Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury

I watched this movie at a friend's tonight and I can unequivocally say that his is one of the most satirical movies...ever! It is smart (a number of self-referential levels, as well as allusions to other, commercially "good" (i.e. "popular") movies and TV shows: Rambo, Airwolf and the The Deer Hunter comes to mind. "American ideology" is deconstructed and re-imagined as (alter)native; the nativity of a clown.

But it's also so stupidly bad at the same time, you would sometimes forget you're watching a satire.

It's either brilliant or the worst movie ever.

I think it's both: watch it!!!

This movie is absolutely ridiculous and dumb, but I never stopped laughing throughout. Don't expect a high budget film with the craziest plot, but if you want to laugh, this one ought to do the trick.

What first got me to watch this film was Kevin Sorbo. I've been a fan since his Andromeda days and try to check out as many as of films as possible. Sure, mostly they are not high quality, but they still manage to be entertaining. And "Poolboy" is no exception.

It's difficult to sum up this film. It's a movie about a movie with inter-cuts from the director/producer and his assistant (or whatever she is). It is a self-aware satire bordering on parody with intentional stereotypes and is definitely not for those easily offended. It is filled with terrible one-liners and adolescent jokes, gratuitous nudity from both men and women and it takes itself so seriously as if it was competing for an Academy Award. But it does all that on purpose and it works.

This film is easily the best worst film of the year. Do not hesitate and grab a copy (plus a few friends and a six-pack). You'll have a bloody good time.

Poolboy 2 is a sarcastic mockumentary, in the style of Garth Merenghi's Darkplace (cue blood).

The premise is this: a rich, eccentric heir of ten years old gets to write, direct and produce his own movie.

The end result is a hodge-podge affair, littered with obvious gaffes: support crew visible in shots, smoking uncut cigars, camera crew visible in reflections, telephones still ringing after they've been picked up. The whole movie is a joke, which is precisely as it was meant to be (clueless reviewers take note).

While not as smart as Darkplace, it is certainly as silly. The random voice overs (the censors were adamant all references to witchcraft were removed) in particular were often hilarious.

For the people that still don't get it: this is a movie that was made to look bad. In fact it was made to look absolutely terrible _on purpose_. Please don't review this movie with silly comments like 'the acting was awful', of course the acting was awful, it was supposedly directed, written and produced by a 10 year old! This is all obvious to the majority of people with a sense of humour but I will state it here for the few that still don't understand: the terrible editing, the ridiculous plot, the never ending stream of racist vitriol: these were all deliberate.

TLDR; Ridiculous movie based on a ridiculous premise. Lovers of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace will see obvious similarities here and will most likely have a fun time. If you don't like or understand comedy or sarcasm then don't bother. If you are overly sensitive to racist comments, you will also want to give this a miss.

"Poolboy" is not a well made movie. It is not well acted, well written, nor well directed. You could call it crap and few could argue. And yet, underneath all that crap there is a bizarre kind of brilliance at work here. "Poolboy" is not a good movie, but I loved it.

The plot, what little there is, concerns a Vietnam vet coming home to find his wife and child murdered by an evil pool boy and LA over run by Mexicans (it's as racist as it sounds, but I'll get to that later). Overcome with grief, the Vet goes on a one man rampage against the evil Mexican pool boy cartel.

The story is utterly ridiculous and even less coherent than it sounds since half the film is made up of fake 'making-of' footage. It all congeals into a sloppy mess of rapid-fire (often vulgar) sight gags. Those easily offended by nudity, violence, blood, gore, and nearly non- stop racism need not apply. Those with a mind for it will find a frequently hilarious film that hearkens back to the glory days of old-school Troma movies (think "Toxic Avenger" or "Troma's War").

I said the film was not well acted before, but that is only half true. The actors act poorly, but they are clearly supposed to be acting poorly. The kind of over-dramatic, over-acted nonsense that is intended to compliment the ridiculous story. In that regard, they actually act pretty well. I'm a long time fan of Kevin Sorbo, but I surprised to see just how well he handled absurdist comedy. Danny Trejo also puts in an extremely funny performance as a kind of anti-thesis to his character from "Machete". The rest of the film is loaded with actors who deserve credit for going along with the ludicrous nature of the film.

The dialogue and filming are much the same as the plot and acting; they are poorly executed, but that is the point. The dialogue is often (though not always) hilarious and the direction has a rushed, film student quality to it that would seem amateurish if it wasn't clearly the intended look for the movie.

As much I liked the film, not everything worked for me. The biggest problem is that with many films of it's type, they rely on quantity over quality for the gags. About half the jokes fall flat, but at least the other half hit the mark. Also, the film is EXCEEDINGLY vulgar. Hardly 30 seconds can go by with some form of cursing, bloodshed, or racist material being shown. I'm not offended by explicit content, but after a while I wanted the movie start being more clever and stop being graphic just for the sake of being graphic.

All things considered, I thought "Poolboy" was a hilarious film, but definitely not one for most people; consider watching it with friends and a six-pack for maximum effect.