By: Oberst von Berauscht (Four Beers)
Aging gangster Don Carini (Harvey Keitel) is stepping down from power. He has called a meeting of underbosses in order to announce his replacement. After careful consideration, he decides that his successor will be his illegitimate son. This is a cause of some consternation among Don Carini’s men, especially Tony V, the Don’s adopted son and closest advisor. Their concern is not that they have never met his son, nor even his lack of experience, but that the Don’s son is…
A retarded 50 year old Korean man?
A Toast
You heard right, and that is the appeal of the movie. If you find this concept inherently funny, you’ll probably get a kick out of the movie. It is full of cheap fart gags, archaic slapstick comedy, and taken for what it is, you could do worse.
I do however have praise for actor-comedian-director Hyung-Rae Shim, who is certainly talented in the art of physical comedy. Indeed, at times I found myself thinking that The Last Godfather felt like watching a Jerry Lewis comedy, but with Mr. Bean in the title role.
Not high art by any means, but it has a certain appeal…
Beer Two
Paraphrasing Major Payne, this movie is still a shit sandwich… just not a soggy one.
The comedy, and overall feel of this film, as I stated earlier is that of a much older movie. The problem is that its jokes have been played out many times before. I grew up on The Three Stooges and other classic comedy troupes, and though it is sort of nice to see the spirit of vaudevillian slapstick in a modern movie, it feels like a step down when compared to modern physical comedy.
Beer Three
The greatest flaw of the movie is that the comedy often wavers for long periods. Director Hyung-Rae Shim should have found more jokes to fill in these gaps, but instead wrote in a completely uninteresting romantic subplot, complete with a tedious “falling in love” montage that drags the movie down. A film such as this should make no pretense at being artistic, and just pile on the laughs. And when the quality of laughs are as weak as this, the quantity has to be amped up.
Beer Four
Another problem faced with the movie is that Young-Gu feels like the kind of racist stereotype that would appear and be mocked by characters in 50’s-60’s movies. And because the film was created by a Korean filmmaker, it is clearly not meant to be this way. The character Young-Gu is the butt of most of the film’s humor though, and as the rest of the cast is Caucasian, one wonders if the film isn’t setting back race relations.
I mean… seriously?
Verdict
Push a button on this one…
Drinking Game:
Take a drink: for every Derp moment
Take a drink: whenever Jason Mewes makes an appearance
Down a Shot: anytime you have no clue what Young-Gu is saying
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