Gentlemen Broncos (2009/Fox Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: C Film: C
Watching
the preview for Gentlemen Broncos I
thought I had a sleeper hit on my hands.
It appeared to be creative and had a cast of virtual unknowns that had
solid potential. Instead I was delivered
a huge helping of garbage. What is more
disappointing is the fact that I think the film had a GREAT premise, just
horrible execution. There have been many
films throughout time that had the potential to be classics, but in the end
fell short. This brings up the problem
of all too many good films being remade today; why not focus on the bad ones,
those are the ones that need help. So
let’s hope that in 10-20years Gentlemen
Broncos may be remade into the classic it should have been.
The plot
of the film focuses on a homeschooled boy named Benjamin Purvis (Michael
Angarano) who writes insanely creative (yet odd) works of literature. He seems to have been held back his entire
life by low self esteem, the death of his father and a smothering mother (Jennifer
Coolidge). He has been held back, but he
is about to bust out of his shell. His
mother agrees to let him go to a writing workshop hosted by one of his literary
heroes, pompous writer Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement). At the event Benjamin is soon discouraged by
the host of characters and phony creativity that surrounds him, but decides to
submit one of his works to a writing contest (hosted by Chevalier) in hopes of
being praised and discovered. Upon
returning home Benjamin is invited to have his novel (who he let another young
writer read) made into a film by a bunch of eccentric young…ummm…talents. While the ‘young talents’ transform his work
into a ridiculous piece of junk, Ronald Chevalier (who read Benjamin’s work
also) is busy stealing Ben’s work and making it his own. Truth of the matter is that Chevalier is a
down and out sci-fi writer who is about to be dropped by his publisher if he
doesn’t produce; in turn causing him to claim what is not his. The film develops into a story of Benjamin
versus the world. The world has wronged
Benjamin one too many times and he is not going to sit back and take it
anymore…but a little luck wouldn’t hurt him at this point either.
My
opinion on the film is just as I have previously said, it had great potential,
but in the end failed miserably. The
film is brilliantly odd, but certain characters are insanely annoying. I would
say the film is not even worth watching and most likely should be avoided…at
least for 20years or so.
The
technical features on this Blu-ray are basic at best and don’t excite by any
means. The picture is presented in a
1080p 1.85 X 1 image that fairs much better than the horrible film. The picture has nice colors though leaning
more towards the earth tones than having any true vividness. The blacks are nice and the edges are clean,
with minimal grain throughout. The sound
is a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio that is very front heavy as most of the film is
dialogue with little action. The
surrounds are used for minimal action sequences and the music, but overall I
would call the sound weak.
The
extras include an Audio Commentary; Deleted Scenes; Outtakes Reel: A Buttload
of Keepsakes; One Nutty Movie: Behind the Scenes of ‘Gentlemen Broncos;’
Trailers. The extras are a waste of time
as I did not find them funny nor worth watching.
The film
is weird and whereas I LOVE weird, this film was a bad, inconsistent
weird. I can tell the film had heart,
too bad it didn’t have a solid plot.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
