When Nature Calls (1985)
When Nature Calls
aka The Outdoorsters
Directed by Charles Kaufman
Written by Charles Kaufman and Stan Weisman
I find this gag to be ‘bearable’.
“How many people remember that Eleanor Roosevelt had great tits?”
Seven years after Kentucky Fried Movie, a different group of filmmakers decided to basically do the same thing: a theatrical experience that was a parody of the entire theater going experience. You get fake trailers, fake theater announcements, fake concession stand ads (here’s a hotdog doing another hotdog doggy style! brilliant!) and a feature presentation that makes mockery of a big hit.
It doesn’t help us much now that the object of the film’s scorn, the series of Wilderness Family movies in the late 70’s, are pretty much forgotten now. Those were a series of film where the dad took everyone out into the woods where they were much happier without the technology. And, you know, other people.
They use most of the film’s run time to skewer this, but rather than settle for a simple parody, they mixed their approach with the Airplane gag-a-minute philosophy, and while there are a lot (a lot) of misses, it still works out since the people in front of the camera seem to be having such a good time.
|
Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters (1982)
Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters
1982
Directed by Jopi Burnama & Charles Kaufman
Well, this is fun.
“Have you ever heard that little voice inside you say that there’s more to life than slamming another woman to the mat with incredible force?”
We continue our journey through the depths of Troma’s catalog this week with Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters, which contains two reliably Troma staples:
- The movie’s cover is a beautiful, buxom woman who appears nowhere in the film.
- The movie rips off a better known source but sprinkles in a lot more self congratulation and jokes about bodily functions.
Here we have the minds behind the scenes ripping off Woody Allen’s What’s Up Tiger Lily? If you don’t know that movie, a simple summation should suffice: Allen took a Japanese spy film and dubbed new dialogue and sound effects over the action.
That’s a pretty great way to make a cheap movie. Charles Kaufman seized upon this and decided to do the same. Since Charles Kaufman is the man who wrote and directed When Natures Call and not the man who wrote and directed Sleeper, the results are less than stellar.
Litmus test time: here’s the film’s signature joke. “What is brown with holes in it?”
If your response was “Swiss shit”, congratulations, that’s right. Now tell the joke about a dozen more times and you’re basically reenacting a large portion of the film.
That violates copyright laws. You could go to jail. (But I won’t tell.)
|
Categories: Movie Reviews, Ugly Tags: Barry Prima, Charles Kaufman, Eva Arnaz, Films of Troma, Indonesia, Leily Sagita, Ruth Pelupessi, Wieke Widowati, Youstine Rais
