“Anyone that causes a jail riot singing about whores and cats, that’s my man!” quips Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade), in Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and The Shitrockers Story, a movie with some of the bloated film titles to reach in current reminiscence. The plot of this quirky comedy will not be as persistently amusing, however there’s nonetheless spunk on this offbeat story a couple of frenzied Canadian band that finds themselves opening for Thornton’s band throughout a European tour.
To make certain, this movie may go greatest for diehard followers of the hit Canadian TV present, Trailer Park Boys, and/or the real-life band featured in it, Bubbles and The Shitrockers. Nonetheless, in case you’re a Borat fan and a lover of foolish comedies or movies about beleaguered bands, this movie is for you. For others, it’s amusing sufficient and an excellent diversion for practically two hours. Anyway you spin it, the underdog premise could win you over. Bubbles (Mike Smith) and his band, The Shitrockers, embark on their very own tour round Nova Scotia when a viral Web clip finds them on a European tour opening for Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters.
Mayhem ensues, in fact. The forged additionally contains Robb Wells, JP Tremblay, Pat Roach, Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), and Robert Sheehan (The Umbrella Academy). Full of hilarious gags and highway journey / nation bumpkin humor, it’s evident Smith, who penned the screenplay, and director Charlie Lightening have nice ardour for the story, which tends to overstay its welcome as a consequence of its prolonged runtime at practically two hours.
Crooning and Cracking Jokes Solely Go So Far
Bubbles’ band “The Shitrockers” lands a European tour however will get kicked off, forcing them to busk. Randy is their roadie. Can Ricky and Julian save them from the streets of Prague?
- Launch Date
- December 6, 2024
- Director
- Charlie Lightening
- Forged
- Mike Smith , Billy Bob Thornton , Robb Wells , John Paul Tremblay , Patrick Roach , Ronnie Wooden , Zach Selwyn
- Runtime
- 1h 51m
- Writers
- Mike Smith
- Distributor(s)
- Blue Fox Leisure
- The music is definitely enjoyable, and the story of the band is surprisingly candy and provoking.
- Billy Bob Thornton is humorous and an excellent sport, and it is cool to see these characters in Europe.
- The film’s just too lengthy for a mockumentary comedy like this.
- It’s all admittedly foolish and generally simply silly.
Trailer Park Boys started as a sequence. It rocked Canada, debuting in 2001 and ran by 2018. The present tracked nutty Nova Scotia trailer park residents Bubbles, Ricky (Wells), and Julian (Tremblay). Mad capers, get-rich-quick schemes, and a gaggle of screw-ups filtered into the combination. The sequence discovered the gang at all times hunted by a former trailer park supervisor, Jim, and his shirtless, pot-bellied assistant, Randy (Roach). The fellas are again within the movie model, and the documentary being made about them offers the movie a enjoyable mockumentary journey.
After giving us a glimpse of who these offbeat however candy oddballs are, we discover them embarking on a tour of veterans halls, crooning shitrockin’ tunes — country-like ditties stuffed with sass and principally about kitties, in fact. The lyrics will spark a smile: “I discovered Vinci in a storm drain/Lined in liquor and glue/I took him residence and cleaned him off with kitty shampoo…”
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And so it goes. Someplace towards the tail finish of their mini tour, which the fellas really feel is so overwhelming with its 14 stints, a TikTok video goes viral, and all of a sudden they’re invited to be the opening act for Thornton’s entourage. The transition from roading it small-town-style to the European setting is clean on display.
There’s a memorable scene when Thornton is launched by the use of this remark to a groupie he’s reciting a narrative to: “[I said to him] in case you don’t let go of that cobra, I swear on Christ Almighty’s f***ing nutsack, that that bag of magic apples goes within the mulcher.” That mentioned, these gags are stellar. Bubbles as soon as quips: “He wouldn’t know an excellent music if it crawled into his Hawaiian shirt and s*** in his mouth.”
Trailer Park Boys in Europe
To understand Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties, one should perceive and maybe embrace the dimwitted but tender-hearted delight of Bubbles himself. At this level, the character is a part of Mike Smith’s DNA, and his real-life musical act has change into an ideal sensation, capturing worldwide consideration. This story works properly when it leans into Bubbles’ fish-out-of-water expertise. That may be experiencing Europe or participating with Billy Bob Thornton.
The movie additionally advantages from reducing backwards and forwards from a nutty expertise or musical interlude to answering questions from the documentarian. “What’s s***-rocking precisely,” the person asks. “What model of music would you contemplate it to be?” To which Bubbles says: “It’s not a lot a mode of music, as it’s an angle.”
That angle is on full show when the band sings. It tends to fall a bit flatter when the music stops. This might have been remedied by trimming the runtime of the movie. There’s a working gag, too, within the movie. It appears Bubbles by chance swallowed a pin whereas knitting and now has a perforated rectum. Different gags — from the point out of revenge banging a priest to taking in a particular wants kitten referred to as Cat Benatar — hold us amused, too. After all, the well-known character shirtless Randy (allergic to material if he wears it from the waist up) is constant all through.
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As most oddball comedies would have it, there are some hiccups alongside the best way, and like many hit-and-miss comedies, it is extra misses than hits. However all that manages to work itself out on the massive tour. All of the sudden, Billy Bob Thornton is doling out recommendation to Bubbles, telling him to comply with his coronary heart and preserve his integrity. Search for cameos by legends like Ronnie Wooden, Duff McKagan, Lennon Stella, Rick Nielsen, and Eric Burdon, and there is one thing to be mentioned in regards to the nice manufacturing high quality of the musical footage.
The story itself could wander and issues could get cleaned up a bit too simply by the top, however for a modern-day shitrocker fairy story, this movie manages to seek out the appropriate beats and hit some excessive notes, Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties, The Bubbles and The Shitrockers Story opens December 6.