The Farce of the Penguins

March 2, 2007

Rated: R Runtime: 80 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I’d like to report that this is a hysterical send up of March of the Penguins and that you’d be crazy to miss it. I’d like to report that, but I can’t… it’s just not that funny.

The Farce of the Penguins Bob Sagat had a really good idea with this movie, take a bunch of stock penguin footage… provide high quality voice overs from famous folks and write an amusing story. It’s a really good idea for a 30 minute show, but even at 80 minutes long I found myself checking my watch several times.

Carl (Bob Sagat) and Jimmy (Lewis Black) are in the feeding stage of their year, about to trek back 70 miles for Pon farr. On their journey they wax poetic about love, lust, and other things in a penguins life. In the meantime Melissa (Christina Applegate) and Vicki (Mo’Nique) are awaiting the mating season themselves and wax poetic about love, lust, and other things in a penguins life.

Yeah, it’s a one trick pony.

That’s not to say that some of the dialogue isn’t damn funny, and Samuel L. Jackson’s narrative is priceless at some points, but watching penguins walk around for 80 minutes gets boring regardless of what they’re saying. What I’d suggest is that you rent this DVD when you’re going to have a group of friends over and will be drinking a lot of beer. That way you don’t really have to pay much attention and the occasional moment of hilarity will make you all laugh but you’ll be able to chat during the boring parts.

One other point to make is about the cast. Bob Sagat has become a seriously hot property in Hollywood lately and the group he put together to lend their voices to this movie is very impressive. Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Alexander, James Belushi, Dane Cook,Drea de Matteo, Gilbert Gottfried, Alyson Hannigan, Jon Lovitz, Norm MacDonald, Carlos Mencia, Tracy Morgan and even Abe Vigoda. That’s not nearly the entire list either, just a sample.

I really wish it had been funnier. Maybe I just needed to drink more, yeah.. that’s the ticket.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Posted by John | Filed Under 3 Stars, Bob Sagat, Christina Applegate, Comedy, DVD, Lewis Black, R, Samuel L. Jackson, Tracy Morgan