TV: The Movie

I really don't know what to say about this movie. There are no words to describe how horrible, brain-cell destroying, intelligence insulting, and lacking in any thought this movie was. Every time I've seen a movie I thought was the worst I've ever seen, I questioned how any movie could possibly beat that one. I asked myself that question when I watched "Jack and Jill". I asked myself that when I watched "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie". I asked myself that when I watched "21 Jump Street". Now, I ask it again, only this time I am nearly positive I will never see anything worse than this. Every bad idea, every ounce of non-creativity, mixed with the worst director and screenwriter in the world is the only way a movie worse than this could be made.

In the 70s and 80s, National Lampoon released some comedy films that are considered some of the best and funniest movie ever made with general critic and audience appraise, including "Animal House", "National Lampoon's Vacation", and "Christmas Vacation". At the turn of the 21st century, National Lampoon released more movies, all that have received poor acclaim from critics and audiences. This movie, by itself, is evidence that National Lampoon has lost its talent and has failed.

"TV: The Movie" is a compilation of comedy sketches that are not funny, are just annoying or obnoxious, are are simply made up of the lowest form of comedy. The film has a number of sketches that attempt to spoof TV shows like "Fear Factor", "Miami Vice", and "Jackass", though instead of spoofing the material, they just put the actors in a similar situation and just have them scream obnoxiously and run around the set doing something stupid.

The movie that this most reminded me of was "Movie 43", and while I despised that film, it was done a lot better. While the jokes were juvenile and even disgusting at times, the actors were put into a situation, but they were actually supposed to do something other than run around the set with no clue of what to do and just shout obnoxiously until the camera turned off.

It's at times like this I wish the device from the "Men in Black" trilogy actually existed so I could wipe my memory of ever seeing this movie and knowing I wasted an hour and a half of my life watching this movie that took about two seconds to think up and even shorter an amount of time to film and edit. There are movies out there that I don't see how other people could like them and this is one of them, though this film does make me think my judgment of those other films I feel the same way about are a little harsh.

Let me start out by saying this was much better than I expected. I thought that this would be absolutely terrible, and where it wasn't very good, I was entertained through most of it and a few things actually did make me laugh. My main reason for watching this is my love for the channel surfing films "Amazon Women on the Moon" and "Kentucky Fried Movie". While this was nowhere near as good, it still reminded me of those two films. The basic plot of this one....well there is no plot. It's a bunch of random TV show, commercial and movie parodies made to give you the rush of channel surfing. The major problem is that the movie has way to many sketches featuring "Jackass" stars playing themselves and pretending like they're big celebrities. There are way to many segments featuring (especially) Steve-O as himself. Many of the segments are just too silly, and too many are spoofing reality shows. The budget for the animated segments was obviously nothing so it was hard for this film to seem like a truly authentic channel surf. With that said, I was entertained through most of this. The camera work and direction was good, even though it was pretty much the same no matter what the parody. I laughed at least a few times and overall it's an OK way to kill 86 minutes. But if you want better films, go by my suggestions are rent or buy the two mentioned earlier in my review.

*My favorite segments were Gay Clowns part 1, and Fear Factor: Gang Rape.

My rating: ** out of *****. 86 mins. Rated R for pervasive strong language, nudity, sexuality and drug use.

This movie tries to be funny but fails completely. There are a few moments worth chuckling at, but the rest of the movie is so dull and pathetic that you simply won't be in the mood. The preview is actually a lot better. Don't bother with this movie, you'll just sit there wishing it will hurry up and finish. Borderline racist and blatantly sexist. I feel sorry for the reputable actors who agreed to be in this film as it will surely damage their careers.

Absolutely nothing like Jackass, or cky, so don't be deceived by the fact that some of the Jackass crew feature in it. There are barely any stunts, and the sketches are disjointed and inappropriate. The humour is consistently so lame it actually makes you feel embarrassed. Anybody that says it was a good film, or that the people giving it a bad review "just didn't get it" are absolute morons; the jokes are so obvious, and so old, that it's impossible not to get them, they just aren't funny.

Unquestionably one of the worst movie experiences of my life.

If I can describe this movie in just three words, I'd say: "This movie stinks!"

The jokes were not funny, it was blatantly stupid and deeply embarrassing. I waited for about half an hour, hoping that the movie will eventually become better, but it didn't happen. Instead, the movie became worse halfway through the show.

There are many movies making spoofs about movies and commercial, but they did it much better. For example, the Scary Movie. Both Scary Movie and National Lampoon : TV are the same in the sense that both made fun of the movies, but while Scary Movie made me laugh out loud, National Lampoon : TV made me crinch in embarrassment and made me look so stupid.

I can't remember any good moments in the movie except the part about El Apprentise ( a spoof about the Donald Trump's The Apprentice), when the candidates went to the boardroom to face the Columbian drug-lord. Other than the brief moment, everything about this movie in forgettable.

Heed my advise. Find / rent another movie instead.

For those who have seen cKy and Jackass, there will be no new surprises with this movie. Around 50% of this film features stunts from ex-Jackass celebrities Steve-O, Wee Man, Chris Pontius and Preston Lacy intermingled with spoofs on popular TV shows such as Fear Factor and Cops. The first thing you realise when watching this film is that it looks cheap. Very cheap. The second thing you realise is that this in not so much a film, but an hour and a half long sketch show with some gags funnier than others. Much of the humour strangely focused on stereotypical Mexican culture and may be offensive to some, but if not, don't worry, the is plenty more to be offended by. The acting is sub-standard. While Steve-O and co. are stuntmen and skaters, they are not actors. This becomes evident in any scene involving Wee man, where he can't seem to deliver a line without a huge grin on his face. Pontius makes a good effort playing Jesus, unfortunately the writing is quite poor so he never has the chance to be really funny. One thing I did feel for this film was Pity. Pity for Steve-O. Its been well documented that Steve-O has had problems with alcohol and drugs, and in and out of rehab, but in this film you are wondering how much is real and how much is scripted. In several scenes it is very apparent he is intoxicated while he destroys his house, his belongings and several body parts. Worse still, the impression is given that this was encouraged by the filmmakers for some easy footage. It soon becomes depressing watching Steve-O slowly destroying himself on screen. The movie is attempting to parody modern day television and the MTV culture, but it turns out that they are just parodying themselves. In fact, one section is named 'The world's most pointless stunts' I can only concur. While I enjoyed Bam Margera's cKy series and Jackass, this offered nothing new. There have been countless spin-offs of the genre, and the material has become very tired. There is only so many clips of a guy throwing himself on a coffee table I can watch before I get bored. Even Steve-O complains he has been short of work. He should take this as a sign and get a job which doesn't involve bodily harm. The shows parodied in the film were very recent, which suggests in about 2 years the subject matter will be pretty dated. Some of the sketches (The Jackass doll sketch most notably) were pretty terrible, but admittedly there were some funny moments. The Mexican 'COPS' spoof was funny, but will probably be seen by some to be racist. 'XXXL,' A spoof on Triple-X starring Preston Lacy did offer some laughs, and is the closest thing to a proper movie that it gets. The only welcome surprise in this film was the appearance of Jason Mewes AKA Jay from the Kevin Smith movie world. But don't expect Smith's sharp comedy writing, again the poor scripting prevents Mewes from really having the chance to shine.

If you like Jackass and are determined to like this too, it is advisable to put your brain on stand-by, and you might come away with a smile on for face.