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review: Here is yet another film from South Park creator Trey Parker. I thought his college film Cannibal: The Musical was funny, and BASEketball did not suck. So, I decided to give his latest cinematic effort a try.
Orgazmo is the story of a Mormon missionary named Joe Young (that would be Trey Parker) who is going door-to-door in Los Angeles. He happens to come across a home where a pornographic film is being shot. The director offers the meek young man the starring role as Orgazmo, a super-hero character who uses karate and the "Orgazmorator" stun gun to get rid of villains and rescue the damsels in distress. Joe wants to give his fiancée back in Utah a fancy wedding, so he accepts the job and the hefty paycheck.
Much like Parker's other projects, this film is crude and could be considered offensive. But, I wasn't offended, and I'm pretty sensitive. It boasts a NC-17 rating, but the film is surprisingly tame. There isn't any blatant nudity. Boogie Nights was a lot more pornographic. Also, according to the Mr. Showbiz web site, Mormons left a screening of the film with smiles on their faces. So, if they weren't offended by Parker's portrayal, then perhaps you won't be either.
Also, much like his other projects, this is awfully funny. I couldn't help but laugh. Orgazmo's sidekick, Chodo Boy, particularly cracked me up. Portrayed by Dian Bachar (the same guy from both Cannibal and BASEketball), Chodo Boy is a brilliant inventor who stars in pornographic movies to get attention from women. The scenes where he flashbacks to childhood are done with such deadpan delivery that I was just giggling up a storm.
However, at the same time, the film comes off a little too smugly. I can't exactly articulate what it is about this movie, but it almost seems like Parker didn't try that hard. Like he knew that all he had to do was a half-baked job and all his South Park-followers would be all over this. That's a shame. I hope he doesn't pull the same crap with the upcoming South Park film. (janice.97)
DVD Special Features:
The first commentary option is "Drunken", which includes Parker and Stone as well as other cast and crew members playing a drinking game as the film progresses. With all the voices in the room it gets pretty chaotic at times, but Parker cuts through the chaos to offer some very funny "insights" into his acting and directing techniques (as well as his theory of fart humor), and there's a fair amount of other behind-the-scenes information revealed. Parker also offers some surprisingly honest self-criticism about what he feels the film's weak spots are, which is refreshing. This commentary actually continues in the deleted scenes, where you will hear a lot of cracking up and "this is funny, why did we cut it?" kind of comments.
The second commentary is the "Cast" commentary, which features several supporting cast and crew members not included in the first commentary. There's not a whole lot of value to this one, and it's unfortunately dominated by the corny and attention-seeking Lloyd Kaufman, owner of Troma Films, who has a cameo part at the end of the film. I would have liked to have heard more from Maki San, who plays G Fresh the hip-hop sushi bar owner, but he actually comes across a bit shy. Even hardcore fans will likely only want to listen to this track once.
The third and final commentary track is what they call "Wild" and is split into different sections with different individuals or groups doing their thing. The first section has members of the South Park writing staff and is mostly unintelligible. Next up is Weird Al Yankovic, who's fairly corny and sounds like he probably scripted out his jokes in advance. but his presence is still kind of endearing. He's followed by Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall, NewsRadio), who uses his allotted time to create a strange vignette of domestic tension. Bob Odenkirk and David Cross are both supposed to be on here, but only Bob makes an audible appearance, once improvising commentary as Akira Kurosawa (very funny) and then again later as another famous director whom I can't remember now. Perhaps David was supposed to be in the several-minute section of silence that occurs. Kevin Smith proves he loves to hear himself talk with his purposely long-winded anecdote, and nothing from the David Zucker section sticks in my head.
Aside from the commentaries the main bonus feature is the behind-the-scenes documentary "The Book of Orgazmo", which contains some insights into the development and production of the film but ultimately comes across as kind of a self-serving vehicle for the filmmakers to advance their own careers by riding Trey Parker's coattails (and to give them a chance to hang around porn stars). Their idea of a funny interview technique is to very seriously say "urine" to their subjects and see what kind of response they get. Whoopedy-doo. (mike.06.05)
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