Hola Dannie aqui!
Tron is faster than a light cycle today bringing us another review this time of "Ron Goossens: Low Budget Stuntman" This looks like an alcoholically fueled fun fest! From directors Steffen Haars and Flip Van der Kuil and stars Tim Haars, Bo Martin, and Dennie Christian I included the trailer after Tron's review!
Tron Reporting!
I was passingly familiar with the "New Kids" series of films as well as "Bros Before Ho's" before stepping into Ron Goossens thanks to previous Fantastic Fests though I had never seen one due to tough scheduling choices. This was the perfect way to enter this film because A) I didn't have any preconceived notions other than the trailer, which was more than enough to sell me on the idea and B) it totally made me want to track down their previous work pronto. "Ron Goossens: Low Budget Stuntman" is that rare film which comes along once every few years – a comedy that earned a very high rating from me at the festival. Unrelenting, unrepentant and chock full of some of the most offensive, lowest common denominator comedy to hit the big screen in quite some time, Ron Goossens hit my funny bone so many times during the screening I felt that there was a chance it may not hold up upon a second viewing. Having completed a second viewing on a smaller screen I can assure you the movie is still hysterical and earns the '8' I gave it, though you have to be predisposed to like the type of humor on display. Monty Python it's not, though I believe those guys would adore this film too.
Ron Goossens (Tim Haars) is an alcoholic living in the shadow of his dad, an even bigger alcoholic and kind of a drinking celebrity in the local watering hole. After another failed attempt to break his dad's “submarine” record, Ron is asked to either pay his outstanding tab or jump a car over a rising bridge. Ron, of course, picks the stunt and totally messes it up, causing the car to crash and explode. Ron himself surfaces in the river and exclaims, “I'm, like, totally shitfaced.” When he wakes up the next day, still drunk, he finds out that he's a massive Youtube sensation thanks to his buddy's well-timed post, with “I'm, like totally shitfaced” becoming a national meme. Ron doesn't care and goes on the quest for more alcohol and along the way, he encounters an agent, played by Michiel Romeyn, who believes it's Ron's disregard for safety and bodily harm that could turn around the slumping Dutch film industry and offers to market Ron as a low-budget stuntman. Ron, of course, has no interest until he catches his wife Angela (Maartje van de Wetering) sleeping with a drinking buddy from the bar. It turns out she's been sleeping with the whole town as she is bored and fed up with Ron's constant drinking. She also claims to be pregnant with the intention to abort and kicks Ron out unless he can bed the hottest star in Danish film, Bo Maerten (herself).
Ron's brain dimly understands the gravity of his situation and contacts the agent, agreeing to do the stunts if he could guarantee that Ron would be working on a Bo Maerten film. It turns out that Bo Maerten, due to her staggering popularity, is in every film that summer so Ron has plenty of opportunities to make his conquest.... except for a few small hurdles. Bo is a mega-star and does not like to talk to 'underlings.' Bo has a strong aversion to alcohol as her family has a history with drink and Ron is a complete alcoholic. Bo is also dating one of the hottest male leads in Denmark, Waldemar Torenstra (also himself), a fact Ron finds out when he scales the outside of Bo's apartment building and crawls into bed with the pair. With these insurmountable obstacles in his way, will the perpetually inebriated Ron Goossens be able to make his conquest and win the love of his wife back or is there more in store for our hero? And what about the stunts?
Ron Goossens is a story of redemption and one man's quest to turn his life around while at the same time trying to save his marriage, all wrapped up in a hysterically offensive, cringe-inducing situational comedy that becomes more outlandish, and funny, as the film moves forward at breakneck speed. Clocking in at only 83 minutes, the last ten or so as credit/post-credit scenes, the movie feels like it's longer (not a complaint) due to the sheer amount of gags and biting commentary thrown into the mix During the post-film Q+A, Flip Van der Kuil pointed out that there were many Dutch in-jokes that American audiences may not get, such as the fact that most Dutch films are very serious dramas so the idea was to put stunts in movies that literally had no stunts in them. They took this concept a step further by casting every Dutch director they could get their hands on to 'direct' the stunts in their 'movies' which, of course, contain no stunts, (except for Paul Verhoeven, who lives in America and didn't want to fly to Denmark for one day and very little money to film what amounted to a cameo, which prompted a “fuck Paul Verhoeven” from the directors) and almost every actor in the film is a real Dutch actor playing “shittier versions of themselves.” None of this stops the viewer from enjoying the cinematic mayhem on display but does and another subtle shade of humor if you know this going in.
I would also be remiss not to mention the Breakout Star of Ron Goossens; Low-Budget Stuntman, if not the Breakout Star of all of 2017: Dennie Christian. For those that don't know, Dennie Christian is a real-life German pop singer in the Hasselhoff-ian vein who had a smash hit in Denmark in the 1970's that is making his major comeback as a cover singer in Ron Goossens and he almost steals the show with his self-deprecating story-line. Belting out hits like “Broken Wings,” “Push it to the Limit” and “Stay Another Day” during the course of the movie while displaying a reluctance to do so when meeting with his agent (co-incidentally Ron Goossen's agent as well), Dennie Christian becomes one of the major plot-threads that help carry the movie along, even earning himself some choice comedy bits during the credits and in the post-credit segments. One of the early gags about a tape that's stuck in Ron's stunt car happens to be Dennie's 1970's hit so he's inextricably linked to the story of Ron Goossens and if a solo spin-off is made I'll definitely be in line to watch the Dennie Christian story... as long as the New Kids guys are directing. The soundtrack will definitely be worth the investment and if this doesn't re-launch Dennie Christian as a pop sensation I'll be awfully surprised.
Ron Goossens: Low-Budget Stuntman is one of my favorite comedies this year and, provided you like terribly offensive humor designed to make you chortle for an hour and a half straight, I'm sure it will resonate with you as well. There is enough serious story in Ron's efforts to figure out where his life went wrong, his attempting to reconcile his feelings of self-worth as well as his issues with his father that keep you invested in his character while at the same time there's plenty to laugh at as Ron continues to do stunt after stunt while figuring out a way to sleep with Bo Maerten, both with varying degrees of success. Ron Goossens: Low-Budget Stuntman is a movie that's going places, usually at great speed, very offensively and never manages to end up where you'd expect. Strap yourselves in and be ready for a hysterical ride.
Thanks for reading!
Tron
Dannie back!
This looks like a riot! Can not wait to check this one out with friends! Thanks for the review Tron, you kick ass!
Stay Strong, Live Good, Love Movies!
Dannie aka Pekosa Peligrosa
