Buried on Sunday

This was probably one of the stupidest movies I've ever had the misfortune to see. I didn't laugh once while watching it. While I understand that the intent of this film was to be an over-the-top farce, I've seen dog food commercials that were far more entertaining and funny.

It's too bad Paul Gross even had to do this god awful piece of garbage, as it was an utter waste of his talent as an actor. At times, one feels as if he/she were watching a series of bad Saturday Night Live sketches. It would truly be a shame for the world to think that all Canadian films were this bad.

There is some good acting in this movie, but not much. I wouldn't put all the blame on the actors though; they don't seem to have much to work with, as far as dialogue goes. The script is fairly weak and uneven overall - this movie is not funny and not enough of a satire to justify its implausibility, and not serious enough to make a hard social statement.

Maury Chaykin's presence is the best part of this movie (despite his working with poor dialogue). Unfortunately, although he plays a major character, that character seems to take a back seat most of the time, his actions being mostly inconsequential, despite his role as the Prime Minister's apparent right-hand man, therefore making the best part of this movie a relatively unimportant part.

Two things make 'Buried on Sunday' worth watching:

1) When Louis Del Grande picks his nose during a Privy Council meeting.

2) When Tommy Sexton spontaneously combusts and tries to put out the fire using Vodka.

Both of which were based on real life events, infusing this film with a dark sense of gritty realism.

This movie has its odd moments, but it's got fun performances from Chaykin (totally in his element), Gross (somehow making "unwashed" look sexy), and Virieux (whose character provides a somewhat saner counterpoint to the other two). Only in a Canadian film could you achieve such seriousness about such silliness, or vice versa, and still manage to throw in dark humor and good-looking leads. Moments of seriousness intrude; insane mobs and philosophizing, not-quite-kosher ministers; government-vs.-the-little-people; nuclear submarines and spontaneous combustion abound. You get to enjoy many of your favorite Canadian character actors with cameo parts ("hey! I've seen that guy somewhere!"), and by the movie's end, you find yourself wanting to don plaid and go catch some fish.

First let me say that this is not the great Canadian movie (that would be Jesus de Montreal) but it does entertain. It was made by the same studio which makes "This Hour has 22 Min" and "Codco" (non Canadian readers will not have a clue what I'm talking about)and a similar type of humour exists here. The basic story of a small fishing village attempting to break off from Canada and become a nation is a comment on the real problem of Quebec independence. The acting is not the best (Gross and Cherney are OK) but some of the references are so canuck they jump out at you. At one point two nuclear missiles are being used to force the governments hand. One is aimed at Mt. Rushmore, because the Americans would get after the Canadian government and force a resolution. The other is aimed at what they believe is a Canadian landmark of similar importance...Canada's Wonderland (for those who don't know it's an amusment park).

Not the greatest, but worth a watch on a rainy day..