Staging gags is hard...
"Beverly Hills Bandits" is not going to win many awards, but I will give it this: it might have the weirdest, least appropriate cameo in film history. Understandably, anyone who makes a movie for three dollars is desperate to get any name actor attached to the project for some minor clout. With that said: was there really nobody else available except Ron Jeremy? I don't know much about selling a film, but Ron Jeremy doesn't seem like a huge asset when marketing your family comedy. It doesn't help that he looks really miserable to be there. When you're embarassing a porno actor, your script might not be very good.
Apparently the working title for this movie was "Homie Alone", which pretty much covers it. It's a complete rip-off of the holiday classic, just with (mostly) black actors. If I can give the movie any credit, it does show you how brilliantly the original "Home Alone" was executed. Some of the physical comedy is lifted directly from the source material, but none of it works because a decent gag requires some serious thought. You need to shoot and edit these scenes just right so the timing works out. Alternately, you can also just point the camera at some community theatre actors who are desperately trying to convince us they're being electrocuted. Comedy is incredibly difficult to film, which they clearly didn't figure out until it was too late.
"Beverly Hills Bandits" was written and directed by Vitaly Versace, whose complete disregard for copyright law is strangely impressive. One of his earlier films is "The Last Vampire On Earth", which lifts plot points and even entire dialogues straight from "Twilight". He's almost like a modern day Bruno Mattei, but Mattei a) shot his movies in Italy, where copyright used to be more lenient and b) STILL got sued for "Cruel Jaws" (guess what movie it rips off). Thankfully, Versace occasionally takes a change of pace and films an exploitation movie about the Anders Breivik massacre. It's quite a fascinating filmography, but even to his standards "Beverly Hills Bandits" is an absolute chore to sit through.
Apparently the working title for this movie was "Homie Alone", which pretty much covers it. It's a complete rip-off of the holiday classic, just with (mostly) black actors. If I can give the movie any credit, it does show you how brilliantly the original "Home Alone" was executed. Some of the physical comedy is lifted directly from the source material, but none of it works because a decent gag requires some serious thought. You need to shoot and edit these scenes just right so the timing works out. Alternately, you can also just point the camera at some community theatre actors who are desperately trying to convince us they're being electrocuted. Comedy is incredibly difficult to film, which they clearly didn't figure out until it was too late.
"Beverly Hills Bandits" was written and directed by Vitaly Versace, whose complete disregard for copyright law is strangely impressive. One of his earlier films is "The Last Vampire On Earth", which lifts plot points and even entire dialogues straight from "Twilight". He's almost like a modern day Bruno Mattei, but Mattei a) shot his movies in Italy, where copyright used to be more lenient and b) STILL got sued for "Cruel Jaws" (guess what movie it rips off). Thankfully, Versace occasionally takes a change of pace and films an exploitation movie about the Anders Breivik massacre. It's quite a fascinating filmography, but even to his standards "Beverly Hills Bandits" is an absolute chore to sit through.
- Sandcooler
- 1 juin 2025