The Jerky Boys

"The Jerky Boys" is mostly an excuse to be silly. The plot is that slackers Johnny and Kamal spend their lives making prank phone calls and inadvertently call a mob boss (Alan Arkin), pretending to be another mafioso, thereby starting a wacky chain of events. I actually thought that the best parts were the pranks. Still, the flick's an overall fun romp. Far from the funniest movie ever, but OK for a viewing. As it was, I saw this movie right after I first learned of Alan Arkin by seeing "Catch-22", so this was a real surprise. And now he's won an Oscar!

Anyway, pretty funny. Also starring William Hickey (the mob boss in "Prizzi's Honor" and the patriarch in "Mouse Hunt").

Johnny Brennan and Kamal play themselves as a pair of prank callers who find themselves crossing wires with the mob. This is not one of the greatest films of 1995, but not very bad. More than half the pranks are based on their popular albums. If you're a true fan of "The Jerky Boys," you might enjoy this film. Personally, I like the albums better. Later, tough guy! My evaluation: ** out of ****.

What a big waste of time! I found myself yawning than laughing at this picture. It's soooooo boring. I laugh at the movie, Godfather more than The Jerky Boys. UGH!!!!! What a dumb movie this is.

I can make much better prank calls than the people in the movie, those fools don't know how to prank call anyone. This film is so moronic. It make me want to puke.

1/2*

Firstly I'm a huge 'Jerky Boy's' fan and their hilarious recordings (both on tape and CD), are historical; featuring the finest ever phone pranks. A film like this can never work because all of the once spontaneous jokes are staged, thus loses the whole point. The story is pretty weak to but on the plus side you do get to see them in person and contains some truly brilliant bands on the soundtrack ('Superchunk', 'House of Pain' and 'Helmet' etc). Also with the great acting talents of Alan Arkin but still falling way short of the real thing.

The Jerky Boys first audio tape was a huge success, and I enjoyed many hours of laughs from it. The second audio tape wasn't as funny, but still had some great jokes, and I never listened to any more after that. But I saw the movie on video, and it couldn't measure up. Just the same jokes from the first tape, only not quite as funny. And the token plot wouldve been better off just showing them make the calls. Alan Arkin as a mafioso was an amusing touch, following his psychiatrist from Grosse Point Blank. Everyone I know who saw this film thought it was mediocre, but the ones who never heard the tapes before thought it was somewhat funny, while fans of the Jerky Boys expected a whole lot more. Now Johnny and Kamal's 15 minutes of fame together are up, but at least they had a good run.