In some twisted alternate reality, people will want to see a road trip movie featuring a couple of boring old farts rambling about classic westerns all along the way. And they’ll think it’s just alright. In this reality, people do not want to see an achingly boring road trip movie and if they do end up seeing it, will be enraged and sorely disappointed that they didn’t do something more productive with their time.
Alex Cox’s latest takes us on a road trip with two washed-up bit actors, Mel and Fred, as they make the trek from Los Angeles to Arizona for a special outdoor screening of “Buffalo Bill vs. Doc Holliday.” It is there they intend to meet up with screenwriter Fritz Frobisher, not to shake his hand or to secure an autograph, but to kick his a*s. As child actors, Mel and Fred were both in “Buffalo Bill vs. Doc Holliday” and it was on the set of this film that Frobisher thrashed them with a whip. Mel and Fred are making this trek to claim a little revenge. Needing some wheels, however, Mel ropes his daughter into driving them in her car.
Seriously, nothing f*****g happens in this movie, except for a couple of completely unlikable characters bitching and moaning at each other, tying every argument to some stupid western movie reference. Not only is it so mind-numblingly boring that you’ll want to claw your own eyes out simply for the purpose of having something to do, but the movie, shot on HDV, looks absolutely rinky-dink. I understand that this was shot on a micro-budget, if that, but what must be understood, and you’d think that someone like Alex Cox would fuckin’ realize this is that – in the end, when you have the finished product, it’s for people to watch and NOBODY WANTS TO WATCH A BORING, AWFUL LOOKING PIECE OF S**T!!
Pardon my yelling, but I feel it’s a point that so many people can’t get into their heads. You see filmmakers patting themselves on the back because they made some micro-budget feature, but too many of these “movies” are piles of garbage. The end result should be something people enjoy, not just an exercise to show what someone can do with no money and that’s what I feel was the focus here and that’s wrong.
It’s bullshit like this that makes you thank f**k that Cox didn’t get his hands on “Fear and Loathing.” In fact, it makes the segment in Breakfast with Hunter, where Cox loses the project in front of our eyes, all the more sweet. Thank you, Movie Gods. Thank you, Baby Jesus.
