Run Ronnie Run

Not bad but...clearly either a case of too many cooks in the kitchen or massive studio interference marred what could have been a real blast of a comedy based on the cult favorite show MR. SHOW'S most enduring sketch.

After viewing the DVD's deleted scenes section is becomes very clear that a truly hilarious film does exist somewhere in there (including a much better ending, and a great rant by David Cross inspired by a similar one he did on the very first HBO episode of the t.v. show) but as it is the film is fun and occasionally very funny but often only passably amusing. Some inspired cameos, especially the one featured in the Broadway Musical rendition of Ronnie's life story which I will not spoil for you here, some nods to the stream of consciousness style of the show itself and of course all the familiar cast faces (Bob and David in particular) help elevate this endeavor, but as a long time fan who has seen every episode of the source of this movie, HBO's t.v. show "MR. SHOW", multiple times, I have to say the end result is a bit of a let down. Don't get me wrong, it's enjoyable, but it's hard not to wish another cut could be made that includes more of the cut material. That along with cutting a bit of David Koechner's part (and he is pretty funny here, like he usually is, but less would be more in this case), or maybe losing his narration altogether, would really put this flick up where it should be. A mistake early on in the general concept of the movie was made when Ronnie was made more likable than his television version. The film suffers a bit from sentimentality as a result and loses a lot of the MR. SHOW bite. This new sentiment could have still worked, however, if the cuts to Koechner's character and the reinsertion of the deleted scenes (including even more that's featured in the trailer but aren't even in the deleted scene section) could have been made. Seeing how neither is even remotely likely, I'll just have to go on wishing, and enjoy the picture for what it is, a flawed attempt that is still a must see for fans. Here's to some alternate cut turning up one day, grainy and edgy...which is really the way MR. SHOW is meant to be anyway!

I am one of the biggest Mr. Show fans on Earth, I watched the first episode when it originally aired, and every episode after that. I've bought the 1st through 3rd season DVD's, and I'm convinced it is the funniest show ever. So when you know the comedy potential of Bob and David, then you see this movie, you wonder what they were thinking. Even now if you visit their site they will tell you themselves it was a horrible movie. You are just left wondering, how can these two hilarious guys not make a hilarious movie? I loved the Ronnie Dobbs segments on Mr. Show, but even when I heard they were going to turn it into a movie long ago, I couldn't imagine how they planned to stretch it out into a full-length film. Having seen the film it's apparent they didn't know how to either. The funniest parts of the film we've already seen in the Ronnie skits on Mr. Show. There were a few chuckles in the movie, but Mr. Show made me roll on the floor. There are a few Mr. Show characters in the film other than Ronnie and Terry, such as "Three Times One Minus One" the reporter Tim McCracken, and possibly a few others, I forget. The funniest part of the movie was Jack Black and his musical number, but it had nothing to do with the plot of the film itself, and this wasn't even one of Jack's best performances.

A swamp of wasted comic ingenuity, Run Ronnie Run has about 10 minutes of clever, even hilarious parody to its name before being cleaned out of laughs. For the remainder of the time, this Sundance handout spun off from David Cross and Bob Odenkirk's hilarious HBO program Mr. Show With Bob and David, stumbles along, confusing with trendy and audacious all the infantile throwaways and pop culture references that it tediously stretches to frame its running time. Camouflaged behind a bulletproof mullet, Cross plays the Ronnie in question, a beer-gorging deadbeat hayseed who whiles away the hours wreaking havoc on his Georgia hometown. His exploits are caught on tape by a Cops-like reality show called Fuzz, and he's noticed by pathetic infomercial personality/inventor Terry Twillstein, played by an astute Bob Odenkirk, who sees Ronnie's popularity with lowbrow viewers. He promotes the idea to TV executives for a show in which he is arrested in a different city each week. The show becomes phenomenally successful, making Ronnie rich and famous, surprise surprise.

But while the text isn't up to Mr. Show's lofty benchmark, some big laughs do emerge, as when Hollywood stars beseech Ronnie to rob them, or when Ronnie's one semblance of soul-searching on death row involves his last meal: waffles, squarely nosing out corn dogs. Cross and Odenkirk, who ultimately disowned this movie, hardly reproduce a shred of the wit of any one of various sundry sketches from their show, but David Koechner has some time here to do his thing as an illiterate alcoholic redneck moron and Sarah Silverman Program regular Brian Posehn is one of the writers.

Ronnie's guilelessness is essentially a one-dimensional gag. Cross can be hilarious, but he's just more fitting when he's bald. Here his act is eclipsed by the innumerable celebrity cameos such as Jack Black, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, John and Rebecca Romijn Stamos, Ben Stiller, Jeff Goldblum, Mandy Patinkin, Kathy Griffin, etc., and episodes which don't follow at all from the premises, including one that reveals the "gay conspiracy" overseen by Patrick Warburton and forces them to give up their plot for world domination. It's completely non-sequitary in the film, and it's particularly memorable.

For years I've loved the work of David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, and certainly enjoyed Mr. Show, probably the best television comedy show since Kids in the Hall went off the air. However, when Bob and David themselves set out to warn people how awful this movie was, you KNOW you had to be worried. The fellas claim that studio interference from New Line made the production problematic and that the cut of the movie they wanted was largely sabotaged in favor of trying to compete with your usual "Cooter Patrol" style Hollywood comedy in the vein of utter retardedness like, say, American Pie. In the end, they claimed that Run Ronnie Run had been turned into a piece of garbage, and they are RIGHT. I don't care how deep your love for Bob and David runs...avoid this movie. Everything clever, subtle, and interesting about their comedy is sabotaged in this flick. Yes...it has it's moments. There's a few scenes here and there where I did honestly laugh. But all together, that totaled maybe 5-8 minutes of the rest of the flick. I love these guys but I have to be honest...something screwed up here. Whether it was New LIne or Bob and David just not being too good at a movie-length format, this just isn't what Mr. Show fans want to see.

An average episode of Mr. Show began with one idea and, by the end, returned full circle to that original idea. Run Ronnie Run follows that cycle. Ronnie Dobbs was first introduced in the first Mr. Show episode, and now years after the show was cancelled, we return to Ronnie in his very own movie to close the circle.

The movie, as an inside joke filled with many inside jokes that only fans of the show will get, is a disappointment. Many situations can only be fully appreciated if you have seen the series from HBO. Those who haven't will find themselves wondering why so many jokes fell flat. For those who have seen the full series, we find ourselves wondering, once again, why so many jokes fell flat.

The movie, a loose plot based on one portion of the first Mr. Show episode, anchors a handful of poor skits that just don't have the wit or anti-establishment humor that the series showcased.

At three times the length and only half the jokes of a Mr. Show episode, it makes sense that Run Ronnie Run has been sitting so long waiting for someone to take a chance on distributing it.