By Ashley Bradley/ne news editor
The best thing about Gentlemen Broncos is the ending credits.
With a cast including Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), Sam Rockwell (Choke), Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie) and Michael Angarano (Lords of Dogtown), moviegoers might assume this is a great movie, but they should be informed of their huge mistake.
The movie opens with the main character Benjamin, played by Angarano, finishing up his latest sci-fi novella. He then loads a bus full of home-schooled students for a trip to writing camp.
When the bus stops at a restaurant/convenience store, he is introduced to a girl on the bus named Tabatha, played by Halley Feiffer (The Squid and the Whale). Though she does add another reason to why this movie is horrible, she helps Benjamin come out of his shell.
At the camp, he meets his hero, Ronald Chevalier, played by Clement, who is known as the “greatest sci-fi novelist of his time.”
This movie shows how heroes aren’t always as great as they seem. The second best part of the movie occurs when Benjamin hits Ronald in the face with a small pillow, drawing blood.
This movie was directed and written by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), and it isn’t hard to tell. It’s almost the exact same movie, except with a different plot and actors with different names. The same awkward comedy prevails, except this time, it just isn’t funny.
And some kind of fake puke appears in almost every scene. Sometimes a laugh is the only thing to do to keep from just feeling bad for everyone who took part in this movie.
Benjamin and his mother, played by Coolidge, have the movie’s only real relationship. Judith, a tad-bit crazy, shows honest love for her son. She’s a freelance designer of dresses and evening gowns, but because they are so hideous, she barely makes enough money to support the two of them.
Benjamin genuinely cares about his mother. It shows when he agrees to wear an article of clothing she made, matching her ensemble, in public. He later gets throw-up on it.
Hess should have just stopped with Dynamite.
The entire movie has only one good line: “Remember who you are and what you stand for.”
Judith says this to Benjamin as he loads the bus for writing camp.
If this is Hess’ message to the world, maybe he should step back and rethink who he is and what he stands for.
