KIDS IN THE HALL: BRAIN CANDY
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 1996 Christopher Null
Well, what have we here? Let me say first-off that I'm a *huge* Kids in the Hall fan. This review is necessarily going to be tainted by the fact that I've probably seen 300 hours of Kids in the Hall on TV...and by my impression going into the film that, hey, another 1 1/2 hours wouldn't kill me.
If you aren't familiar with the comedy troupe, the Kids are five guys (Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, Scott Thompson, and Dave Foley) who have appeared in 110 episodes of some of the funniest sketch comedy television has offered up in recent years. After ending the series in July 1994, talk of a movie immediately began. Two years later, the end result is here.
What the Kids have brought us with BRAIN CANDY is a 90 minute skit about a drug company and its hapless employees who invent the penultimate "happy pill," GleeMonex. The only problem, they later discover, is that those that take the pill commonly become comatose due to the ecstasy caused by it...which isn't such a happy result after all.
Plotline aside, the real question on everyone's mind is, "Is it any good?" Well...yes and no. The Kids have brought back some 40 of our favorite characters from the show (and some new ones), and their performances as Canada's most ridiculous citizens are perfectly done. The problem, and it's quite a big one, is that the GleeMonex storyline gets old--fast, although it has a certain charm and does serve to tie the whole movie together. In the end, the plot is little more than an arbitrary way of getting to the funny bits of the script, which rarely have anything to do with the BRAIN CANDY in question.
Good characters in a crummy story don't make for particularly good time, but there are plenty of laughs to be had by all scattered throughout the film. You're probably better off just watching three episodes of the TV show at home, but for die-hard fans, the movie will probably carry at least some appeal. Just don't take any pills from strangers.
(Special note: *Yes!* Paul Bellini (the guy in the towel) does appear in one scene.)
RATING: ***
\-------------------------------\ |* Unquestionably awful | |** Sub-par on many levels | |*** Average, hits and misses | |**** Good, memorable film | |***** Perfection | \-------------------------------\
-Christopher Null / null@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu -Screenwriter / Novelist / Publisher -Visit the Movie Emporium at http://cca2.carrington.com/emporium/ -and e-mail requests to join the movie review mailing list
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