Gentlemen Broncos is the latest from the Hess team that thrilled everyone with Napolean Dynamite and then underwhelmed most with Nacho Libre. Broncos is a little messy, but it does have the added bonus of Sam Rockwell in crazy science fiction sequences, and Jemaine Clement.
Casting Jemaine Clement in a Jared Hess movie just seems inevitable. He fits perfectly into Hess' crazy stuck in the mid 1980s reality.
Clement plays Chevalier, a science fiction author who is running out of sellable ideas. He comes across a story called 'Yeast Lords' when reading submissions from young kids for a competition, and he loves the idea so much he steals it, changes it slightly and publishes it under his own name. Hilarity ensues.
There are cuts throughout the story to 'Yeast Lords', with Sam Rockwell playing the lead, and I could have sat through an entire sci-fi movie in that style. It's pretty funny stuff. Every time Jemaine is on screen it's pretty hilarious also. The film is let down by some strange interludes with characters who make nasty home made films and trailers. It may work better on re-watching, but it all felt a little messy to me.
It's also strangely mean in part. I think that Napolean Dynamite managed to tread that fine line between loving the characters and just laughing at them because they're braindead morons or whatever, whereas Broncos slips over that line at times and feels a little bit meaner.
It's still a pretty funny film and I laughed a lot. Plus, Jemaine Clement rules. If you are a Flight of the Conchords fan you should check him out in Bear VS Shark.
Anyhow, back to the star system. I give Broncos:
***
jej
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