willie!

Loved the local dialect, as well as the sophisticated themes of the human condition...vices and virtues. Definitely fun.

It is particularly good fun for the cameos of local musicians, including Jake Shimabukuro, Mick Fleetwood, Willie Nelson et. al. And of course, the scenes of Maui, from Wailuku to Kula to Lahaina.