Gentlemen Broncos

I'm going to keep this one short and simple.

Gentleman Broncos is the 3rd feature film written and directed by Jared Hess. Gentleman Broncos follows awkward sci-fi loving Benjamin as he tries to have his story, Yeast Lords, made into a "movie." But after going to a sci-fi camp and meeting his favorite sci-fi author, Chevalier played by Jemaine from Flight of the Concords, he steals Benjamin's idea and makes the book himself.

Now, first things first, unlike another That Was Junk writer, I like Napoleon Dynamite and I don't think it's the worst movie I've ever seen. I love it in fact; movies about awkward, weird people out of place people make me smile. And that's what this movie felt like. It's basically Napoleon Dynamite 2. The main character, Benjamin played by Micheal Angorano, isn't necessarily as weird as Napoleon Dynamite but everyone else around him is such as his mother, played by lovely Jennifer Coolidge who sells tacky clothing and giant balls of popcorn, is.

Everything and everyone is weird in this movie. And everyone is fitted in retroesque clothing and sporting bad haircuts. There is a lot of silly dialog and snappy one-liners that would make any teenager crack-up. Watching at 5 in the morning had me laughing, but honestly the lack of sleep could have been a factor. It's quite obvious Jared Hess has an odd and unique way of making movies. Even if one hates the dialog, I don't think anyone could deny that he is a great director. And cinematographer Munn Powell, also DP on Napoleon Dynamite, has a way of making Hess' movies look dated. Hess loves awkward, deformed, and over the top character. Héctor Jiménez, of Nacho Libre fame plays over-smiling and flamboyant Lonnie. Sam Rockwell plays the rough and tough Bronco and the flouncy Brutus. And Mike White plays the Jennifer Coolidge's slow husband. I loved all these characters because they were silly. I can most definitely guarantee that one of the big reasons this movie has a 5.4 on IMDb is because people hate the characters. They make you feel uncomfortable and have you asking "why are they doing that?" Their dialog, movements and just everything about them is completely unnecessary. So why do I love them, because everything about them is so unnecessary. It's like passing through a small town when you're coming from your big city home. Everything is surreal and you feel like you've stepped into another world. The Clothes are old fashion and the people are completely clueless. I love people and movies like that personally. I love movies that don't take their characters too seriously and can make them silly. It's the reason why I watch movies like G-Force from time to time.

If Napoleon Dynamite made you want to pull your eyeballs out then stay for from this movie, you won't like it.

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Seeing this was released in 2009 my first thought was, "Oh yeah, there WAS a follow up to 'Napoleon Dynamite'... wasn't it not that good?" Now I'm watching it in 2024 and it's better than 'Asteroid City', so either entertainment was so good in 2009 that 'Gentlemen Broncos' was considered "mid", or entertainment for the last decade has lowered the bar to where 'Gentlemen Broncos' is now comparatively "good". Regardless of how we got here, I'm enjoying it now.

Jared Hess certainly continues the weirdness in this one. 'Napoleon Dynamite' pioneered the art of bludgeoning the audience with awkward character actors, which he does again here. The first time I saw ND I couldn't find the humor through the cringe, and it took multiple watches to appreciate. GB is much less grounded in reality and more absurdist slapstick than ND, which imho makes it more accessible to a general audience.

I like the characters, the actors, and the story, but some of the characters lean a little too hard into their stereotypes to where they lose some believability, and the believability of the characters was a strength of Napoleon. Great cast, sets & props, music, cinematography, lighting, etc.

Saying 'Gentlemen Broncos' was "ahead of its time" implies it does something profound, which it doesn't; but it was ahead of its time in the sense that if it came out today it would probably receive more praise than it did in 2009.

As a fan of Breen, Wiseau, DeCoteau, Nguyen, MST3K, Rifftrax, EFAP, etc, I appreciate the bad films.

So, I completely understand why people do not like this movie. It can be gross, confusing, and just plain stupid at times. With that said, it is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Jemaine Clement and Sam Rockwell fell into the roles of some of the funniest characters I have ever seen. There are some lines when both in and out of context made me laugh so hard I cried.

This movie is not for everyone, I think people who like both napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre will find some enjoyment out of this(which I don't). More importantly, I think people looking for some sci-fi fantasy literature satire will get a kick out of this, because both the dialog with the "Authors" and all the excerpts from the two books had my laughing out loud constantly.

I watched this with my 10 and 6 year old boys and we laughed the whole time. It's a ridiculous movie, with crazy, interesting and incredibly funny characters. Jennifer Coolidge is brilliant, as usual. Benjamin, the main character, is believable as a thoughtful, possibly gifted outsider amongst crazies. There are lots of fun shifts between the main plot line and Benjamin's created one, the story that was stolen. His story is shown via perfectly bad sci-fi movie scenes, complete with dialogue believably written by a teenage boy. We loved it - happened upon it and were glad we did. I saw a negative review for the movie and will say I thought it was MUCH funnier and better than Napolean Dynamite.

I get that it might not be everyone's cup of tea but my wife and I found it laugh out loud funny!