Picnic de osos de peluche

I was fortunate enough to see this film at one of its world premieres as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival. Unfortunately, Harry Shearer could not come and talk to us about it, as was scheduled, but from what I hear, his make-up Q&A session a few days later was riotous.

Naturally, this comes as no surprise. In the fashion of earlier works such as *This Is Spinal Tap,* *Waiting For Guffman,* and *Best In Show* (not all of which had anything to do with Shearer himself, necessarily), the comedy relies heavily upon quirky yet somehow realistic characters in situations to match. Improvisation and satirical exaggeration combined with portrayal of bizarre characters by some unexpected performers and comic pacing that only someone like Shearer could pull off make this one of the better comedies of the year. While I'm unsure of how well-distributed the film will be, all fans of the aforementioned films should make an effort to see it.

Oh my, I can\t believe I sat through this. This is unbelievably horrible and excruciatingly boring to say the best.

Here is what is on my cassette box cover...Teddy Pears Picnic. For 51 weeks a year, they run the country. For 1 week they run amok.

This is horrible. It is pointless and is drearingly so painstakingly utterly boring. If you take any advice from somebody who loves watching movies...take this advice. Either shoot yourself in the head or jump in-front of a speeding train or truck before you watch this film;m.

Film? Did I call this crud film? Where's the humor? Where's the running amok? Where are the floozies? What is so special about this garbage that it has a box cover? NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!! If I ever go camping in the woods and need something to use so I can make a path, I will certainly tear this cassette apart and stretch out the tape for as long as I can to find my way back.

Is it bad? Oh yeah...is it funny? NOOOOOOOOOOO. Is there a point to this cinematic schlock? Try to find one and you win an award.

I could go on and on about how crappy this is and what a waste of time it is, in fact I had more fun writing this review than I had watching 2 minutes of this.

Horrible in terms of story, comedy, action and anything which is supposed to result in a movie.

This is below substandard and hits an all new low. Oh...you don't believe me? Try it...go on...I dare you. Spend the money...go on...I double dare you.

Oh, now you get my point...yeah, well you damn well better listen to me next time I tell you how bad a video is. It's that bad....and boring.

If you have the guts to sit through this and figure it all out and find any humour in it...then YOU are a better person than me and I will be forever indebted to you.

Misleading box-cover and synopsis allowed me to think that after an hour of total nothing that this may get better. Oh yeah...right.

Even the best drugs and crates of alcohol and a pipe struck to my forehead at full force will not make me change my mind.

If you truly hate or despise somebody for any reason and you fell so compelled to harm them mentally, treat them to a viewing of this 2 times without letting them leave for any reason. They will truly suffer one of the worst painstaking injuries ever known to man.

When captured enemies must be forced to infinite amounts of pain...this is their torture.

Oh and if you got through the end of this review...you just enjoyed yourself thousand of times more than sitting through the entire duration of this nasty, vile piece of ughhhhhhhhhhhh.

I love Harry Shearer. I've been a fan of his subtle, ascerbic humor going back to his Credibility Gap days on KRLA in Los Angeles, through the genius that was Spinal Tap, on to the Simpsons and right up til today with his weekly radio show. That's why I was so dissappointed in this effort; it simply isn't up to his standard.

With so much talent to work with and a perfectly good premise (no spoilers here), Shearer fails to pull off what could have been a good natured poke at the Bohemian Club. Instead, he briefly introduces us to a bunch of characters (never long enough to appreciate why such people would be at such a place), who would be much less annoying if they were at least funny. Alas, they are not, and the plot (such as it is) becomes just juvenille enough to bring the whole thing crashing down.

Even though this movie is an utter failure, I still have faith in Harry's gift for wry humor. Everyone lays an egg sooner or later, and this, unfortunately, what his.

Its not a good film. It's not very funny.

But what's worse is that this is little more apologist piece on behalf of long term Bohemian Grove guest Harry Shearer.

Quite how this film managed to get made leads to some very worrying thoughts. Viewers might want to catch Alex Jones's "The Order of Death" for an alternative view of the goings on at Bohemian Grove.

But politics aside, is it anything more than a grown up a very of Animal House? I'm sorry to say it's not. In fact to be honest, it makes Animal House look like Citizen Kane by comparison and I can only imagine this would be because of the poor concept at the start of production.

Not very original at all.

So would I rent it (again)? No. Would I watch it on TV? (not again!).

The normally brilliant Harry Shearer stumbles with Teddy Bears' Picnic. All the components are present for a potentially hilarious and telling mockumentary-style satire on the famous Bohemian Grove, where an odd mix of New World Order power mongers, artists, pseudo intellectuals, and quasi-celebrity mix in a state of misogynistic, sophomoric, and fraternal abandon. An inspired and willing all-star cast combined with dozens of hilarious inside-joke instants, give the piece great scene-by-scene potential. But sadly, the work as a whole simply disintegrates into a surprising state of comic mistiming and sloppy direction. "Surprising" because of the intrinsic talent involved in the project. It seemed to me that this made-for-TV piece was conceived at breakfast and filmed by dinnertime, cobbled together and performed in one take. It is as if we are looking at the "dailies" rather than the final piece. With basically strong comic material, just a little TLC with the plot flow and a more careful tuning of the comic timing (in direction, acting, and editing) could have made this into a real cult classic. Should be remade to pack the real comic punch the material contains.