Run Ronnie Run

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.

I'm not familiar with the Ronnie Dobbs skits on 'Mr. Show' but I really enjoyed 'Run Ronnie Run'. It's funny from start to end. In the beginning there's a cartoon which mocks the cine-goers and the movie itself is a spoof of the 'trailor trash culture', reality shows, censorship and stardom in Hollywood. The film is full of cameos and all the actors show excellent comic timing. Dot Lancaster's opening sequence and his reappearance are hilarious. But, the stars of 'Run Ronnie Run' are Bob Odenkirk and David Cross who also co-wrote the screenplay. It is their tremendous comic abilities that make this one a joy to watch. Even though both Ronnie and arguably Terry are dumb, the viewer roots for them no matter what. The offbeat and adult humour might not be considered as everyone's cup of tea but I believe that it's an underrated film. The humour works on multiple levels as satire, slapstick, dark humour and yes, there's something poetic about it too. Go and watch 'Run Ronnie Run'but remember that it isn't real, it's a movie.

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.

Why on Earth would the guys who gave us one of the smartest "premise" based comedy shows on television choose such an easy target for their first film? New Line's tampering is not the reason the film isn't that great, guys. It's the idea to begin with. A parody of red necks? Ohhhhh, how cutting edge. THAT'S never been done before. The guys seem to have gone out of their way to play two really tired characters, in a tired situation (Reality TV) that we've seen parodied over and over again in other places and are now about as fresh and funny as a "Full House" rerun. This is a really sad loss 'cause I doubt it's likely anyone will poney up the money now to give these guys a second chance.

Also, the cameos. Great stuff with Jeff Goldblum, and Jack Black's bit is hysterical, but usually the famous people are just standing around without a single amusing thing to do ( Sarah Silverman and Gary Shandling immediately come to mind).

Almost four years after HBO unceremoniously stopped running "Mr.Show with Bob and David",many of the producers,cast and crew of the show came together to make a feature-length movie about arguably one of the more memorable characters created on it:Indominable shirt-less redneck ne'er-do-well Ronnie Dobbs(David Cross,in one of the best showcases of his talent). This effort is a treat to those who enjoyed the show and/or the character,but I imagine the appeal is fairly limited.

This film is sort of a Rags-to-riches story,telling of just how Ronwell Dobbs went from ordinary,below-average intelligence hoodlum from rural Georgia who has a penchant for getting in trouble with the law,to a national and international celebrity and anti-hero,due much in part of the grooming of prissy,disgraced English film producer and failed inventor Terry Twillstein(Bob Odenkirk,who doesn't seem to get employed enough for my money). Terry gets his chance to groom Ronnie when the local sheriff in Ronnie's home-state(M.C.Gainey)makes a deal with Terry to take Ronnie off his hands. From there,Ronnie goes about finding creative new(and old)ways to get arrested in every state in the nation and many cities of many countries around the world. He,naturally becomes hugely rich and,as wealth is often to do to people,makes Ronnie an even bigger irresponsible ass than before.

Chock-full of cameos,ranging from former "Mr.Show" cast members such as Mary Lynn Rajskub(as herself),Sarah Silverman and Brian Posehn to non-show affiliates such as Jeff Goldblum,Matt Stone,Trey Parker,Scott Thompson,Mandy Patinkin,Jeff Garlin,Dave Foley,Andy Richter and Garry Shandling,this film is funny and loose,but it seems to be sort of an odd fit for the material it's presenting. Anyone familiar with "Mr.Show"knows that the sketches and characters had no end and merely blended into the next segment,simply to wrap around and come back to the host segment,whereas this movie has to flesh out a story that initially had one,maybe two segments of about seven minutes in length and make it into a full 90 min. film. It works just well enough as is,but it does kinda feel like writers Odenkirk and Cross and director Troy Miller were getting bored with the story and wanted to create a quick resolution to it. Granted,this show works no worse than just about any SNL sketch that got green-lighted in the past(Night at the Roxbury,anyone?),but having been a fan of the original show,I suppose I expected more.

As it is,it's a great showcase(as said earlier)for Cross and a tantalizingly sharp skewering of current television standards and what makes a celebrity in this culture.