Funland

Lavern and Shirley, SNL and the Police Academy films are all represented by the main characters and films writers. The director is also responsible for Sleepaway Camp II & III, the goofy sequels to the legit original. Add a parody of the Godfather and every stereotype of 80s movie characters, and you get this movie. It's slightly funny, but it doesn't come close to being horror, or even horror comedy. Watch it for the over the top acting and ridiculous plot, which at times is pretty funny. But the best parts are the background conversations "you kids are gonna have fun if I have to beat it out of you" (look for the mom of this scene, a pre-Trump Marla Maples), or the jokes in the sets, like the sign before the line of a ride that shows a clown holding a rubber sphere that says "you must be as tall as my balls to ride this attraction". It's all stupid sophomoric humor, but it's still funny. Not a must see, but a good rainy day movie with friends trying to spot the little hidden jokes.

Regardless of how you label this, surprisingly good or absolutely terrible, one thing is for sure: "Funland" is not what you expect. I was hoping for a bloody and violent horror/revenge thriller set in an amusement park; - especially since this is what the awesome DVD cover-art and the plot description promise. Well, guess again... Instead, this is a strange combo of black comedy and downright slapstick, albeit peppered with a few (too few...) sinister aspects.

Is the element of surprise a good thing? Not really, because the concept of a deranged clown-mascot seeking bloody vengeance against a clan of mobsters that took over his beloved theme park sounds tremendously cool, and now I very much regret that I didn't get to see just that.

"Funland" stars an actor named Bruce Mahler, and throughout most of the film I couldn't quite figure out where I knew his face from. Then, suddenly, I remembered he's the clumsy geek Fackler from the "Police Academy" series. And, bizarrely enough, "Funland" actually has a lot more in common with "Police Academy" than with any random horror movie/thriller from the 80s. It's the type of comedy that makes you laugh hard several times, but overall, it's poor and unmemorable.

There are strong moments, for sure. Whenever main character Bruce Burger turns schizophrenic, the story benefices from a moodily ominous atmosphere. His speech at the funeral of the murdered park owner, complete with black clown make-up, is also hilarious! Heck, I could even smile at Robert Sacchi's double-role as stereotypical Italian mafia-patriarch and - obviously - Humphrey Bogart's wax statue coming to life. The rest of the gags and running jokes are borderline pathetic, though, and the complete lack of action is unforgivable. The "revenge" of clown Burger is hardly even worth mentioning, and the ending is beyond dumb.

David Lander (Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley) plays Bruce Burger, an angry clown who talks to himself. Need I say more? Although I'm an old man and a lot of people reading this probably think "Laverne and Shirley" is a lesbian porn, I'll go on anyway. When the owner of Funland dies, a mob family buys the park and makes some changes that the parks clown doesn't approve of. After talking it over with his favorite puppet, he takes matters into his own hands. Don't get the wrong idea, this is meant to be a comedy although it's packaged more like a horror film. It's not a bad dark comedy if you can get past some of the bad acting but it did keep me mildly amused.

When a mob family takes over an amusement park after the owner dies under mysterious circumstances, the recently-fired clown mascot (David Lander, known as Squiggy on "Laverne and Shirley") seeks vengeance for the loss of his job.

The humor of this film is very strange, with a mixture of racist watermelon jokes, a "rectal surgical suppliers" convention, Natalie Wood's rowboat, some Mafia guys who take over the park, and a very, very good Humphrey Bogart impersonator. I am not entirely sure who this is supposed to appeal to (but I think it might be me).

What is really weird is that the film is sort of marketed as a Mafia picture. That is how Netflix sells it, and it is how the plot is described on IMDb (see above). But that is not even the point. A mentally unhinged clown gets fired and then seeks revenge. It does not matter if the mob is in the story or not, because the focus is this crazy clown.

I'm sure many people sit down to watch this film expecting horror. Although the chintzy tagline does suggest an even chintzier slasher flick, this movie rises above that genre. It's not a slasher flick at all, which is just fine. If anything, I would definitely classify this film in the Dark Comedy genre. It's almost an amusing and mocking look at insanity. The story is an interesting one, and a very creative one at that. Watch it if you enjoy a good chuckle, but not if you're looking for some cheap gore or contrived "pop-out" scare tactics. Prepare yourself for lots and lots of ethnic stereotyping, but done in such a way that it mocks those who actually believe in such stereotypes. The thing that makes this film a dark comedy is not only its ability to poke fun at bigots by catering to their ridiculous beliefs, but also at the utter random (and often crude) humor. If you enjoy films like Better Off Dead and I Love You to Death, it's almost guaranteed that you'll like this movie.