Plot: What’s it about?
“Run Ronnie Run!” might just have set the bar for low-brow comedy that much lower. Now, this can be a good thing as it’s one of the funnier movies I’ve had the chance to see in a while. Essentially everything “The Adventures of Joe Dirt” wasn’t, this is. Taken right out of the skits of the cult classic, “Mr. Show” Bob and David have now turned their sketch into a movie. And unlike so many Saturday Night Live skits that are movies (and, believe it or not, there’s about a dozen of them); this one is actually funny. Granted, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (make that “can of beer”), but for the most part this film is something that not only makes fun of our society, but has characters that we can almost identify with. Yes, really. For every time we’ve seen “COPS” on television and wondered where they dig up these scumbags, well now we have something closer to resembling an answer. Whether he’s destroying the sign of a local Piggly Wiggly or flipping over a school bus, Ronnie Dobbs (David Cross) never ceases to provide us with a dull moment.
Which brings us to the plot of the whole movie. Granted a movie based on a sketch from a variety show won’t have intricate plot details. No, this 87 minute feature gets right to the point and perhaps doesn’t give the audience much credit when it comes to figuring out what’s what. Ronnie, aside from urinating in a bottle of someone else’s car, has no life. He drinks beer for breakfast, lunch and dinner and doesn’t think twice about it. He’s been married to the same girl three times with three kids to show for it. And he also has a knack for getting caught on television while breaking the law time and time again. The show is “FUZZ”, a show that closely resembles our real-life “COPS”. This catches the eye of down and out Hollywood producer, Terry Twillstein (Bob Odenkirk). Terry’s inventions haven’t been that great, and his last one has launched a razor blade into his co-host (something that’s much funnier and better seen than described here). Seeing how his crew laughs at the antics of Ronnie gives him an idea – a reality-based television show that does nothing but follow Ronnie around the country while he gets arrested
The show works and is an instant success, taking place of a show that closely resembles “Survivor”, albeit with a very different angle. Ronnie is all of the sudden in the spotlight, a media darling if you will; and doesn’t know how to handle it. He mixes with celebrities (the scene of his party is perhaps the funniest in the movie), but his heart still longs for Kayla (Nikki Cox). Endless cameos abound from Ben Stiller to Gary Shandling to Jeff Goldblum; to say that this was a low-budget production would be true, but perhaps these stars knew what they were getting into when they signed onto their cameo roles. At any rate, even though we don’t have “Mr. Show” anymore, we still have this. The movie was a critical success and might even garner a sequel or at the very least, some more sketches that make their way onto the big screen. This is a bit of a different movie, but one that has enough comic energy to make almost anyone laugh. Highly recommended.
Video: How does it look?
“Run Ronnie Run!” isn’t one of those Hollywood movies with millions of dollars in their budget. As such, the video quality isn’t the best we’ve ever seen, but it’s certainly not the worst. The 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is up to New Line’s usually high standards, though compared to “Lord of the Rings” it doesn’t hold a candle to it. Still, the film has some very colorful scenes, though most of the time the colors are oversaturated. Several scenes are show as “TV” scenes and those look fine too. Though you’ll probably be laughing so hard, you won’t even realize the faults of the transfer. A fine job here and not one that needs to be nitpicked to death.
Audio: How does it sound?
A Dolby Digital 5.1 track is included and though it does have it’s moments, this is essentially a dialogue-driven movie, though the action on the screen plays a part as well. Surrounds kick in from time to time, but the majority of this track is located in the front three channels. I noticed that during the music video scene (which is also included in its entirety) did sound fairly good. The LFE did kick in about three times, but it’s not a track that relies too heavily on the audio. There’s not a whole lot else to say here, as far as comedies go, this sounds great.
Supplements: What are the extras?
I can only imagine how funny a commentary track would be, but sadly all that’s included here are eight deleted scenes (shown in anamorphic widescreen), the trailer and the music video “Three Times One Minus One”…so I guess we could call that “Two”?
