Adam Small Movies
- 2008
Comedian Katt Williams stars as a wannabe CIA agent who starts up a "temp from hell" business designed to provoke unwanted employees into quitting their jobs. When his latest target decides to fight fire with fire, however, the man whose job it is to make lives miserable finally gets a taste of his own medicine. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katt Williams
- 2008
Comedy vet and former In Living Color star David Alan Grier hosts this nightly dose of brutal, hot-button satire, tackling racially charged issues in a Daily Show style "fake news" format. Delivering every headline/punchline with the deadpan seriousness of a stately, buttoned-up news anchor, Grier addresses any topic dealing with race, prejudice, and the black community, unapologetically going for the laughs no matter how taboo the issue at hand. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- 2007
The NBC comedy-"reality" series Thank God You're Here originated as an Australian series of the same name, hosted by Shane Bourne. The American version, hosted by David Allan Grier, followed the format of the original virtually to the letter. In each hour-long episode, four celebrities were thrust into the middle of four different, unscripted comedy sketches. The celebrities would know nothing about the plotline of the sketch, why they were there, or even what character they were supposed to be playing! All anyone could be sure of was that, once the celebrity walked through the door, he or she would be greeted with the cue line "Thank God you're here!" The ensuing improvisations--which ranged from hilarious to desperate--would be reviewed by judge Dave Foley. Among the series' guest performers were Jennifer Coolidge, Kevin Nealon, Kurtwood Smith, Jason Alexander, Tom Green, Fran Drescher, Fred Willard, Mo'nique, and Nicole Sullivan. The NBC version of Thank God You're Here premiered April 9, 2007. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Alan Grier, Dave Foley, (more)
- 2004
Each of the 33 episodes in the first season of WB's redneck sketch-comedy series Blue Collar TV center around a basic theme: typical titles include "Family" (the opener), "Naked", "TV", "Bad Jobs", "Marriage", "Vacations", "Sports", "Funerals", "Pets", "Bad Habits", "Dating" and "Testosterone" (which really must have been a mouthful for the barely literate characters played by the series' talented comedy troupe). Three carryovers from the popular "Blue Collar Comedy Tour", Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall, appear in every episode, while the fourth "Blue Collar" headliner, Ron White, shows up as a guest star. Likewise guesting are such country-music favorites as Travis Tritt and Leanne Rimes, not to mention a few folks not normally seen in "yahoo country", notably Drew Carey. In addition to such recurring bits as "Redneck Dictionary" and "You May Be a Redneck If. . .", the show serves up such one-shot skits as "400 Pounds of Intervention" and "House of Gravy Restaurant." When all was said and done, Blue Collar TV averaged an audience of 1.3 million viewers throughout its first season, darn good for a WB network show! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A rich kid who likes to pretend he's from the wrong side of the tracks gets a taste of the real thing in this comedy. Brad Gluckman (Jamie Kennedy) is the son of a wealthy and socially prominent couple (Ryan O'Neal and Bo Derek) and grew up in the lap of luxury in Malibu, CA. However, Brad likes to imagine he's a street-smart gangsta from the mean streets of L.A., and he's been trying to launch a career as a hardcore rapper under the name "B-Rad." Mr. Gluckman is running for Governor of California, and both he and his campaign manager (Blair Underwood) are convinced Brad's antics could have a negative impact on the election, so they come up with a scheme to change his mind about the supposed glamour of street life. Mr. Gluckman hires a pair of African-American actors (Taye Diggs and Anthony Anderson) to impersonate a pair of gang-bangers from Compton who carjack Brad's SUV and take him to the 'hood, where he'll learn just how scary the thug life can be. However, it soon becomes obvious the actors don't know much more about life in Compton than Brad does, and as Brad gets used to his new surroundings, he falls for a girl from the neighborhood (Regina Hall) who has her own plans for moving up in the world. Malibu's Most Wanted was inspired by a character Jamie Kennedy created for his sketch comedy series The Jamie Kennedy Experiment. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Kennedy, Taye Diggs, (more)
- 2002
Comic actor Jamie Kennedy of Scream fame was host of this weekly, half-hour WB network series, a dizzying blend of sketch comedy, bizarre characterizations (most of them offered by Kennedy), zany stunts, and sometimes cruel practical jokes. Adopting a wild variety of costumes, wigs, and accents, Kennedy prowled the country conducting such experiments as "Just how much will a guy look past in order to have sex with a beautiful woman?" A hidden camera recorded the fireworks whenever the heavily disguised Kennedy made some poor "civilian's" life temporarily miserable. The series was put together by several of the hands who formerly labored on the cutting-edge comedy weeklies In Living Color and Mad TV. Also known as JKX, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment opened to astonishingly excellent ratings on January 13, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Kennedy
A goofy slacker wreaks havoc after worming his way onto the jury of a high-profile court case in this broad comedy. The extremely unmotivated Tommy Collins (Pauly Shore) has found himself homeless after being kicked out by his mother, and he needs a place to stay. After hearing how the juries of important cases are sequestered in fancy hotels and provided with free meals, he decides that's the life for him and successfully volunteers for jury duty. Enjoying what he considers the high life and wishing to romance an attractive female juror (Tia Carrere), Tommy infuriates his fellow jurors by attempting to drag out the trial. Director John Fortenberry offers much obvious slapstick, along with a few attempts at topical jibes against media sensationalism, but even fans of Shore's lowbrow humor may be disappointed by the film's quality. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pauly Shore, Tia Carrere, (more)
Comedian Pauly Shore goes to boot camp in this comedy adventure set in Chad. It was filmed on location in the California and Arizona deserts. Shore is cast as Bones, a dreamer who wants to open his own stereo shop with his best friend Jack. To earn the cash, Bones talks Jack into joining the Army reserves. In boot camp, they are trained as water purifiers. While in camp, they meet the feisty Christine who takes no guff from men and Fred who is afraid of everything. The foursome are called to active duty and positioned in the deserts of Chad. Through a great mix up, they find themselves driving a water tanker behind Libyan enemy lines. There they must extricate themselves and eventually save the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pauly Shore, Andy Dick, (more)
Embracing the supposed nihilism and cynicism of the "slacker" generation, S.F.W. (1995) caused nary a blip on the media-saturated cultural radar screen that it criticized. Stephen Dorff stars as Cliff Spab, an aimless, hard-drinking youth. Spab becomes a national hero when he is one of several people held hostage by gun-toting terrorists in a convenience store. He doesn't care much about his own life or anything else, and his attitude of "So f---ing what?" translates into debates with his terrorist captors and gloomy pronouncements that charm viewers. After a month-long siege, a crisis erupts when the store runs out of beer and junk food, so Cliff finds himself a free man whose celebrity image is emblazoned on t-shirts and whose presence is requested at a rock concert where he is required to do nothing other than appear. In the meantime, Spab's girlfriend Wendy (Reese Witherspoon) becomes a ubiquitous talk show guest. Ostensibly a satire of the celebrity-obsessed culture of the 1990s, the film was withheld from distribution for a year because of thematic similarities to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Dorff, Reese Witherspoon, (more)
Meaning to thwart the advances of a hometown boy, a college student takes her California surfer roomie to her Midwestern home for Thanksgiving and passes him off as her husband-to-be. After a few complications, the visiting couple falls for each other, the family finally accepts him and the suitor-hopeful is no longer a threat. Pauly Shore and Carla Gugino star in this light comedy. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pauly Shore, Carla Gugino, (more)
- 1988
In his search for inspired and non-released songs written by an early rock legend, a down-and-out musician has to overcome the a bunch of airhead bimbo party girls. ~ All Movie Guide
Youth Brigade was a California punk band whose leader, Shawn Stern, was also founder of Better Youth Organization, which promoted low-cost, non-profit punk rock shows on the West Coast and tried to encourage positive community activism within the punk rock scene. In hopes of spreading the word about both Youth Brigade and BYO, Stern organized an ambitious United States tour in the summer of 1982, booking 30 dates in 35 days with co-headliners Social Distortion. Stern bought an old school bus, the bands fixed it up, and they set out to conquer America on a low budget. As you might expect, things didn't go quite as planned; the bands got stiffed on payment for several shows (at one gig, their fee came in the form of rolls of pennies), the bus often broke down, the punishing schedule and low pay was more than most of the musicians could deal with, and the tour broke down at about the halfway point, with most of the participants hopping a Greyhound back to California following the bus' final meltdown in Washington, D.C. A camera crew tagged along for the tour, and Another State of Mind captures this noble folly on videotape. Along the way, Youth Brigade and Social Distortion play several numbers (complete with subtitles if you can't understand the vocals), the bands visit a punk rock house in Calgary (complete with its own skateboard ramp), they meet up with D.C. punk legends Minor Threat (who also perform onscreen), and end up spending the night at a Christian youth hostel for wayward punks. Youth Bridage broke up not long after Another State of Mind was completed, but they reformed in the 1990s and released several new albums, while Social Distortion eventually signed to a major label and became one of the biggest bands on the American punk scene; Minor Threat frontman Ian McKaye would also go on to bigger things as guitarist and singer with Fugazi. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
