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Directed by: Gary Preisler Starring: Will Friedle, Chris Owen, Louise Lasser, Renée Taylor, Nikki Ziering Just got back from the advanced screening/premiere here in Los Angeles. Gold Diggers has an interesting little history. Preisler and friends decided to pool their money and give film-making a go, just to see if they could churn something good out. Usually, the costs would be pretty grand, but these folks used their connections to pull a few strings. The result is that they completed the film on a modest budget-- everything from the shooting location, cameras, and actors came pretty damned cheap. National Lampoon stepped up and offered the distribution, and here we have it. The story itself is pretty simple: Cal (Freidle: the older brother from 'Boy Meets World' and voice of Batman Beyond's Terry McGuiness) and Leo (Owen: American Pie's 'Sherminator') are orphans that move to Los Angeles in search of their fortunes. While this would often mean lots of hard work, Cal is dead set on living the american dream-- without lifting a finger to earn it. The duo eventually run into the Mundt sisters-- heiresses to the Mundt Condom fortune-- who are actually near-destitute. The sisters decide to wed the dorks, kill them, and cash in on their life-insurance. Meanwhile, the boys decide to kill the women in order to gain their fortune. There's some fun, misunderstandings, and geriatric sex throughout the course of the film. Going into it, I was pretty concerned. The ads (which dont' really do the film justice) made it seem like a vapid American Pie-ish slopfest. The opening scenes (with the male duo on the bus) seemed stilted. Thankfully, that leads to a humorous sequence which then leads to an even funnier bit. The strength of the film is that you'll run into a gag that's intensely funny and it'll be over soon thereafter, leaving you laughing it up without drilling the joke into the ground. That's not to say that the points between will be devoid of comedy-- it just seems that sometimes the dialogue falls flat. The hookah scene, for instance, seems a bit forced. Maybe if I was high, or a fratboy, I would have found it funnier. Overall, the film is a bit predictable. I knew that the goofy sidekicks would fall in love, that the guys and girls would team up and that Uncle Nazikiller was rolling in dough. Despite that, it's humorous enough to warrant checking it out. Hell, it's got a soulful black priest that advocates 'monkey love'. What's not to like? RATING: 4.0 PROS: Clipping pace, good performances by the supporting cast, hilarious bits CONS: Some of the acting/dialogue seems a little... off, some plot points zip by when they could have been fleshed out a bit more, a little predictable ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376717/ FilthyImp fucked around with this message at 09:51 on Sep 14, 2004 |
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Sep 14, 2004 09:45
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