Run Ronnie Run!

Rating:
Summary: Kubrick's Best Film
Review: When I heard about movies, I thought that there were several out there. 'Run Ronnie Run', starring Maya Deren, has all the hilarious moments that I have already seen. Plus, Kidman's ass in the very first scene is not even on the Korean DVD. This will not even make you despise Mr. Show. It will make stars, from the beginning onward. Don't fast forward - you'll see other movies, like North By Northwest, and also the new one by Mr. Show.

Rating:
Summary: Don't think too hard about it.. just watch it.
Review: I think my title says it all... don't think too much about this film... just watch it and laugh. I can't remember laughing so hard at a film in a very long time.

Rating:
Summary: Funny for what it is... but what is it?
Review: I will start with an opening disclaimer: I bought 'Run Ronnie Run' for Nikki Cox. I have been a fan of her (and Kevin Connolly) since the WB's "Unhappily Ever After" and anxiously awaited the straight-to-video release of this comedy. I knew/know very little about the acclaimed "Mr. Show", other than the character, here, of Ronnie Dobbs was featured briefly during its airing. What this film is, basically, is a parody of reality television and Hollywood. What you get from start to finish are endless gags and sick slapstick jokes entwined around a somewhat funny plot and character.

Ronnie Dobbs, played by David Cross, is the textbook example of trailer trash. He drinks, does not work, his ex-wife lives in a trailer, etc. (It doesn't get much more obvious.) What makes him interesting is that he spends his time running from the police, after committing such "crimes" as messing up a Piggly-Wiggly sign. One of the funniest bits of the movie was watching the semi-overweight cops chase him through a house and fumble around unlike the ones on television's "Cops". Then when a dim-witted inventor, Terry Twillstein (Bob Odenkirk), stumbles upon the idea of giving Dobbs his own reality show, everything falls into place. From there Ronnie's left to deal with his own successions and decide if it's the life he wants. The story is almost pointless, as it seems they just used the story to throw in whatever seemed funniest or fitting at the time. There are a number of hilarious cameos from such well-known actors as Jeff Goldblum, Jack Black, Dave Foley, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Garry Shandling, and Ben Stiller (amongst others); and a couple of hilarious scenes--the Three Times One Minus One video and the "Survivor" takeoff particularly. But in the end, cameos and spoofs don't make an entire movie.

At just 87 minutes, 'Ron Ronnie Run' is be no means perfect. Yes, it is very funny and at times quite smart in its parodies and whatnot. But the predictability of a character like Ronnie Dobbs, along with such useless running gags as Clay's injuries (which, by the way, are not final until the VERY end of the credits), it's hard to give this movie more than 3 stars. If you're a fan of "Mr. Show" or are looking for a few good laughs, 'Run Ronnie Run' is worth watching. And finally, if nothing else, you get Nikki Cox in a thong. Enjoy the show.

Rating:
Summary: extremely disappointing....
Review: I first heard about this flick a couple of years ago, and was waiting for it to hit theatres. I almost forgot about it, then was surprised to find it on the Blockbuster shelves a few weeks back....I should have forgotten about this movie!

You know there's problems when even the Writers/Stars of the film are telling fans to stay away from this.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Movie
Review: I was expecting a lot from this movie and normally when thats the case you get dissapointed... Luckily with Run Ronnie Run that wasn't the case! This movie is non stop laughs from begining to end! Bob & David turn this Sketch character into possibly the funniest movie I have seen all year. I watched this with several non Mr Show fans and they loved it too... especially the Jack Black cameo song which is crude but hilarious! Watch this film!!!

Rating:
Summary: It pains me to say it, but...
Review: ...this is a really lousy comedy, and a great example of the failures of the movie studio system. At its worst, this feels like the result of some tense boardroom meetings staffed by people oblivious to the talents of David Cross and Bob Odenkirk.

Ronnie Dobbs is a funny character in his two appearances on the beloved and missed MR. SHOW, but expanding his original skits into a barely-90-minute movie just didn't work. Cross performs well, as do the majority of the actors involved, but the material itself is hackneyed, badly-written, and at times glaringly obvious in its hopes to produce another Adam Sandler-type Hollywood feel-good comedy. When the movie puts out something funny (the self-help guru scene comes to mind), it's paced so differently that it seems as if it not only has a different writer (most likely Cross/Odenkirk) but a different director as well. Otherwise, we're stuck with an embarrassing pattern: the cheapest, least clever jokes are repeated as running gags, while the jokes with best potential are left as pulled punches.

Badly-shot, clumsily-edited, with a voiceover and exposition which feel entirely tacked-on, this is a movie that I am happy to have rented before considering buying it. I'm a huge fan of MR. SHOW and had been chomping at the bit to see this movie for years (yes, years), but having finally seen it, I got no more enjoyment out of it than I would have any other direct-to-video comedy...and that is a total shame. I hope that Bob and David get another opportunity to make a movie or show with a company that is actually confident enough in them to let them hold the reins themselves. We may not get a perfect project (they are at times a bit self-indulgent), but we sure couldn't get anything much worse than RUN RONNIE RUN!.

Rating:
Summary: Comedy stands well enough on its own
Review: I have never seen Mr. Show, but I have read that the Ronnie Dobbs character originated from there. I will admit that now I am interested in checking out Mr. Show.

I was actually turned on to this show after seeing the trailer on another New Line film. I recognized David Cross from his appearance on the Drew Carey show.

The opening sequence for the DVD was cute and goofy enough, and I would like to see it appear again on other New Line titles.

The film really takes no prisoners in the things that it spoofs on. From the COPS copycat "FUZZ" to the raunchy R&B video spoof Three Times One Minus One, the film left me laughing ... .

Another aspect of the film that I really enjoyed was the cast's ability to deliver realistic southern accents and southern redneck dialogue. I live in Georgia, and I am familiar with the city of Doraville. I find a lot of forced southern accents to be obnoxious, but Cross and crew sounded real and not just ignorant.

Another great thing to see was all of the cameos that were done in this movie. Gary Shandling, John and Rebecca Stamos and Jeff Goldblum.

Two of the cameos deserve a highlight; Mandy Patikin offers a nude scene as 'Ronnie Dobbs' in Ronnie: The Musical, and Jack Black shows his singing chops in the psuedo-deleted scene from a film that looks a lot like Mary Poppins.

I was not expecting a lot from the film when I first picked it up, but I was surprised at the amount of laughing I did both times that I watched it.

Rating:
Summary: Compromised or Not, Incredibly Funny
Review: Bob and David, understandably frustrated by experiences in the fun factory of Hollywood, disown this film; but after what they've suffered, I doubt they can be at all objective about what remains one of the better sketch-show spin-off comedies. Just as STRANGE BREW isn't SCTV, RUN RONNIE RUN! isn't MR. SHOW; but RONNIE remains true to MR. SHOW's choatic, subversive approach to comedy, is almost always amusing, frequently hilarious, and occasionally jaw-droppingly bold. Some of the MR. SHOW cast members are seriously shortchanged, but both David and Bob shine in a smart, dumb comedy littered with mindboggling vignettes and entertaining celebrity cameos. While a Bob and David-supervised cut of this film would certainly be preferable (deleted scenes hint at greater things, in particular a dropping out of character into themselves that doesn't just break but demolishes the fourth wall), this version is still worth five stars....Ten stars couldn't do these guys justice, if they were truly let loose. Bob, David -- don't discourage MR. SHOW fans from seeing this; and shame on MR. SHOW fans who look down their noses at this precious if abused (but still very funny) artifact.

Rating:
Summary: Yes, Mr. Show Fans Only
Review: I will definitely say that this movie is for Mr.Show fans only, and even if you are a super diehard like me, the movie still is not that great. Many of the segments are straight from the Ronnie Dobbs sketches so we've already laughed at those lines before. However, we do get an updated Ernie with a new "superpan" and the return of Three Times One Minus One, and of course it could not be complete without great newscasts. However, it is the type of off the wall humor that MOST LIKELY only true fans will enjoy. There are probably some newbies that will like it, but certainly more that will not. The film goes off on tangents that are funny to us, but unrelated to the plot as a whole, like the Scott Thompson scene. I enjoyed it, but I won't buy it or watch it again unless someone else puts it on.

Rating:
Summary: The Mr. Show's Bastard Cousin
Review: What if you took Jack Black (School of Rock), half the cast of the Kids in the Hall (Dave Foley and Scott Thompson), Sarah Silverman , Ben Stiller, Andy Richter, and the zany antics of THE MR. SHOW and jammed them into one movie? It would be funny right? Well in a perfect world yes! In our real 21st century world, unfortunately, Not at all. I just wonder how some of the funniest people in Hollywood made a film that was so unfunny it's a travesty of justice.

RUN RONNIE RUN! Stars David Cross (Small Soldiers) and Bob Odenkirk (Monkeybone), the creators of HBO's brilliantly funny THE MR. SHOW, as Ronnie and Terry. Ronnie (Cross) is your typical a drunk as hell redneck, with a heart of gold, and a rap sheets 5-miles long. The guy can't help getting arrested, and pining after his trailer trash honey Tammy (Jill Talley, The Ladies Man)

Terry is a failed infomercial maverick, looking to exploit Ronny. He's also got the worst British accent of all time. Together Ronny and Terry create a reality show in which Ronnie is arrested every episode. Har, Har let the stupid satire commence.

RUN RONNIE RUN! takes the Adam Sandler approach to comedy. Let's be gross, disgusting, misogynistic and still cute so we don't offend anyone. So of course it's jammed packed with dogs eating vomit, a odd song about a penises and vaginas, a guy who keeps getting run over by cars, women being beaten for laughs, and cannibalism. If they had stopped right there I would have given the movie a C for effort. But alas, the film is jam packed with silly dramatic scenes that just don't belong.

The film is also filled with some pretty graphic violence that at first is funny, and then just disintegrates into savage brutality. This in and of itself is okay in a horror movie, a vampire picture, or an action movie. But in a comedy it just changes the whole timbre of scene. Sometimes less is more, or maybe I'm just getting old.

There are exactly three jokes that work in this movie. One involving Mandy Patinkin (Men With Guns) and method acting, another involving Jeff Goldblum (Jurrasic Park) and a wacky spiritual Guru, and there is a scene involving Jack Black (School of Rock) a cartoon Squirrel, and an assortment of chimney sweepers that is so funny, it might be worth a rental just to see it. As for that everything else it just fails. I think the worst part is that the jokes don't even fail miserably to the point that you can laugh at a train wreck. The jokes more or less elicit groans. RUN RONNIE RUN! plays like a great standup comic on a bad night.

I have a feeling that if Cross and Odenkirk has just hired their friends to sit around a table and tell jokes this film would be far more successful. The moments when the movie begins to shows potential are the moments when it breaks away from the plot and decides it's time to be funny. RUN RONNIE RUN! It's a comedy with too much plot and not enough lunacy.

I am being extra hard on RUN RONNIE RUN! because of how smart Cross and Odenkirk have been in the past. If you have ever sat through THE MR. SHOW on HBO you will discover a biting and no holds barred comedy sketch show. RUN RONNIE RUN! is like THE MR. SHOWS bastard cousin, no style, no wit, and not funny, and it seems to keeps itself too far away from the line. Inching close sometimes but never enough to make it satisfying.

RUN RONNIE RUN! Could have been a great film. It could have been the comedy we all long for, but alas it's a shoddy satire, with very little heart, and not enough laughs.

*1/2 out of 5

As a side note I forgot to mention the really funny parody of the old "Let's Go Out To The Lobby" cartoons of the 50's and 60's. The sequence is really funny and should be added to another New Line Cinema comedy.