The Godfather of Green Bay

I saw this movie at the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison on April 1 and it was great!- no April Fools. The movie does a great job poking fun at the way of life of people from Northern Wisconsin. The laughs are constant and not the same jokes and situations seen in every Hollywood comedy. The music was written by the BoDeans, a Wisconsin group, famous for the the lead song from the "Party of Five" television show. (Song's name was Closer to Free). From it's Packers/Bears jokes to referencing the "Macarena", this movie kept you laughing. The movie stars Pete Schwaba ( A Guy Thing) who wrote the story, Lauren Holly (Dumb and Dumber) who plays his love interest, Thomas Lennon (Reno 911) as local comedian, and Tony Goldwyn (Ghost) as the Godfather himself. The movie also includes Mark Borchardt, a successful independent movie maker (American Movie) who plays a local dj.

I have heard for quite some time about THE GODFATHER OF GREEN BAY because it's quite a forgotten movie and being the major expert on these movies (judging also from what I mostly rate and review when I don't go to theater) I knew that sooner or later I would have seen it, and I did last July tho it wasn't that great in the end.

Joe Keegan is a failed stand up comedian that has a chance of reviving his career by traveling to a Wisconsin town during the Rocktober fest and if he succedds, he will even end up on the TONIGHT SHOW. At the same time the title character, Big Jake Norquist (Tony Goldwyn) is not only a difficult and raucous audience member but is also interested in Joe's girlfriend and of course, trouble ensues.

The first part wasn't that bad I admit it. There were some occasional funny moments and jokes but as the movie progressed, the more it became like I said in the summary. A gratuitous scene of horse having intercourse (something reminiscent of Tom Green's FREDDY GOT FINGERED), a shoot-out in a toilet and the unfunniness of the lead's humour aren't exactly what I call great entertainment.

Overall, a misfire that tried to launch the career of someone who would never work again in the industry and overall, watchable for some occasional laughs here and there.

I'll never forget the day my wife and I took our nephew to see "The Godfather of Green Bay." How can we ever repay the webmaster at IMDb? More on that later.

Rarely have I been so excited to see a movie - here is the back-story… While surfing IMDb for local movies & times this past Saturday, my wife stumbled upon a link to "The Godfather" which was apparently showing at a theater some 40 miles from our home. "Hey look!" my wife said to me, " 'The Godfather' is playing!" Although we found it a bit strange that this 1970's classic was showing locally, my wife clicked on the IMDb link to make sure it was the movie we have both come to adore as one of the greatest movies ever made. Wow! The IMDb link brought up the 1972 Coppola classic - we reasoned that perhaps a re-release was in conjunction with the new Godfather video game. Whatever the reason, we soon changed our dinner plans for the evening and called our nephew who attends a local college to inform him to drop everything… "The Godfather" is playing.

After driving to our nephew's dorm then to the theater, an hour trip one way, my actual quote to my 18 year old movie loving nephew was, "I envy the pleasure you will have seeing this movie for the first time." So, let's see… how can I accurately portray our surprise when "The Godfather of Green Bay" began. I guess it was like the surprise Sonny Corleone felt when he was stuck at the toll booth. For, like Sonny, our evening had been killed. During a cavalcade of under our breath cursing, we realized the mistake - the IMDb web-crew had mistakenly linked the local showing of "The Godfather of Green Bay" to "The Godfather".

Funny thing - for all we know, "The Godfather of Green Bay" may be the greatest comedy of all-time. But since we were so extremely mad at the IMDb web-geeks and their error, and because we were earlier so jazzed to see "The Godfather" there was no way we could sit through even the first few minutes to find out. So, being disappointed beyond words, and with our popcorn tub barely dented, we left. Anyhow, as indicated, we have the IMDb web-master to thank for our botched evening. Which brings me back to my original question…How can we ever repay him? I'll make him an offer he…well… you know.

For a low budget movie, this movie was more then I expected. It had a good plot line and most of the character relationships were believable. I did have a problem with the relationship between the main character and his old school teacher. The age difference did not seem believable. It was well shot and did not look too "low budget". There were many different locations and even some aerial shots. It kept my attention with quite a lot of good comedy. Some of the improvisation from the secondary cast is great. Keep an eye on the character of "Ratboy", he kept me laughing through most of the movie. Drama, suspense, comedy, farce, romance, the movie has it all. If you get a chance to see it in the theatre or on video, check it out. If you are from Wisconsin or Upper Michigan, this movie should not be missed.

I recently saw this movie at the Saugatuck Film festival and loved it. It nicely captures small-town Wisconsin's unique charm, beautiful scenery and quirky characters, while also providing hilarious insight into the struggles of up-and-coming comedians. At times, I laughed so hard I was in tears! Tony Goldwyn is great as the Jaker, Lauren Holly is beautiful in the role of Molly, and Pete Schwaba is the perfect Joe to Lance Barber's hilarious Kenny. I also loved the fact that the score was done by Kurt Newman of the Bodeans, an awesome Wisconsin band. I can't wait to see this movie in theaters soon, and I hope that Pete Schwaba is working on his next creation - I'll be anxiously awaiting it.