Haggard

I first saw this movie at a video store and, being the Bam Margera fan I am, had to rent it to see what it was all about. Since I have a huge and stupid (note the word stupid) sense of humor, I found this movie absolutely hilarious. Some of the parts are pointless and random, but that's what makes them so amusing. You'll need to think things like getting slapped in the face and bashed on the head with a watermelon are funny in order to appreciate this movie. I was really impressed.

I was also surprised at the acting. These people actually did a good job. Nothing Oscar worthy, but well enough to get past the amateur level. Teens and young adults would probably find this more entertaining because of the modern slang and situations used. I wouldn't suggest watching this with your parents and vice versa.

All in all, the acting was great, the script was hilarious, and the story is really something you can relate to.

In honor of the late Ryan Dunn, I felt I needed to watch Haggard: The Movie. I watched the sequel to the film made six years after this, Minghags, and really enjoyed it. Seeing this one, it clears up a lot of the confusion I had with Minghags. I wasn't aware this was the predecessor to the film, but seeing it now, really makes me take a liking to Bam Margera's independent style of filmmaking.

Before Jackass, Bam Margera took part in a series of videos he called CKY (named after the band). He wound up making several volumes of him and his friends, like Raab Himself, Ryan Dunn, Rake Yohn, etc, goofing around and being themselves. Then he went on to be a member of Jackass and do his own MTV shows like Bam's Unholy Union and Viva La Bam. Haggard: The Movie was the middle of the road coming out in 2003. A year after the first Jackass movie.

It's supposedly a true story remade with the characters in the movie are played by Bam's friends. Ry (Dunn) is upset when he finds out his girlfriend Glauren (Rivell) wants time apart. He then realizes that she is hanging out with a heavy-metal punk nicknamed Hellboy (Yohn). To help their friend out, Valo (Margera), Falcone (DiCamillo), and Raab Himself (Raab) all try to vandalize Glauren's house. But Ry is still sinking deeper and deeper into a mental depression.

The humor is totally up my alley with lots of rough housing, name calling, and well acted, natural conversations. The movie is not too long or too short. It is perfectly managed. The only downside is it has one montage too many. Many of the montages in the movie are set to skateboarders with rock music by CKY, Gnarkill, and H.I.M. in the background. I have no problem with any of the music played, but there are at least four montages in the film that go on for way too long.

Other than that, the film is pretty close to perfect. I was under the assumption that since most of these guys are used to doing dangerous stunts they couldn't really do justice acting in a full length movie. I was way off. They pulled if off perfectly. In no way was I expected Bam and Dunn could both act as well as they did.

Between the soundtrack, the filming style, the humor, the acting, and the story, Haggard: The Movie wins in every category. Except the fact that the number of montages can be tedious, and the subplot of an invention doesn't really take off as much, but we see it done with more in the sequel. Haggard: The Movie is not only a great film, but a great way to remember an amazing actor and daredevil.

Starring: Ryan Dunn, Jenn Rivell, Bam Margera, Brandon DiCamillo, Chris Raab, Rake Yohn, and Vincent Margera.

If you've seen the skits that Bam and crew do on CKY, this is basically a cross between that and a funny but generic comedy. I enjoyed it but I wasn't expecting a "real" movie.

Ryan Dunn, who apparently the plot is based on, is really the only one who seems to act decently and isn't so cartoonish that he's unbelievable. Bam does a passable job acting -basically just playing himself. Chris Raab stays in his retarded Marlon Brando character and Don Vito is basically himself dressed as Julius Caeser and you can go with that since people do have crazy relatives in real life. Brandon Dicamillo just does the over the top characters he does on the CKY videos which is fine in CKY but it takes you out of the suspension of disbelief a little too much. Between his silly skit characters (one of them has a "beard" that looks like a bag of cotton balls glued together) and the film breaking into random music video-esquire skate montages, it doesn't seem like a narrative movie anymore.

There is potential -the cinematography, directing and editing are all pretty good, though at times self-indulgent, and fans of CKY should enjoy it but I wish it would either try to be a "real" and believable movie or just be over the top ridiculous and funny. It seems to try to be both at once... and that is where it fails. Again, I enjoyed it despite the flaws but I think it would be more interesting to see Bam try to make a real film and not A CKY video with a plot.

When I first heard of this movie, I was mildly interested. The plot seemed like an opportunity for hilarity and Bam Margera as an actor and director seemed like something that might be good. When I found out the movie starred Ryan Dunn, I was even further interested (I was a fan of Homewrecker when it was on... Yeah, I'm that lame). However, I didn't have much faith in it being to good. When I sat down to watch it, I was afraid I was wasting my time.

But even just five minutes it it became apparent that I'd been wrong.

I thought that the comedy of this film was delightfully idiotic, and definitely not suited for all kinds of people. The acting was rather good, much better than my expectations. I thought that it was rather easy to relate to Ryan's character, which gave the movie a center that was believable. This is key in a movie as outrageous as this (and is probably why I was not a fan of Borat).

The movie is not suitable at all for younger people, DUH, and will definitely create more than it's fair share of awkward turtles if watched with parents. But it's a good one for you and your buddies on a movie night.

For an Indi/home-made film its pretty amazing what some quasi-actors, a few cameras and a half decent script can do.

this film actually has a load of cool features. the music is great; metal/indie and some orbital, camera work is great with the usual CKY fast-forward scenes and montages, the story is actually quite amusing and interesting with a few cky stunts/jokes and skate skits mixed in. the main characters are bam, ryan and brandon and the story revolves around ryan's ex girlfriend who dumped ryan for a metaller called Hellboy (rake yohn).

the acting is pretty impressive too, even tho that each character in the film plays a similar role to their real life selves (even brandon who plays a crazy foreign guy).

there's the usual cameo's from april/don vito/raab/etc which will apeal to any cky fan.

at the end of the day its a really well acted skate/music video with great humour, stunts, a love story, violence, a chase scene, and some sick and weird stuff mixed in too... so something for everybody

great film... buy it!