FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.--What hath the Farrelly brothers wrought?
With dumb and dumber resulting in boxoffice gold these days, it's not surprising that some enterprising indie filmmakers would eventually abandon the usual low-budget genres (romantic comedies, urban angst, etc.) and attempt to create a yukfest as a debut feature.
This is the case with Denis Zervos and Joe Convery's "Skippy", which recently received its world premiere at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Unfortunately, dumb does not always equal funny; this effort makes a typical Adam Sandler vehicle look like a Bergman film in comparison.
Convery also co-produced, wrote the screenplay and stars in the title role as a would-be lovable misfit with more than a slight physical resemblance to Michael Richards. Skippy ekes out a living guessing people's weights on the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore, but his main focus of obsession is beautiful movie star Julia Fontaine (Paget Brewster), who has just announced a nationwide contest to find her next boyfriend.
Skippy dutifully treks to Hollywood, where he engages in a series of wacky adventures with a variety of bizarros and fails at a succession of odd jobs provided by an employment agency headed by the sleazy Ringo (veteran character actor William Sadler). And although Skippy is inexplicably chosen by Julia's managers to be her boyfriend, things become complicated by the return of a mad stalker who keeps making attempts on her life.
Convery, wearing a series of outrageously tacky shirts, projects a not-entirely-unappealing goofiness, but the endless procession of lame gags that fill the movie's brief 82-minute running time range from bad to worse. All the performers try hard -- very hard -- to garner laughs, but when one of the funnier bits involves talking into the rear end of a flatulent dog, there's only so much anyone can do. Failing on the humor front, the filmmakers fall back on the Troma aesthetic: populating the film with as many bikini-clad babes as the camera can take in.
Tech credits on this ultra-low-budget venture are passable, and it's fun watching Sadler chew up the scenery in an uncharacteristic nonvillain role, but otherwise "Skippy" can be quite easily skipped.
SKIPPY
Planet Earth Entertainment
Credits: Directors: Denis Zercos, Joe Convery; Screenplay: Joe Convery; Producers: Joe Convery, Timothy Patrick Brien; Director of photography: Goran Pavicevic; Film editor: Skip Spiro; Music: Mark Northam. Cast: Ringo: William Sadler; Skippy: Joe Convery; The Hitman: Danny Trejo; Gordan Gates: Allan Rich; Julia Fontaine: Paget Brewster; Larry: Timothy Patrick O'Brien. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 82 minutes.
With dumb and dumber resulting in boxoffice gold these days, it's not surprising that some enterprising indie filmmakers would eventually abandon the usual low-budget genres (romantic comedies, urban angst, etc.) and attempt to create a yukfest as a debut feature.
This is the case with Denis Zervos and Joe Convery's "Skippy", which recently received its world premiere at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Unfortunately, dumb does not always equal funny; this effort makes a typical Adam Sandler vehicle look like a Bergman film in comparison.
Convery also co-produced, wrote the screenplay and stars in the title role as a would-be lovable misfit with more than a slight physical resemblance to Michael Richards. Skippy ekes out a living guessing people's weights on the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore, but his main focus of obsession is beautiful movie star Julia Fontaine (Paget Brewster), who has just announced a nationwide contest to find her next boyfriend.
Skippy dutifully treks to Hollywood, where he engages in a series of wacky adventures with a variety of bizarros and fails at a succession of odd jobs provided by an employment agency headed by the sleazy Ringo (veteran character actor William Sadler). And although Skippy is inexplicably chosen by Julia's managers to be her boyfriend, things become complicated by the return of a mad stalker who keeps making attempts on her life.
Convery, wearing a series of outrageously tacky shirts, projects a not-entirely-unappealing goofiness, but the endless procession of lame gags that fill the movie's brief 82-minute running time range from bad to worse. All the performers try hard -- very hard -- to garner laughs, but when one of the funnier bits involves talking into the rear end of a flatulent dog, there's only so much anyone can do. Failing on the humor front, the filmmakers fall back on the Troma aesthetic: populating the film with as many bikini-clad babes as the camera can take in.
Tech credits on this ultra-low-budget venture are passable, and it's fun watching Sadler chew up the scenery in an uncharacteristic nonvillain role, but otherwise "Skippy" can be quite easily skipped.
SKIPPY
Planet Earth Entertainment
Credits: Directors: Denis Zercos, Joe Convery; Screenplay: Joe Convery; Producers: Joe Convery, Timothy Patrick Brien; Director of photography: Goran Pavicevic; Film editor: Skip Spiro; Music: Mark Northam. Cast: Ringo: William Sadler; Skippy: Joe Convery; The Hitman: Danny Trejo; Gordan Gates: Allan Rich; Julia Fontaine: Paget Brewster; Larry: Timothy Patrick O'Brien. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 82 minutes.
- 12/1/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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