Teddy Bears' Picnic

I saw this movie in Santa Cruz, with Harry presiding. Fabulous movie for those into politics, and those who know what "the Grotto", and Bohemian club are. Harry actually visited the Grotto as a guest, then made the movie. It's "low-budget", of course there aren't many people out there who would back a movie like this, and Harry did it himself. It tells well of their "bohemian" getaways! This is the way the corporate of America spend their time, at our expense!! (You can pick out who is whom.)Harry is not in it as much as I would prefer, yet Michael McKean picks up where he leaves off. I love the part about the "resident artist"! Watch this film, it sits well with any Michael Moore documentary. I wholly recommend this movie to people who are not Republicans.

Its not a good film. It's not very funny.

But what's worse is that this is little more apologist piece on behalf of long term Bohemian Grove guest Harry Shearer.

Quite how this film managed to get made leads to some very worrying thoughts. Viewers might want to catch Alex Jones's "The Order of Death" for an alternative view of the goings on at Bohemian Grove.

But politics aside, is it anything more than a grown up a very of Animal House? I'm sorry to say it's not. In fact to be honest, it makes Animal House look like Citizen Kane by comparison and I can only imagine this would be because of the poor concept at the start of production.

Not very original at all.

So would I rent it (again)? No. Would I watch it on TV? (not again!).

I love Harry Shearer. I've been a fan of his subtle, ascerbic humor going back to his Credibility Gap days on KRLA in Los Angeles, through the genius that was Spinal Tap, on to the Simpsons and right up til today with his weekly radio show. That's why I was so dissappointed in this effort; it simply isn't up to his standard.

With so much talent to work with and a perfectly good premise (no spoilers here), Shearer fails to pull off what could have been a good natured poke at the Bohemian Club. Instead, he briefly introduces us to a bunch of characters (never long enough to appreciate why such people would be at such a place), who would be much less annoying if they were at least funny. Alas, they are not, and the plot (such as it is) becomes just juvenille enough to bring the whole thing crashing down.

Even though this movie is an utter failure, I still have faith in Harry's gift for wry humor. Everyone lays an egg sooner or later, and this, unfortunately, what his.

The normally brilliant Harry Shearer stumbles with Teddy Bears' Picnic. All the components are present for a potentially hilarious and telling mockumentary-style satire on the famous Bohemian Grove, where an odd mix of New World Order power mongers, artists, pseudo intellectuals, and quasi-celebrity mix in a state of misogynistic, sophomoric, and fraternal abandon. An inspired and willing all-star cast combined with dozens of hilarious inside-joke instants, give the piece great scene-by-scene potential. But sadly, the work as a whole simply disintegrates into a surprising state of comic mistiming and sloppy direction. "Surprising" because of the intrinsic talent involved in the project. It seemed to me that this made-for-TV piece was conceived at breakfast and filmed by dinnertime, cobbled together and performed in one take. It is as if we are looking at the "dailies" rather than the final piece. With basically strong comic material, just a little TLC with the plot flow and a more careful tuning of the comic timing (in direction, acting, and editing) could have made this into a real cult classic. Should be remade to pack the real comic punch the material contains.

I was fortunate enough to see this film at one of its world premieres as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival. Unfortunately, Harry Shearer could not come and talk to us about it, as was scheduled, but from what I hear, his make-up Q&A session a few days later was riotous.

Naturally, this comes as no surprise. In the fashion of earlier works such as *This Is Spinal Tap,* *Waiting For Guffman,* and *Best In Show* (not all of which had anything to do with Shearer himself, necessarily), the comedy relies heavily upon quirky yet somehow realistic characters in situations to match. Improvisation and satirical exaggeration combined with portrayal of bizarre characters by some unexpected performers and comic pacing that only someone like Shearer could pull off make this one of the better comedies of the year. While I'm unsure of how well-distributed the film will be, all fans of the aforementioned films should make an effort to see it.