several days after having seen this movie , i’m still trying to determine what director christopher guest , a man whose sense of humor i usually appreciate , found funny in either the concept or the execution of almost heroes .
this is a dreadful motion picture ? a lowbrow example of period piece comedy with terrible production values and an exceptionally poor laughs-to-jokes ratio .
there’s a kind of desperation in the movie’s approach to humor that reveals the film makers’ uncertainty about how entertaining the material is ; the manic style betrays itself as a last-ditch attempt to hide the flaws of a failed script .
the premise doesn’t sound especially amusing to begin with ? almost heroes tells the tale of two explorers , the effeminate leslie edwards ( matthew perry ) and the uncouth bartholomew hunt ( chris farley ) , who are racing lewis and clark on the trip to the american northwest .
edwards and hunt are accompanied by the kinds of weirdoes we find in road movies ( albeit of the early-19th century variety ) , including a frenchman named guy fontenot who claims to speak hundreds of languages ( none of which prove to be useful ) , a pretty indian maiden who turns into the obligatory love interest , and a bizarre man who suffers a series of debilitating injuries .
along the way , the intrepid explorers encounter bears , bald eagles , aging native american warriors , and a conquistador named hildago ( kevin dunn ) who raves about his beautiful hair .
the explorers’ trek takes them through forests , across the snow-capped rocky mountains , and over a waterfall .
this setup leads to a lot of shouting , a great deal of lunacy , and very few laughs .
farley engages in his usual shtick of falling down and bellowing , but , aside from an momentarily diverting confrontation with an eagle , his heart doesn’t seem to be in it .
matthew perry , one of the stars of tv’s friends ( who had some modest success in the romantic comedy , fools rush in ) is badly miscast .
as a foil for farley and an antidote to his runaway energy , perry lacks the necessary edge of the proverbial straight man .
i’m not a big fan of david spade , and i didn’t like tommy boy , but at least he and farley worked well together .
as far as the supporting players go , none of them makes more than a fleeting impression .
eugene levy is wasted , and kevin dunn is about as interesting here as he is in godzilla .
frankly , it’s a disappointment to see something this dumb and ugly come from christopher guest , the brilliant comic force behind such films as this is spinal tap , the big picture , and waiting for guffman .
although guest gets the costumes right , this nearly-inconsequential success is no substitute for the weak script and unfunny execution .
the special effects , such as they are , are execrable .
for an example of some really poor blue screen work , look at the scenes where the characters are shooting the rapids ( they’re obviously getting buckets of water thrown on them ) and where farley is being carried off by an eagle .
even though farley didn’t have the most stellar of acting careers , he doesn’t deserve the kind of unfortunate epitaph offered by almost heroes .
while some of the more outrageous attempts at humor may coax a few guffaws from 12-year old boys , the level of comedy in almost heroes falls far below the level of sophomoric .
farley fans who see this film as a way to say goodbye should be commended for their loyalty , since it takes real stamina to stay seated for the full running length of this cinematic torture session .