Teddy Bears' Picnic

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.

I agree with the prior comment that this film is in the spirit of Christopher Guest's movies, but it does not quite reach those standards (although, of course, that is setting the bar pretty high). Certainly an amusing film, but one wishes that perhaps the actors had been given some flexibilty to show their comedic muscle (particulary John Micheal Higgins, whose improv in Best in Show was off the charts). Unfortunately, it's not only the fire that fizzles out a little towards the end. Overall though, clearly superior to most comedies out there (and some great satire re TV news), but with someone like Shearer and a cast of this quality one enters the cinema with such high hopes it is easy to be disappointed.

This film adds up to much less than the sum of its parts, and by parts I'm referring to the fantastic and star-studded cast. With Fred Willard, Michael McKean, George Wendt, Bob Einstein, the guy from Sledge Hammer (sorry I forget his name but he's great) and a ton of other people I am surprised at how bad the movie turned out. I think the big problem was with the script (lacks laughs and isn't a very meaty story, it's just a bunch of gags one after another and they aren't that funny) and mostly with the production value, the sound and video are of very poor quality. This cast deserves better and so does Harry Shearer, who also wrote and directed this. Maybe he was busy working on the Simpsons or something but he is usually much more funny than this movie would have you believe. 3 out of 10.

I love it, IMDb says: if you liked this title, we recommend "Chupacabra Terror".

I just got done watching Alex Jones' Order of Death where he talks about this film by Sheerer. I cant wait to rent it and see Mr. Burns' take on this "innocent gathering" of pedophiles in klan robes worshipping a giant Owl, should be a solid laugh.

I need 10 lines of text. My favorite role by Sheerer is in Blood and Concrete: A Love Story. Besides that, he has made me laugh numerous other times. Sadly, he going to make me laugh now for all the wrong reasons. The Bohemian Grove is a sick and twisted place, anyone caught defending it doesn't pass the laugh test.

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.