In the interests of fairness, I'll post this less-than-kind review from the National Post. It's a rather tedious read, but please bear with it.
****
Comedy is one of the hardest film genres to master. Whereas action movies and horror flicks have certain quantifiable elements (how many things blow up real good? What's the body count by the end credits?), one man's gut-buster can just as easily be another's exercise in tedium. With that in mind, we turn to the Canadian comedy phenomenon known as Trailer Park Boys, a cheaply made, Nova Scotia-shot cable show that somehow morphed into the country's biggest entertainment success story.
There could be a fascinating book - or at least a neat little essay - about how Trailer Park Boys: The Movie earned the biggest opening weekend ever for an English-language Canadian film. In a country filled with highfalutin filmmakers and critically beloved auteurs, it was not Atom Egoyan or David Cronenberg that eventually drew $3.8-million into multiplexes - it was just three perpetually stupid criminals who enjoyed swearing, fighting and the occasional rye and Coke.
As I sat watching the 2006 film's sequel, Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day - a meandering, nearly laugh-free picture - I wondered silently to myself: Can millions of Canadians be wrong? Is there some sort of secret comedy virus on display that I'm immune to? Surely, I thought as fellow critics dozed beside me, there must be some reason why these oafish caricatures sit atop the national Zeitgeist.
Well, if jokes about public urination and cross-dressing hookers get a large chunk of Canucks chortling, I guess I'm just out of touch with my neighbours. Both those elements, plus a large dose of juvenile pot humour, are on full display in Countdown to Liquor Day, which is touted by writer-director Mike Clattenburg as being the final adventure for Ricky, Julian and Bubbles.
The new film is not so much a direct sequel to the boys' first big-screen adventure (which bore the imprint of producer/condo developer Ivan Reitman), but more a follow-up to the series' final TV special. After Ricky (Robb Wells), Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and Bubbles (Mike Smith) are released from prison for the umpteenth time, the trio returns to their beloved Sunnyvale only to find out park supervisor Jim Lahey (John Dunsworth) demolished most of the neighbourhood.
In an attempt to get his own middle-class trailer park up and running, though, Lahey needs to build a sewer line underneath Julian's property, thus sparking a battle of half-wits for the title of King White Trash. Subplots involving Bubbles' pet cats, Ricky's pot business and Lahey's battle with his pot-bellied lover (Patrick Roach) are as equally uninspired.
While Tremblay et al. seem committed as ever to the characters, their performances grow increasingly tiresome, as if the actors are uncomfortable in the skins they've created. Dunsworth is especially hard to watch as the alcoholic villain. Without proper direction to rein him in, the actor resorts to fits of half-naked screaming that reek of desperation. Still, the rest of the cast shines brightly compared with former CBC host Jonathan Torrens. As J-Roc, a gangsta-rapper wannabe, Torrens would make the stodgiest grandmother yearn for Eminem's wit and grace.
Several informed sources have told me the genius behind Trailer Park Boys rests with the creators' firm sense of tongue-in-cheek humour. Perhaps this was once true, but no longer: All this sequel proves is that Clattenburg and co. are done poking fun at their idiotic characters - instead, they have wholeheartedly embraced them. Gone is any pretense of satire, replaced by a placid sense of familiarity. It's as if the filmmakers expect fans to be content with merely seeing Julian swill some booze while Bubbles smokes a joint - no jokes necessary.
If there were any effort put into the film's comedy, it must be buried deep within the Nova Scotia soil. Better luck next time, boys.
http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/movies/story.html?id=2029726
