Puddle Cruiser (Jay Chandrasekhar, 1996)

I couldn't stay away for long, I guess. I've found a little time while in Minnesota to update about a movie I watched the night before I left, Broken Lizard's Puddle Cruiser. Now that I've seen it, I've seen all the major Broken Lizard movies, hooray! This one, their first movie, made for $250,000 in 1996, is sweeter and gentler in nature than their subsequent films, but still shows flashes of their trademark humor that would find its way into center stage. The plot resembles something that might have been on Undeclared; Felix falls for an overachieving fellow student with a boyfriend (his name is Traci Shannon, which leads to some great jokes in the movie). That's the basic plot, with several subplots that fill out the movie and make the characters more than one-dimensional college boys. Except the ones that are one-dimensional college boys. The five Broken Lizard guys are in the beginning stages of their comedy, and you can see where they're going in their gags, some of which are repeated in their following films. Again, not much I can say about this, analysis-wise, but I whole-heartedly recommend it for people who have seen and enjoyed other Broken Lizard films. I wouldn't make it your first of their films, because it's not very representative of their comedy style, but it's a good, if a bit slight, romantic comedy with a decidely goofy edge. 6/10

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Club Dread (Jay Chandrasekhar, 2004)

I had stayed away from Club Dread for a while because I had heard nothing but terrible things about it. After seeing Beerfest, however, and realizing that hey, I think Broken Lizard is a group of really funny guys, I decided to give it a chance. Naysayers be damned, I am certainly glad I did. The movie is more or less a mock-up of 80s horror movies, although they don't really make fun of horror movies themselves. Maybe, then, it's more of an 80s horror movie with jokes. I'm not sure. But there's a Jimmy Buffet-type character (Coconut Pete, whose song "Pina Coladaburg" is enough to make the rental worthwhile) who runs a pleasure resort, and during this trip, staff members start being murdered. Simple enough plot, and not guaranteed hilarity, but the Broken Lizard guys really make it their own. They all have hilarious characters that seem like the annoying people you find at these resorts (my favorite being Putman, Jay Chandrasekhar in a great dreaded wig with a terrible British accent), and they put their all into these ridiculous characters. Plus, there's boobs. A lot of boobs, in case you care. There's really not much more that I can say, especially intelligently, about Club Dread, but if you enjoyed Super Troopers (which I think is great, if not a little overrated), give this underrated film a try. If you're not a fan of the stupid-smartish comedies of recent years, though, stay far, far away. 7/10

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