Almost Heroes

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🎙️ EPISODE 285: 07.20.2020 Almost Heroes is notable for having the last feature role by Chris Farley before his death. It's an incredibly stupid film built upon an unfunny premise (What if The Odd Couple were also Lewis & Clark???) with a clearly deteriorating Farley and really annoying if not fully miscast performance by Matthew Perry in the straight man co-lead. Of the non-mockumentary releases in the Christopher Guest canon, this is definitely attempting to be in the vein of the great mid 90s SNL movies, and not a farcical Zucker brothers esque spoof like The Big Picture, but it falls fully flat. Guest was more or less a hired hand here and had little if anything to do with the writing and development. It does, however, feature a gaggle of the mockumentary regulars: Eugene Levy in an underutilized role as a pirate with a ridiculous French accent, and Don Lake & Lewis Arquette make cameos as well.

In fact, almost all of the supporting cast is giving it their all here and make for some of the more enjoyable parts of the film. One of only two or so times I genuinely chuckled was during this scene where Steven M. Porter as Higgins, one of the dullards along for the ride, tells the "shit pudding" story...

That reminded me of the 'almost anti-comedy' touched upon in the classic Sandler films and Norm MacDonald's Dirty Work (released just two weeks after this). But, unfortunately there's just way too much Perry, who is borderline unwatchable, delivering a weird combo of over-acting and lackadaisical line reads that render plenty of the jokes D.O.A. Although, to be fair, a decent chunk of that fault also lies at the feet of the writers. Take this scene early on with Farley and tell me where/what the joke is (other than just Farley acting deranged)...

The only thing which saved this doomed production from being a complete bomb in my eyes was what I'll call "the eagle gag." This is a through-line goof which pops up towards the final third of the film and goes all the way to the very end, featuring some just wonderful 90s FX that you frankly can't recreate this day and age. I've gone ahead and condensed/edited the meat of "the eagle gag" here into one 7-minute reel for your enjoyment...

Also, one more thing I liked, if I may... I really enjoyed what Eugene Levy was doing with his face here (this really could've used more of him tbh)...

And that's that. Christopher Guest would follow this up with two comedic gems in the form of Best in Show and A Mighty Wind so clearly this film's failure had minimal impact on him. Although it's missing many of the classic players and creators from the tremendous run of 90s SNL movies, it almost feels like the symbolic death of that era because of Chris Farley's involvement. I can't recommend it but it's far from the worst movie/comedy I've ever seen.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 284 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 285B ⫸

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