TV pitchman Vince Offer brings his cable access "The Underground Comedy Show" to the big screen, complete with a ton of recognizable faces, and not a lot of laughs.
Offer goes the "Kentucky Fried Movie" and "Amazon Women on the Moon" route by sending up all sorts of television shows. He warns the viewer in the first couple of seconds that this will offend everyone, a bad sign since offensive material usually takes precedence over funny. Offer starts things off with a terrible spoof of "Batman" (a baseball player) battling the Rhymer, who has robbed a sperm bank. This skit goes on forever. Michael Clarke Duncan has a few laughs as a virgin fighting off the advances of Ant. Randy Newman is parodied well in the song "I Hate L.A.," but Joey Buttafuoco and dumb writing ruin "The Godmother." Slash hosts the Miss America Bag Lady Pageant, which might have worked if he knew how to read lines. "Psychology Today" goes nowhere, as does "Flirty Harry," where an eye-rolling catch phrase is introduced. "The Porno Review" showed some promise, but goes on too long. The O.J. Simpson trial is hit on often, as well.
The main problem is Offer's inability to edit some of the segments down so he could keep the jokes going. I was bored through much of this, after the "shock" wore off. It was a kick to see Karen Black, Angelyne, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Gena Lee Nolin, but it was not enough.
"The Underground Comedy Movie" is an inside joke made for a small audience who might get this, while the rest of us wonder what all the fuss about the original television show was about.
