Zeisters

Truly Awful. One of the worst films ever committed.

And don't think "I'll check it out because something that bad must be good, I mean, look at 'Plan 9'!"

That's what we did. It isn't... it's just BAD.

Whereas the audience is entreated to identify the promised "fat guy" and discover the degree to which he "goes nutzoid," s/he instead is placed in an epistemological quandary: how do we know who the "fat guy" is, and what type of behavior qualifies as "nutzoid?" Indeed, there are two fat guys in the film, and were the viewer to identify which of them were the intended referent of the title by analyzing their respective nutzoiditude, s/he would arrive at a standoff wherein the viewer is exhorted to discover the inherent social nutzoidity of a cruelly indifferent world harshly juxtaposed against the existential nutzoidness of a benevolent and childlike zest. Surely this film invites post-structuralist and semiotic analysis almost as bountifully as Girls Gone Wild (Totally Unexposed 8, that is) invites geopolitical discussion. And here I was, just expecting to see a fat guy going nutzoid .. .

My review was written in April 1987 after a screening at Liberty theater on Manhattan's 42 St.

Troma pickup "Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid" is a dud. Filmed in New York in 1983 under the titled "Zeisters" (a meaningless exclamation), pic is a tasteless effort that looks like a backyard home movie shot in 35mm.

Slim premise has ne'er-do-well Roger Morloche (Tibor Feldman) becoming involved with pathetic, 350-poun Dave (Peter Linari), nicknamed "The Mouka", when he crashes at a camp for mentally-challenged kids where his goofy brother Doogle (Douglas Stone) works. The brothers are tossed out after causing the kids to riot and Dave is a stowaway to their truck, getting involved in misadventures back in New York City.

Film takes a sentimental view of the big fellow, who cannot speak but is basically nice and pitiful. However, it uses his predicament as a steady source of cheap, vulgar gags which are neither entertaining nor sympathetic to his plight. Cast overacts to boot and film displays zero production values.

Troma released the film regionally starting last September, bud did not even bother to get an MPAA rating.

This film is so inane it will blow your mind. If you want to clear out your living room at a party, put this in the VCR and watch people leave the room one by one. I've cleared many a room with this video. It does have its super-inane moments that may entertain you, depending on your sense of humor: several quaaludes scenes (one with a quaalude being tossed about and then a minute later a whole bag of 'ludes is spilled all over the floor by the title character), the ultra-inane laughing scene toward the end between Rog and his lawyer, and, if you have the collector's edition of this film, the interview between Lloyd Kaufman (Troma Pres.) and John Golden, director of this opus. If you decide to rent this, you will likely get a funny look from the video store clerk. Recommended for those who like films that are way, way out there.

Abandon hope all ye who enter here. This may well be one of the worst movies of any notoriety I've ever had the misfortune to see. The wacky title may pique your curiosity, but make no mistake...this film isn't "so bad it's good", it's just irredeemably awful and stultifyingly dull. It's overloaded with long stretches of *nothing* where you pray that something, *anything* even slightly interesting might happen, but it doesn't. Apparently, someone thought this was a "comedy", but I fail to see anything in it that anyone with a brain might find funny, even unintentionally. I wasn't offended by any of it, I was too bored to be offended. The one bright spot in this horrible film is the mesmerizing acoustic-guitar soundtrack by Leo Kottke. Skip this horrible film, and buy Kottke's _6 and 12 String Guitar_ CD instead, you'll be glad you did.