“Martin & Orloff” is a comedy rooted in suicide, which seems appropriate since the film literally dies within minutes of its opening credits. Written by and starring Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts, founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade, this comedy is so bad that there is no pleasure in describing how bad it is. You can find more laughs on New Year’s Eve watching your favorite silly uncle wear a lampshade on his head than by sitting through “Martin & Orloff.”
The puny plot is about a marketing executive recently released from the hospital after an attempted suicide. He is assigned to a psychiatrist who is a full-blown nut. This shrink is so crazy that he changes his clothing while driving a red convertible through New York traffic. The marketing executive, who seems fairly straight-laced and conservative for his creative profession, finds himself dragged through a series of endless misadventures by his zany psychiatrist. These antics include a softball game that turns violent enough to bring in the police and an encounter with a lunatic ex-football player with a very large penis (don’t ask).
Walsh and Roberts have previous film acting experience, which is curious since in this flick their performances are so theatrically broad that it seems they’ve come to movie acting for the first time and have no clue how to tone it down for the camera. You can find more subtle performances in films that have chimpanzees as the entire cast. Several better-known actors including Janeane Garofalo and Tina Fey turn up in unmemorable cameo appearances, perhaps to lull the bored audience into looking at the screen and saying: “Hey, isn’t that…?” Former Extreme Championship Wrestling favorite Sal Valente is the aforementioned football player with the extra-long hoo-hah; the man looks like he could take on King Kong and Godzilla simultaneously…and win. Pity he didn’t bang some skulls around demanding a real script.
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