Cow Monkey

COW MONKEY, the 2001 sequel to FISHING WITH GANDHI, is aesthetically more pleasing than the original. The camera-work is more professional, and the sound quality is lusher. What remains the same are Roy and Gil, the Reichmuth anti-heroes who are the highlights of each film.

The allegedly improvised persiflage of the brain-fried duo is as satisfyingly hilarious as in the first film. The brothers excel at non-sequiturs, partial-sequitors, fractional-sequitors, word salad, allusive chaos, brand-name mayhem, partial-birth recidivism, and upside-down blood fountains of verbal enmanglements. They're funny as hell. The Roy & Gil universe is parallel to our own but twisted in ways that brilliantly resemble the quotidian misunderstandings of the normal world outside. Here, the anthropologist and the bigfoot photographer are perfect straightmen for Roy & Gil. The interactions of the foursome are nearly as funny as the solo scenes with Roy & Gil alone.

My favorite sight gag is the recurring image of bigfoot wandering behind the oblivious characters in the foreground. Other highlights are the destruction of the ceramic Rotweiler, the dictaphone singing of the anthropologist, and Roy's ongoing analysis of the mythical pee howler.

Though not as manic as FISHING WITH GANDHI, COW MONKEY is more deliberate, more complex, and is musically better scored. Fans of the Reichmuth twins can look forward to further cinematic misadventures, which I await with wild enthusiasm. (I'm anticipating an introduction to Wanda III.)

Having seen "Fishing with Gandi" (FwG) I was really looking forward to seeing the ostensible sequel, "Cow Monkey" (CM). Unfortunately, CM isn't as good as FwG. Why is this? Well, to be honest, I think the primary "mistake" (if you can call it that) was the fact that CM didn't allow Roy and Gil (James and John Reichmuth, respectively) to go hog-wild -- it's a shame, since they're easily the most entertaining characters in FwG and CM. FwG predominantly featured the hilarous duo, whereas, in CM, they're splitting screen time with Grover (Dan Klein) and Sydney (Bridget Schwartz). I have nothing against those two characters, but they're not nearly as captivating to watch as ol' Roy & Gil.

There are some insanely funny moments in the film (the "Pee Howler" discussion in particular) but, unfortunately, they're few and far between. I feel this movie would have been a lot tighter, and more enjoyable, had the runtime been around 60 minutes, as opposed to nearly 90.

All in all, not a bad movie, but not as good as FwG. That being said, I am looking forward to seeing more material from the Reichmuth/Weisert team (I believe the Roy & Gil characters could become widly popular with the right vehicle).