I found this to be a very interesting movie for a few reasons. The film follows Jamie Kennedy (Scream) has he first tackles the titular subject of hecklers. It is interesting to see comedians discuss their confrontations with hecklers, and admit their troubles and frustrations of doing live shows. Director Michael Addis offers some good quotes and handles the subject well. The plight of the comedian, alone on the stage, being challenged by a disruptive audience member is clearly explained and humorously dissected. He pulls in interviews with numerous comedians such as Lewis Black, Bill Maher, Dave Attel, David Cross, Gilbert Gottfried and others.

The film then takes a turn that I found for personal reasons to be fascinating. Addis and his host Jamie Kennedy brings critics, in particular independent online film critics, into the mix. They equate sites such as this and reviewers such as myself with drunken hecklers. I admit that most drunks still have superior grammar than I do, but I was at first taken aback by this connection. Addis managed to convince me it is a fair comparison. Most online critics are completely uninformed malcontents spouting out invective without any knowledge of what they're talking about. They've never made a movie, don't know anyone who has, and/or ever studied how they're made. Speaking for myself, there's only a handful of film review sites I can stomach because most online folks are simpletons with keyboards. Addis has Jamie Kennedy confront some of his online critics in person. Showing these critics was a wonderful choice. We are shown a gaggle of unkempt, cursing fools dressed like they're heading to the mall to hang out for the afternoon. This displays that indeed most online critics are like the bellowing hecklers at the live shows. Just loudmouths with too much determination and not enough brains. The difference is that the online lunks carry some weight since people naturally believe what they read. On top of this, the criticism stays on the Internet forever and has the potential to go viral. They're like hecklers who never shut up.

While they discuss the curse of online critics they show how hurtful some of the harsher reviews can be since they can get personal. For the record, when I first started doing this in 2004, I would get personal. I try to avoid that now but sometimes I do slip. What I found funny was that as an independent online critic, like the one's they trash in this film, I get my fair share of shots. It has always amazed me how angry people can get over the slightest insult to a movie they liked - not their favorite movie of all time, just one they liked. I get plenty of comments and e-mails from all sorts of trolls saying all kinds of things to me. Two days after I saw this movie I received the following comment:

"You are a retard. Go suck a c***. The movie was good...Jebo ti pas mater!" The last phrase is a Serbian curse wishing for a canine to fornicate with my mother.

What would cause such anger? I gave a bad review to Adam Sandler's comedy Click.

My favorite of all time came in late 2006 when a young woman named Tessa wrote a comment that I "should be raped and contract AIDS" for my negative review of The Constant Gardner.

I collect insults from faceless strangers like others collect postage stamps.

My point? I put my opinions out there, I expect to get them in return. I can get salty and I know others do as well. It is a part of putting yourself out in front of people. They can't throw tomatoes unless you're on the stage. For comedians to cry over hecklers is annoying. Are they actually saying that they should be able to spout off whatever opinion they want, no matter how ill informed or subversive, and the audience isn't to react negatively? Critics are to be silent when confronted with a craft which is clearly lacking in standards or quality?

The biggest problem Addis runs into with the film is his choice of host. Jamie Kennedy is mopey and comes across as a rich kid who found some success but is now dealing with the decline of his career. Kennedy may be a great guy to know personally, but the film makes him out to be whiny. To see him wounded by negative reviews of Son of Mask and Malibu's Most Wanted, even if he's being ironic, is a bit too much to swallow. It is the SON OF MASK, it isn't Shindler's List! It would have been better to have someone more accomplished confronting their critics and hecklers. This would have given the film more weight. As it is, Addis displays a guy most people don't even know cornering online reviewers most people haven't read. It saps the punch the film could have carried.

Will most people like this film? I'd have to say probably not. I found it interesting for personal reasons. It seems unlikely, given that Kennedy takes up most of the screen time with his whimpering, that most other people would be nearly as enthralled.


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Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008)


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Labels: documentary, film, Jamie Kennedy, movie review