Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. Try and tell me there’s a stranger-sounding film that we’ve put up a story about today. Go ahead. I dare you.
To the Ain't It Cool editors, I wanted to write in for the first time and mention a movie I've never seen posted on Ain't It Cool News. Since it has Jason Mewes and Dave Foley in the cast, it might interest your readers. Since I live in Dallas, I don't have much opportunity to see movies before they are shown nationwide, but the AFI/Dallas Film Festival was held here the past couple of weeks. You can't drive around Dallas without seeing the signs. So I thought I'd check out a few flicks so I checked out the website. Honestly the list of films looked kind of boring, but there were a couple that looked interesting. Hot Fuzz was playing and the main guys from it were in attendance. I loved Shaun of the Dead and so I was pumped to see it. But I couldn't get out of work to catch it. Later I heard it was great and that made it even worse. I read on the site that Mewes had a new movie out called Netherbeast Incorporated that was going to be a World Premiere. And Mewes was going to be there! I'd already missed Hot Fuzz and I was not going to be denied this time. My buddy was a volunteer for the festival and he got me in. Netherbeast Incorporated is about a bunch of vampire-like people who work for a telephone company in Arizona. Since they rarely go outside, they have lived in the company's building for a hundred years. Their boring existence is livened up when the company's boss (Daryl Hammond from SNL) gets a disease called the retardations and hires a couple of people from the outside. One of these people is a productivity consultant played by Judd Nelson. You heard me right. Judd Nelson. When a few employees start getting bumped off, it's up to the working stiffs (sorry) led by Steve Burns (the Blues Clues guy!) & Dave Foley (KITH!). The movie is truly hilarious. The audience really got into it. The cast is excellent but I was disappointed that Mewes didn't have a bigger role. Maybe they could only pay him for a couple of days, but he was really good whenever he was onscreen. He plays Waxy Dan who is Steve Burns' friend. He does a running gag about The Eye Of The Jackal that had the audience rolling. Definitely wanted to see more of him. Another actor who was underused was the great Dave Foley. The rest of the cast was very good, especially the main "couple" played Steve Burns & Amy Davidson. Daryl Hammond is zany and fun during most of the film, but he does some real acting toward the end. I was impressed with him. The weak link I believe is Judd Nelson, who overplays his role like you'd expect Judd Nelson to do. The script is a wild one. It's smart & weird & completely original. For example, I got up to hit the head and when I got back, there was Robert Wagner onscreen as President James Garfield. I must have missed how he was tied to the story, but apparently he was a vampire, too. And then Alexander Graham Bell shows up. I suggest you pee before getting to the theater. A couple of other highlights are when two employees start brawling over the meaning of The Tortoise And The Hare, and when Amy Davidson talks about why ventriloquists have groupies. It's one of those quotable movies like Office Space. The movie is by no means perfect. It's low-budget and looks it. A lot of the movie is too dark. Some of it is too silly. The inside of the building looks too modern. The actors in the smaller roles range from good to terrible. The sound was inconsistent. You don't have to look hard for problems, but the complete movie works very well. Fans of straight ahead horror movies will be disappointed since it's short on the fright factor. Fans of quirky comedies will love it. After the movie, some of the cast (Mewes & Burns & Davidson & the woman who plays the funky secretary who's totally hot in real life) and crew (Directors/brothers Dean and Brian Ronald) came up to answer questions. Mewes didn't say much and looked jumpy. I know I'm risking the dreaded PLANT accusations, but I've never met a single person involved with the film. It's a damn funny movie. In the lobby, I heard a guy say that it was like if the Coen brothers made Shaun of the Dead. I don't know if I would go that far, but I would recommend it to fans of smart comedy. If you decide to post this call me The Dirkinator!
