Well, first of all, I really got a kick out of the trailer for the toddler-centric gangster action movie parody that precedes the feature here, "Baby Bullets" - especially with the tagline "The only movie that has to be changed four timed a day!"
(Matter of fact this opens kind of like.... Grindhouse? And it has an "Intermission" eventually? It has multiple fake trailers, including a sex arthouse take off called "Gena's Story" featuring the introduction of actor Jacques Perrier, and a ... *un-subtle* black and white spoof of Raging Bull by Martin Snoreseasy called Raging Bull****?!?! What a way to start your movie, dude... Dare I say this is "cinema?")
I bring all of this up because the trailers and to an extent the Intermission are really, comedically, the most effective parts of the movie because it's where Kaufman finds his mojo for jokes... In short, concentrated bursts. The problem with a full movie the way this unfolds is that it's like the filmmakers have A.D.D., or more literally it's like someone changing the channel and you have no control over it, as jokes and gags and incredibly stupid garbage keeps flying at the walls as they try to see what sticks that it resembles the sets for the hotel rooms in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Everything but the kitchen sink? How's about the entire house bulldozed while G Gordon Liddy gets a bit?
Speaking of which, the random nonsense is probably what is most endearing about this (even if you might be forgiven at first for mistaking G Gordon for Dabney Coleman and uh you know he probably should've been in jail and not in a comedy circa 1982 but I digress), even as so much of it doesn't work. Kaufman and company act as though we might god forbid get bored if we see a full scene play out, so interruptions happen constantly - sometimes, it is kind of amusing (you can tell when this was filmed if nothing else because it has a Reds cut interview joke, or maybe it's a couple), and other times it seems more like they know they don't have a good clothesline of a plot to hang this on so they just get stupid and gross for the sake of it. That is a legit approach, but it can also be exhausting by the time you're over an hour in.
So, what kind of comedy is this? Well, I'd bet the farm on these guys having seen Airplane or read a few MAD magazines and fancied "hey, we can do that," but they didn't seem to understand that even amid a ZAZ comedy's unrelenting lunacy they had characters we could like and care about; this doesn't have the chemistry between a Hagerty and Hays, or Nielsen and Pressley in Naked Gun. What we have in this movie as the most likeable presence is the one who's among the more, err, "problematic" as we say now elements in David Staithairn(?!) as Weeijun, a Native American in full garb and more or less Indian-Face as the guide who comes in and become part of this "Outdoorsters" family.
(Never say someone hasn't had a FULL career without acknowledging someone like Straithairn fyi, who can say he has an obscure for good reason Troma film on the same resume as Edward R Morrow and Nomadland. So it goes).
But what I mean to say is his interactions with the family, and his self conscious attitude and basic talent as a performer and screen presence, what he brings to them are the closest this gets to a story and it's desperately necessary - yes, even knowing it is an offensive type, and even knowing that it comes out (minor spoiler who cares) he is a white guy playing Native American dress up - when what else is there includes a subplot where the daughter has sex with a bear (oh no the tabloids about it), and uh.... Damn, I'm already forgetting much of this movie! The point is, he is actually trying despite the limitations, and everyone else is... There.
Why this rating is because some of the gags do land. I laughed when the family gets to their spot in the outdoors and a guy is there to park their car and give them a ticket for it (and this is surprisingly a plant and payoff holy god). I laughed hard at the Willie Mays cameo (I hope this gets to resurface on YouTube or somewhere, best part of the movie). I chuckled a bit when the family and Weeijun step slowly away from the guy pontificating as an expert in the woods. And I had a few chuckles when Myron Cohen, the Borscht-belt comic, pops up for a moment or two to roast the characters.
But these moments are pretty far and in between for so much dead air, where the idea is that if it's tasteless that will be enough. It's ironic that the one main draw here is also what if this wasn't so obscure would get it "cancelled" all over again, but the effort wouldn't be necessary. When Nature Calls is at times a charming curio of (too) relentless spoof Anything Goes comic shtick, except... When it isn't (ie a Mammie housecleaner joke with the cougar is... Woof, man).
(Matter of fact this opens kind of like.... Grindhouse? And it has an "Intermission" eventually? It has multiple fake trailers, including a sex arthouse take off called "Gena's Story" featuring the introduction of actor Jacques Perrier, and a ... *un-subtle* black and white spoof of Raging Bull by Martin Snoreseasy called Raging Bull****?!?! What a way to start your movie, dude... Dare I say this is "cinema?")
I bring all of this up because the trailers and to an extent the Intermission are really, comedically, the most effective parts of the movie because it's where Kaufman finds his mojo for jokes... In short, concentrated bursts. The problem with a full movie the way this unfolds is that it's like the filmmakers have A.D.D., or more literally it's like someone changing the channel and you have no control over it, as jokes and gags and incredibly stupid garbage keeps flying at the walls as they try to see what sticks that it resembles the sets for the hotel rooms in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Everything but the kitchen sink? How's about the entire house bulldozed while G Gordon Liddy gets a bit?
Speaking of which, the random nonsense is probably what is most endearing about this (even if you might be forgiven at first for mistaking G Gordon for Dabney Coleman and uh you know he probably should've been in jail and not in a comedy circa 1982 but I digress), even as so much of it doesn't work. Kaufman and company act as though we might god forbid get bored if we see a full scene play out, so interruptions happen constantly - sometimes, it is kind of amusing (you can tell when this was filmed if nothing else because it has a Reds cut interview joke, or maybe it's a couple), and other times it seems more like they know they don't have a good clothesline of a plot to hang this on so they just get stupid and gross for the sake of it. That is a legit approach, but it can also be exhausting by the time you're over an hour in.
So, what kind of comedy is this? Well, I'd bet the farm on these guys having seen Airplane or read a few MAD magazines and fancied "hey, we can do that," but they didn't seem to understand that even amid a ZAZ comedy's unrelenting lunacy they had characters we could like and care about; this doesn't have the chemistry between a Hagerty and Hays, or Nielsen and Pressley in Naked Gun. What we have in this movie as the most likeable presence is the one who's among the more, err, "problematic" as we say now elements in David Staithairn(?!) as Weeijun, a Native American in full garb and more or less Indian-Face as the guide who comes in and become part of this "Outdoorsters" family.
(Never say someone hasn't had a FULL career without acknowledging someone like Straithairn fyi, who can say he has an obscure for good reason Troma film on the same resume as Edward R Morrow and Nomadland. So it goes).
But what I mean to say is his interactions with the family, and his self conscious attitude and basic talent as a performer and screen presence, what he brings to them are the closest this gets to a story and it's desperately necessary - yes, even knowing it is an offensive type, and even knowing that it comes out (minor spoiler who cares) he is a white guy playing Native American dress up - when what else is there includes a subplot where the daughter has sex with a bear (oh no the tabloids about it), and uh.... Damn, I'm already forgetting much of this movie! The point is, he is actually trying despite the limitations, and everyone else is... There.
Why this rating is because some of the gags do land. I laughed when the family gets to their spot in the outdoors and a guy is there to park their car and give them a ticket for it (and this is surprisingly a plant and payoff holy god). I laughed hard at the Willie Mays cameo (I hope this gets to resurface on YouTube or somewhere, best part of the movie). I chuckled a bit when the family and Weeijun step slowly away from the guy pontificating as an expert in the woods. And I had a few chuckles when Myron Cohen, the Borscht-belt comic, pops up for a moment or two to roast the characters.
But these moments are pretty far and in between for so much dead air, where the idea is that if it's tasteless that will be enough. It's ironic that the one main draw here is also what if this wasn't so obscure would get it "cancelled" all over again, but the effort wouldn't be necessary. When Nature Calls is at times a charming curio of (too) relentless spoof Anything Goes comic shtick, except... When it isn't (ie a Mammie housecleaner joke with the cougar is... Woof, man).
