Gentlemen Broncos (2009)

I'm going to keep this one short and simple.

Gentleman Broncos is the 3rd feature film written and directed by Jared Hess. Gentleman Broncos follows awkward sci-fi loving Benjamin as he tries to have his story, Yeast Lords, made into a "movie." But after going to a sci-fi camp and meeting his favorite sci-fi author, Chevalier played by Jemaine from Flight of the Concords, he steals Benjamin's idea and makes the book himself.

Now, first things first, unlike another That Was Junk writer, I like Napoleon Dynamite and I don't think it's the worst movie I've ever seen. I love it in fact; movies about awkward, weird people out of place people make me smile. And that's what this movie felt like. It's basically Napoleon Dynamite 2. The main character, Benjamin played by Micheal Angorano, isn't necessarily as weird as Napoleon Dynamite but everyone else around him is such as his mother, played by lovely Jennifer Coolidge who sells tacky clothing and giant balls of popcorn, is.

Everything and everyone is weird in this movie. And everyone is fitted in retroesque clothing and sporting bad haircuts. There is a lot of silly dialog and snappy one-liners that would make any teenager crack-up. Watching at 5 in the morning had me laughing, but honestly the lack of sleep could have been a factor. It's quite obvious Jared Hess has an odd and unique way of making movies. Even if one hates the dialog, I don't think anyone could deny that he is a great director. And cinematographer Munn Powell, also DP on Napoleon Dynamite, has a way of making Hess' movies look dated. Hess loves awkward, deformed, and over the top character. Héctor Jiménez, of Nacho Libre fame plays over-smiling and flamboyant Lonnie. Sam Rockwell plays the rough and tough Bronco and the flouncy Brutus. And Mike White plays the Jennifer Coolidge's slow husband. I loved all these characters because they were silly. I can most definitely guarantee that one of the big reasons this movie has a 5.4 on IMDb is because people hate the characters. They make you feel uncomfortable and have you asking "why are they doing that?" Their dialog, movements and just everything about them is completely unnecessary. So why do I love them, because everything about them is so unnecessary. It's like passing through a small town when you're coming from your big city home. Everything is surreal and you feel like you've stepped into another world. The Clothes are old fashion and the people are completely clueless. I love people and movies like that personally. I love movies that don't take their characters too seriously and can make them silly. It's the reason why I watch movies like G-Force from time to time.

If Napoleon Dynamite made you want to pull your eyeballs out then stay for from this movie, you won't like it.

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Fmovies: I saw this movie last night at a sneak preview in Jared Hess' home city. It totally ruled. It was full of laugh-out-loud scenes, with comedy on every level, excellent performances, and a sneaky plot that Scorsese would have been proud of. Everyone in the audience seemed to love it, lingering to cite scenes to each other long after the film was over. Even the press seemed genuinely giddy to be there.

Everyone who follows comedy knows what a big hit Napoleon Dynamite was, and although Nacho Libre was extremely funny, it lacked some of the kitschy style that made Napoleon more than just a comedy. Gentlemen Broncos seems to be the calculated result of a wise decision to return to form. If Napoleon Dynamite has nerds, Gentlemen Broncos has Supernerds; if Napoleon Dynamite has touches of the 70's and 80's, Gentlemen Broncos has dropped you off and left you there.

Like the best Wes Anderson films, Hess has the ability to identify and isolate a lovably weird segment of our society and walk right on that line for the duration of his films. In this case, it's the soul-drying, bad sci-fi stories that I used to see when I was a kid but don't anymore. The lone, laser-gun-wielding hero standing on a world with three moons and a tight, lit-up grid pattern for ground; the farming space station that's been overrun by cyborg apes; the space worm; etc. The kind of bad stories that couldn't even merit a hardback release, let alone a movie– and now can't even be found new. Capturing that odd energy and riffing a clear story on top of it earns Hess bonus points right off the bat.

He also has a gift for making good actors great at being bad, on purpose. Mike White has never been even nearly as hilarious as he was in this film (watch out for snakes), Jennifer Coolidge was in top form (as usual), and Sam Rockwell got all the way on board with a career burning phoenix of comedy that covered the polar ends of the spectrum. And because Hess pays special attention to each character, Hector Jiminez and Halley Feiffer are given equal opportunity to steal the show, and turn hilarious performances.

Now let's start a new paragraph. Shame on whoever dissed this movie before I had a chance to get here– you shall fall into the pit which you dig, because you seem to have forgotten one important detail: Jemaine Clement is in this movie. You can't give anything with Jemaine Clement in it one freakin' star. It's against the laws of physics. And when people see that you've done that, they'll only question whether you really even saw this movie at all. One of the funniest people alive, Jemaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords) reproves his very real character-acting abilities, swanning over the film in full form as a tightly wound, bad-jeans-wearing, writer-bearded egomaniac who is so cheesy that you can smell the leather conditioner coming out of the screen. He was the obvious heir to the throne, for the whole show, and turns in what I think is his best performance so far, by far- which is really far. He's a full-blown comedic genius, and still seems to have been able to go even further under the direction of Jared Hess.

But the real satisfaction ends up coming from Hess knowing to place Michael Angarano right up front to show everyone what he can do. Clement is no surprise, when his greatness comes through- that's just normal. But to watch Angarano hang ten on his own terms, through his own scenes, was magnificent.

I caught Michael Angarano in several

As the critics would have it, this film did not see the success of Napoleon Dynamite. I believe it is because Napoleon Dynamite had a better trailer. It enticed movie goers to see it. Please also note that the critics buried Napoleon Dynamite (before its wide appeal) as well. The movie goers saved the movie.

I was one of the first to see it. At first viewing, it did not seem like much. But that is the style of Jared and Jerusha Hess. One does not watch their movies once and love it. One watches their movies and finds something funny not noticed before every time. Then the love of their movie grows in the viewer's mind. And for Napoleon Dynamite, the critics had to admit there was something more to it than a cheaply made movie.

The Hess's style of writing does not focus on some crazy, larger than life shot 'em up. They always focus on the boring and average people. They make us find what is great in most of us (the commoners). I love them for that.

To set the record straight, Gentlemen Broncos was better written than Napoleon Dynamite. It had more of a plot, and the characters were far more interesting. The topics covered were more far reaching. I won't spoil the movie, but I will warn viewers against critics who allowed every Adam Sandler movie, all Michael Myers movies, American Pie movies, and Meet the Spartans to make their way to theaters. Just because they left this one out doesn't mean that it was a bad movie. Give it a chance and you will see that this was a funny, creative, and heartwarming movie.

PS the humor was not crude in my opinion. I think the PG-13 rating was excessive.

Gentlemen Broncos fmovies. To potential viewers,

I don't know how people may not see the beauty and wonder of "Gentlemen Broncos". The way I see it: don't think too much, sit back and relax in order to enjoy an eccentric journey of absurdity, wonderful humor, great music, fantastic acting and above all breath taking art direction. This film is so bad it's beyond fantastic! One can tell that people who worked on it had a lot of good times with it.

Also, being a graphic designer I fully appreciated simple yet awesome film titles. Who was behind them?

Maja

Three other films spring to mind that Broncos reminds me of in the sense that they all bring similar elements; absurdist story structure, over-the-top character-acting, and an unapologetic bevy of immature, toilet-ish, sometimes abstract humor.

What I can't think of is two people other than me that actually enjoy this kind of film a lot. And I'm guessing you can't either. That's why I think these kinds of films do badly. It breaks down like this;

• 10%; people who even knew this was coming out - 5%; of those people saw it - 2.5%; of those people liked it - 90% of everybody else doesn't care - 100% of those people who didn't care would probably hate this worse than could possibly be imagined.

If you disagree and love this film, see box office receipts for, and then watch; Land of the Lost, Freddy Got Fingered, and UHF. Not only are they three excellent movies in a similar vein, but they all bombed beyond oblivion for the same reason.

When I see a film like this receiving such an average rating on IMDb it really makes me wonder why certain people feel the need to rate a film that they must know is just not aimed at them. Just leave it alone and go rent some formulaic pseudo-quirky comedy like the Hangover or something. But for those of you who believe humor is something that needs constant re-inventing then look no further than Jared Hess' films. Gentlemen Broncos is quite simply one of the freshest, funniest, well acted (from a comedic standpoint), and sharply written comedies I've had the privilege of seeing.

The film tells a small but endearing tale which is playfully examined on a number of skilfully interwoven levels. Like Hess's earlier film, Napoleon Dynamite, Broncos is populated by an array of quirky characters, each with hidden depths. The setting is another small town in 'Nowheresville USA', and the context is the wonderfully brought to life world of trashy science fiction writing. Again, as he did in ND, Hess manages to create a world so utterly bizarre from a visual and aesthetic point of view but so familiar from an emotional point of view that the emotional tribulations of the characters become the dominant focus of the film. And this, of course, is the point. The emotions that the film both explores and manages to stir within the audience are the truest feature of the conceptual landscape. So as the film progresses, the realness of the characters increasingly stands out against the more surreal elements of the film and, with that, the audience becomes increasingly enamoured of each and every one of them.

The story itself centres on an insecure adolescent, Benjamin (Angarano), who writes science fiction novellas. Hess succeeds wonderfully in giving us yet another central character who we immediately root for and admire despite, and perhaps because of, his obvious lack of typical mainstream lead character traits. Angarano is, as usual, excellent in the lead role in that he manages to play a shy character with little to say while simultaneously holding the viewers' attention throughout. The supporting roles are all manned ably with Coolidge, White, and Clement scoring particularly well. However, as is the case with every film he stars in, Sam Rockwell steals the show from his very first scene to the very end of the closing credits. Choosing yet another quirky secondary character, Rockwell again shows that he's not just the most talented character actor of his generation but one of the most instinctively and originally funny as well. Being a good actor and being funny in a film are not necessarily mutually compatible skills but Rockwell does it with ease and as the fictional heroes of both Bronco and Brutus, he gives us two entirely different and insanely original comedy Sci-Fi characters that I will personally relish watching again and again.

As a backdrop to the action Hess uses the world of pulp science fiction novels and, as intimated above, it is with this multi-layered device that main thrust of the comedy is delivered. The fictional world of the "Yeast Lords" is so outrageously funny that I defy anyone to get through the four or five scenes starring Bronco or Brutus without cracking up at least once (for those who have the DVD, there's a particularly hilarious blooper where Rockwell can't bring himself to say the line "were there pimps?" without breaking into laughter at the sheer absurdity of his lines). All in all, the film sends up this peculiar little genre of