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DVD Awful Nice
 Run time: 92 min Rating: 5.1 Genres: Comedy Director: Todd Sklar Writers: Alex Rennie, Todd Sklar Stars: Christopher Meloni, Keeley Hazell, Laura Ramsey |
| Storyline When Jim – a disenchanted yet highly popular college professor – learns of his father’s death, he must track down his deadbeat brother Dave and deliver him to the funeral. Upon arrival, they both learn that they’ve each inherited one half of the family’s vacation home in Branson, Missouri, and in order to sell the house – from which they both badly need the money – they’ll need to travel down to Branson, and the ensuing trip both fixes their house, as well as their relationship. Written by AP |
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| Plot Keywords: brother brother relationship, based on short film, estranged siblings, sibling rivalry, death of father | |
| Details: Country: USA Release Date: 8 March 2013 (USA) |
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DVD Awful Nice
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4 comments
I have a brother. I can understand how some people who don't may not quite get all of the humor or the dialog or how things can escalate from talking to fighting in less than 5 seconds, but if you do have a brother (or a sister I suppose), then this movie will feel all too familiar to you. And in a good way. It's some of the most realistic sibling rivalry I've seen in a movie, combined with some of the most unrealistic and absurd comedy. But it's great absurd comedy so you just kind of go with it. The movie does a really nice job of balancing physical gags with clever banter, and I found myself quoting it a bit after-wards (that's always a good sign). A rocking soundtrack combined with the breakneck pace of the editing and each gag coming one after another, and the whole movie sort've flies by. On one hand, that can be a good thing, as you never want to be waiting around for a movie to end. Comedies that are too long often leave a sour taste in my mouth. On the other hand, there isn't much of a build-up to, or culmination of, a resolution between the brothers, and that was a little unfulfilling. Other than that, I loved everything about this movie, and I think it'll find a huge audience when they release it. I'll be seeing it again.
I don't know what the heck Todd Sklar was thinking when he wrote this film. I guess the best way that I can describe it is as a crazy dramatic comedy. While I was watching this film I kept thinking to myself, whose crazy family is this film based on? Hopefully no ones, because there were times that I thought these two brothers were going to kill each other. Dave (Alex Rennie) is the carefree younger brother who is homeless and is used to eating out of trash cans and seems to like his life just the way it is. He is really disgusting and does some outlandish crap (use expletive here). His older brother Jim (James Pumphrey) hunts Dave down because their father has died and they discover that they have inherited a cabin in Branson Missouri. A road trip ensues and the two of them hit the road. It turns out that the cabin is a total wreck and Dave decides that this would be a great brother bonding experience if they fixed up the cabin together instead of hiring someone else to do it. I was thinking that at this point in the film that Jim was the sane one since he has a family and a child; but that is not the case. For some reason (I think that it is guilt), Jim keeps doing whatever the heck his crazy brother Dave wants him to do. I just kept shaking my head. I don't care how much I may have ignored a sibling in the past there is no way that I would do some of the stupid stuff that these two do. At one point Dave swallows a handful of dog pills and I just knew that he would be dead in the next scene, but nope. The deceased father's business partner, Jon (Christopher Meloni) was responsible for handling the legalities for these two idiots. At first I thought that he might be nuts too, but it turns out that he was the smartest one on the screen. I almost didn't recognize Christopher because the wig and disguise he was wearing was so terrible. I guess the budget was not that big in the costume department. Anyway, although I laughed a whole lot in this film after it was over, I was just left blank. Like Emma, I am not sure what the title Awful Nice meant; but it is what it is.
I saw this at the Alamo and thought it was the funniest movie of the whole festival, and maybe one of the funniest I've seen in the past few years. The big laughs come from the physical comedy, but there's a lot of subtle humor in the dialog and the characters too that I only started to pick up on towards the middle of the movie. Kind of made me feel like I'd catch more the 2nd time around, but this was the last screening of it at SXSW, so I guess I'll wait 'til it gets released. There were some lulls in the middle and the story arc goes from 0-60 a little too quick at the end, but these are minor complaints that only keep it from being a perfect movie. And most movies are not perfect, especially comedies, and ESPECIALLY extremely funny ones. Like Tommy Boy and Billy Madison aside, there are no perfect comedies in the last 20 years. And this movie felt like Tommy Boy got into a car accident with Sideways. And in a good way. I loved it.
Alex Rennie and Todd Sklar, looking at the cast of this movie, you won't see their pictures, but they wrote, directed and starred (Alex Rennie) in this movie. This is their film and it is one of the funniest flicks I have seen in years.
The plot: Jim (James Pumphrey) has to drag his 'shady' and 'unreliable' brother Dave, (Alex Rennie) to their father's funeral where they learn they inherited a summer home in Branson, which they will get half of each once it is repaired and in order, then sold. Dave convinces Jim to fix it up themselves, tag-team it.
The movie is about their relationship, their lives, their bond as brothers.
This was without a doubt one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.
At first, the dialogue comes on a little strong and Dave isn't a believable character. Don't try so hard, just enjoy him for who he is and appreciate how well Jim (James Pumphrey) plays the straight man.
Once I let the movie go, I started to pick up on the subtle jokes and found myself laughing right into the obvious jokes. I will watch this movie again and again over the next few years, because the comedy makes the film and the secondary story supports it so well.
If this was a big Hollywood movie, I can almost be sure it would have started at some point while the father was alive and concluded at the funeral. I'm glad it didn't because a true story was able to be told.
Great movie, funny, watch it.