The most effective dumb comedies are smarter than they give the impression of being.
The 2004 cult hit “Napoleon Dynamite” proved it, though not as a lot as its cult following suggests.
Much better? The deliriously dumb 2016 black comedy “The Greasy Strangler.”
The sub-genre requires pinpoint comedian timing and brains behind the gags. Your mileage will nonetheless range, in fact.
That’s why “Agua Donkeys” stands tall subsequent to these movies … or most trendy comedies. The movie, assembled from the little-seen 2020 Quibi sequence of the identical identify, is irrepressibly silly on the floor.
There’s a technique to the comedian insanity, one thing that rapidly turns into clear. By the top, you would possibly wish to rewatch it yet again.
Finest buddies MP and Jer (MP Cunningham, Jer Jackson) lengthy to do extra with their lives than clear swimming pools. Their gig at Agua Donkeys pays the payments, however they starvation for one thing extra.
Like a romance with their comely co-worker, Jackie (Child Darrington). Sure, there are two of them and solely considered one of her.
What’s your level?
All they want is a plan to woo her, like leaping from an area constructing into the swimming pool beneath. It could actually’t miss! Assuming they don’t.
Plot descriptions hardly seize the silliness afoot. Our heroes are blissfully unaware of each their actions and the implications to them. Their flustered boss Rod (Luke Jackson) tries to run a good enterprise, however the man-children hold getting in the way in which.
This isn’t dumb for dumb’s sake. The response pictures are routinely priceless, and there’s an honesty to the strategy that makes the humor land. Cunningham and Jackson, who co-wrote “Agua Donkeys,” aren’t prepared to dismiss these dimwits as merciless or unworthy of our affection.
They only don’t know any higher.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This critic is a contributor to The Blaze.
Sly jokes abound, as do turns of phrase that may simply catch on ought to sufficient individuals see the movie (“buttery!”). And also you’ll by no means have a look at denims the identical means once more.
Why does all of it work? It clocks in effectively beneath 90 minutes, so there’s nothing that might be trimmed away. Cunningham and Jackson have an endearing high quality that’s exhausting to pretend.
You additionally get the sense of the cleansing firm being a real, Mother ‘n Pop operation that might rise or fall based mostly on one massive consumer.
We’re additionally handled to chic supporting characters. Take an ex-con who regales the leads together with his jailhouse cruelty. It’s brutally dry comedy.
So goes “Agua Donkeys,” a movie destined for both cult standing or a revival of types.
HiT or Miss: “Agua Donkeys” is dumb to the core, however it’s good sufficient to take advantage of its dopey antiheroes.
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