No Clue

This film tells the story of a salesman who gets mistaken to be a private investigator. He is hired to investigate the disappearance of a famous computer game programmer. Hilarity ensues when he is clearly out of his depth for the increasingly complicated crime.

"No Clue" is really quite entertaining because the main character, Leo, is clearly unintelligent. His responses are silly for the situations he encounters, as he has no clue what he's doing. Yet the woman hiring him send to have no clue about his incompetence either. The whole premise is funny and at the same time suspenseful and mysterious. The mystery is maintained even through the numerous jokes. When the ending reveals what really happened, I think the plot is quite clever in making many characters suspects, but only one is the real crook. I enjoyed watching it.

I didn't recognize the name Brent Butt but was interested in seeing Amy Smart. Now, I wasn't watching the movie so much as I was listening to it and I soon realized that the main character's voice was familiar - I looked up and it was that guy from Corner Gas - Brent Butt. After three seasons of that sitcom I grew weary of the repetition but this was a much better vehicle for Butt's often self-deprecating humor, though I suppose if the movie had gone on much longer it may have become tiresome as well.

The story is, to a degree, predictable but there are enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. The acting is overall good and it of course has that Canadian wholesomeness that doesn't offend. By that I mean there was no going out of the way to ingratiate themselves to special interest groups, or the vulgar.

In the end it's solid movie with flashes of brilliance as well as banality but ultimately landing in the "fun for the whole family" category.

Despite starring (and being written by) Brent Butt, who was the star in the highly rated Canadian sitcom "Corner Gas", "No Clue" was only given a small theatrical release in Canada (and got a very tacky- looking poster to boot.) Watching the movie, it's pretty easy to see why the distributor was not very gung ho. It fails due to one big problem, that being that the movie simply isn't funny. At its best it just gets to be mildly cute, certainly never hilarious or even provoking mild chuckles out of the audience. Much of the humor is written to be pretty predictable and familiar.

Butt's screenplay certainly shoulders most of the blame for the unfunny nature of the movie, but Butt also stumbles in the lead role. His shtick of coming across as a somewhat dumb motormouth gets old very fast, and he quickly becomes somewhat irritating and annoying.

To top it off, while the movie thankfully does not have the tacky and cheap feeling of most other Canadian movies, it all the same has the look and feel of a television production instead of a theatrical movie.

Is there anything good to say about this movie? Well, unlike many Canadian films, it admits to being set in Canada and thankfully at the same time does not make a big deal about it. Though all the same, most Canadians will consider the movie as a whole yet another example of the poor state of the Canadian film industry.

I discovered Brent Butt's Corner Gas, Hiccups, and Corner Gas Animated just this year. Being in Texas, there's not a lot of Canadian programming that comes my way. No Clue is a fresh and funny take on the film noir genre. The "detective" isn't necessarily bumbling, he's just out of his depth / element. While I don't need my entertainment to be squeaky clean, it is refreshing to find something that makes me laugh without having to be offensive.

I gave this film an 8 for no other reason than I smiled the entire way through, it was certainly not brilliant like an 8 should be but it was light hearted farce that I enjoyed more than most films I have seen recently.

The plot starts as basic film noir,femme fatale arrives at private dick's office in crisis, only problem is it is the office next door and the guy is a nerdy novelty sales man Very well written and never taking itself seriously, poking fun at the genre with horrible self narrations and bizarre interactions it reminded of movies like Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, The Man Who Knew Too Little and The Man With One Red Shoe.

Best yet were no car chases in a modern detective film! People that gave this flick poor marks simply have no sense of humor! I'll watch it again!