KEY POINTS:
Herald Rating: * * * *
Cast: Chris Stapp, Matt Heath
Director: Chris Stapp
Rating: R16, offensive language, violence, other content that may disturb
Running time: 77 mins
Screening: SkyCity, Rialto, Hoyts
Verdict: Inspired idiocy on the big screen from local stunt comedy duo.
It might be those local blokes from Back of the Y playing silly buggers for a whole movie. Which was always going to mean one gleefully gruesome gag of motorised mayhem after another. And so it does, with lots of shouty bits in between and random outbreaks of acting from a cast thankfully in on the joke.
From the outside, a film about dim-witted stuntmen Randy Cambell (Stapp) and Dick Johansonson (Heath) - characters first, er, "developed" for Back of the Y - does risk being a Jackass tribute band.
Except, unlike the MTV masochists' films, Stapp and Heath's first feature has a story. Not much of a story, more of a nose-to-tail collision into the next gag or stunt set-up. But it's still a story that steals from some classics.
It's basically the plot of All About Eve - young upstart (Randy) eventually shows up unwilling mentor Dick, the Bette Davis of the piece.
No? How about Star Wars then - kid stuck on farm with aunt and uncle in Nowhere knows he's destined for greater things than his dad once he gets his rockets to fire. Albeit the small fizzy ones attached to his Healing Cruiser in the flashback bit.
And as it has at least one small yellow car suffering excessive panel damage, it could be said that there's a homage to Goodbye Pork Pie in there too.
All of which makes it yes, really very silly, as any movie employing the phrase "Timaru Hell Riders", or so many imaginatively maimed supporting characters as this does, should be.
Fortunately that foul-mouthed inanity and the movie's DIY spirit, is infectious enough to get past the sometimes ropey two leads whose comic abilities in front of the camera haven't quite transcended their small screen origins.
And its sense of bogan absurdity and an amusing line in New Zild in-jokes also helps power it through some occasional flat spots as the action roars, almost, from Timaru all the way to Te Puke, via attempted rocket-assisted leaps across the Waitemata Harbour and Cook Strait.
It's crude, rude and boorish. But fortunately its brand of tastelessness makes for the most big dumb fun to roll out of the Made-in-NZ film can in some time. Probably best enjoyed after (quite) a few drinks.
