A crack team of nobodies comes together to take on the low, low, low profile cases that no one else would ever bother with. Some of the team members we can tell apart, but most we can't, neither by appearance nor (lack of) personality. Is this intentional parody? Or bad writing?
The cast is comprised entirely of white people, with one woman among the main characters. Is this intentional parody? Or bad casting?
A series of scenes conveys to us the mission the team will take on, follows their bumbling efforts to trip through a resolution to the mystery, and brings conclusion to this profoundly riveting tale. Along the way, characters will argue over nothing, then shortly after clear up their disagreement; they will reveal secrets about themselves and infinitesimally minor aspects of their person that aren't at all remarkable; and half-heartedly deliver lines that, like their capabilities or interests as a team, scarcely register in any measurable capacity. Is this intentional parody? Or bad writing?
A B-plot is introduced that genuinely goes nowhere. Is this intentional parody? Or bad writing?
'The Caper Kind/Swiss Mistake' is obviously a parody of superheroes, of secret agents, of private consultants, and of stories about D-list people trying to be superheroes, secret agents, or private consultants. The question is: Is this purposefully trying to lean so hard into that intent as to give a deadpan presentation of sub-sub-sub-subpar fare? Or is it just that poorly made? Is there, actually, a difference?
There are people involved in this short with some very notable credits. I find it hard to believe that anyone, even a high school amateur, could accidentally create something this lackluster, which has to mean it's all done very deliberately. In which case: A gold star for the effort. Yet I'm someone who appreciates movies that go for a consciously boneheaded approach to narrative storytelling, and I still find this a dull, mind-numbing watch.
I don't think a numerical rating could even be appropriate here. 'The Caper Kind/Swiss Mistake' seems to try so hard to be willfully shallow, boring, and uninteresting. The problem is that it succeeds.
Maybe I "just don't get it." The filmmakers apparently did what they set out to do. But why go to all that effort in the first place?
