Dietrich Bader

  • The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)

    The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, March 2020) I was frankly expecting the worst from The Beverly Hillbillies and ended up pleasantly surprised—the TV series that served as inspiration is known as a paragon of low-brow humour, and the very premise of Arkansas hillbillies striking oil and becoming rich enough to move to Beverly Hills seems custom-made for dumb humour. The good news isn’t that the film isn’t stupid, because it is—it’s that there’s some cleverness underlying the intentional stupidity. Of course, keep in mind that the film is directed by Penelope Spheeris, whose other films show a considerable amount of wit. The Beverly Hillbillies is clearly not as smart as in Wayne’s World here, but at least there’s the feeling that someone is paying attention to shore up what could have been worse. There’s constant self-awareness of the silliness of the script and plenty of winks at the audience even as the slapstick is going down. Making the most out of the limitations of the premise they’ve been handed, nearly every actor in the cast brings their A-game to the material. Special mention goes to Dietrich Bader, Erika Eleniak, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin and Lea Thompson in various ways, some of them exceeding expectations (Eleniak), meeting them (Bader), looking cute (Thompson) or just being rocks of dependable humour (Leachman, Tomlin). Not everything works (there’s some crossdressing material that clearly reads as transphobic today) but if your tolerance for broad dumb comedy in which predictability is comforting, then The Beverly Hillbillies is a better film than you think. It works even better if your expectations are down on the floor.

  • Eurotrip (2004)

    Eurotrip (2004)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, March 2015) I wasn’t expecting much from this raunchy teenage comedy, so low expectations may be behind this relatively positive review.  Clearly made in the wake of American Pie, this silly movie follows a group of friends as they make their way through Europe one the flimsiest of reasons.  Tons of stereotypical jokes follow them without much shame, every country on their itinerary earning a few dumb-American jabs along the way.  Still, some of the jokes are actually pretty good, and the inclusion of a surprising amount of nudity makes up for a number of other flaws. (But, alas, not the low-level sexism of the script.)  Eurotrip is not, to be clear, a good or even polished movie: it sinks deeper in dumbness until it beats you in submission of its lame jokes, and you know you’ve arrived at the right level when you expect lame-comedy veteran Dietrich Bader to show up… and he does.  At least the soundtrack is peppy, the direction is unobtrusive and the lead actors are likable, with special mention to Michelle Trachtenberg and Travis Wester as “the worst twins ever”.  The episodic structure of the film makes it uneven, but it finds a nice comedic rhythm midway through and keeps going well into the end.