Customer Reviews

Farce of the Penguins

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Though it may look like a cute, animated penguin movie, Farce of the Penguins' isn't for kids. It's Bob Saget's classic, surprisingly crude humor--pretty much all of which revolves around sex (and, occasionally, fart jokes). Think of it as 'Animal Planet' meets 'American Pie' or you can see it as a foul mouthed send up of the 'March of the Penguins.'

The concept of 'Farce of the Penguins' is priceless. There isn't a single shot of original photography used. It's all stock photography, pieced together and worked into a script that's voiced by just about everyone in Hollywood (or at least those who owed Bob Saget a favor). There's no fancy animation, no special effects. While I definitely appreciate the creativity behind it, though, the story is pretty rough. Some of the jokes get really old after a while--and the 80-minute movie could have easily ended after 60.

While there are some great parts to 'Farce of the Penguins' (like the penguins who wander off and end up victims of Global Warming--or Juan Sanchez, the penguin who loses his mind and goes off on an adventure), watching it often feels like being on the outside of a very detailed inside joke. Though I'm sure it was really funny in the studio--when everyone was hanging around, recording the voices--it's pretty clear that you just had to be there to appreciate parts of it. So the best part of the DVD is actually the making-of feature, which shows the voice talent in the studio, recording their parts. That made me laugh out loud more than the movie itself did.

'Farce of the Penguins' isn't for everyone. In fact, it's probably not for most people. But for fans of Saget's crude humor, it's good for a few laughs--especially if you polish off a few drinks before watching it.

What a fantastic concept, and what a horrible execution. South Park is a great example of how to make toilet humor work well. This movie is a great example of how ugly it is when it's done wrong. This goes below low-brow, even below no-brow; watch it and you'll wind up beating your brow against the wall. Watching such talented voices trying to make these jokes fly is as awkward and sad as sitting through a six year old's attempt to tell a dirty joke to a room full of adults.

This movie is aimed straight at the junior high and under crowd even though it's rated R.
My roommate and I sat through the whole movie without a single laugh. The "jokes" are undescribably lame. If someone says the word sex and you start giggling and looking around nervously then you might find this funny.
Aside from the lack of any humor, there is also the fact that they are just showing random clips of penguins 95% of the time. They could have made this an audio cd without hurting the movie, and in fact it would have made it better because if you imagine penguins talking and having personalities there mouths would move and they wouldn't just be stock footage clips of penguins standing around.
Don't waste 80 minutes of your life on this.

I find Bob Sagat to be very funny, more so in the Blue(dirty) version of himself rather than the Full House/AFV Sagat. I saw his version of the Aristocrats joke and thought it was great, so I went into this movie with high expectations. This is certainly not a kid's movie, though it does mock one(March of the Penguins). It feels like Bob and a bunch of his comedy friends improving a bunch of dialog as they are watching a nature documentary. Sometimes it is funny, but more often than not, it is not funny. Since this is a low budget affair, they did not use CGI to make the penguins lips move, so they shot has to keep going back and forth as the characters talk so you know who is who. It starts off well, but it just drags on and on. This would have made a fun 10 minute bit on SNL or Mad TV, it is just doesn't sustain for an entire movie.

If you want a movie satire that isnt family fare, this is it! If you expecting a cute penguin movie like Happy Feet, this aint it! and If you are expecting a cute Bob Saget (from the show FULL HOUSE) film, this is not it!

This film pokes both fingers of fun at the Oscar Winning doctumentary March of the Penguins. Bob Saget said in the film documentary also on the disk, "I started to adlib dialog to the movie, as I was watching it". This film feels like that adlibbing in a more scripted and tighter form.

Samuel Jackson does his best channeling of Morgan Freeman's narration in this film. Writer/director Saget surrounded himself with the voice talent of Lewis Black, Christina Applegate, 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan, and most of the Full House TV cast (Jodi Sweetin, Dave Coulier, Lori Loughlin, and ER's John Stamos) whop seem to have fun doing this movie.

It is light hearted, sexual romp using stock penguin footage. Those who like the Aristocrats, will LOVE this!


Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

I like a good parody, but this was truly a farce and farce is the right word, a ludicrous, empty show. I'm well aware the Bob Saget is dirty comic, but I was expecting something at the very least a little funny. After all it is suppose to be a comedy, right? 10 minutes into the movie I hadn't even as much as snickered. 20 min was the same and it remained the same through out the movie. I just sat there wondering if I was missing something, but the others in the room assured me I wasn't. It was that bad. I never just stop a movie or walk out on it, but this one I was really tempted to do just that. Very poor narration by Samuel L. Jackson seemed painfully out of place, it would have far funnier if they used a one of those nature show narrator to add to the juxtaposition of the concept. The script was boring and reminded me of the dumb little video bits they did on America's Funniest Animals also with Bob Saget. It was just one of those dumb little video bit drug out for a entire movie, spiced up with bathroom and blue humor to I guess to entertain adults. Nearly every joke was lame and nothing near the quality of humor a number of this comic were capable of delivering. There was so much opportunity here for a really funny movie, but it was missed at every turn. If you must see it, then but all means watch it, but don't say you weren't warned.

Amazon's review is pretty spot on. I loved March of the Penguins (Widescreen Edition). So, the idea of spoofing the hit documentary was a good one. How funny would it be to hear what those penguins are thinking? "My feet hurt." "Are we there yet?" "Seventy miles to get laid?" Maybe singing 99 Bottles of Beer? But, this good idea was wasted.

The movie focused on the crude - there's a LOT of profanity, and sexually explicit jokes. I was expecting that. But, that's all there is. The opportunity for less crass humor was completely ignored, so the film essentially becomes a one-liner, over and over again. Marcus, the "black" penguin, is an almost painful cliché - he's got a big penis, the ladies love him and he drops the f-bomb every other word. Funny for a minute or two, but after that beyond boring. The love story, dragged out ad infinitum by songs, was overdone. Samuel L. Jackson was a great choice as narrator - a huge contrast with Morgan Freeman. And when Gilbert Gottfried's penguin tells him that "Morgan Freeman has more talent in a freckle on his a@@" it's laugh out loud funny. But, such moments are few and far between.

I think what's most frustrating about this film is watching the extra features. Bob Saget gathered a HUGE cast of recognizable talent to do tiny bit parts and main parts (a few didn't even make it into the film). The extras show a lot of very funny lines that were recorded but edited out of the final film - not surprisingly, those lines didn't warrant the R rating. The "deleted scenes" were better than the movie! It's as though Saget decided he wanted to do Eddie Murphy's Raw instead of Bill Cosby. Using both would have made this film a real winner, and worth re-watching. As it is, about 15 minutes of the movie is funny - the other 60 minutes drags out those 15. If you're curious rent it, but don't waste your money buying the DVD.

Not some french-e-fried, for profit, disguised as a documentary Penguin exploit film. This is pure penguin lust as foretold in "Bloom County". Thanks to Lewis Black, Christina Applegate, and all the others for the best comedy in 2007.

It might be best to see March of the Penguins first. Then you will enjoy Farce. Other wise it's just a movie with penguins talking dirty. It is a good satire on the original. Definately adult. It won't scar your little ankle biters but put them to bed. Then you can laugh a little less self consciously. The penguins talk, Carl, Jimmy & Marcus played by the voices of Bob Saget, Lewis Black & Tracy Morgan. Samuel Jackson does the Morgan Freeman part, the narration. A dozen other voices that you'll recognize. It covers the penguin life cycle. The endless marching, eating, marching, mating & birth of the next generation & again marching. Profanity laced jokes abound on food, sore feet, sex, the meaning of life, love etc. Bob Saget is breaking out of his mold of sugary sweet sit-com star & game host. Sometimes junvenile, many the jokes are straight out of the Yiddish joke telling tradition of bitching about life in general. Truly funny.

If you remember how annoying Bob Saget's jokes were on the show America's Funniest Home Videos, then get ready to re-live the nightmare here. Just play the movie on MUTE and fill in the dialouge yourself with some friends; it will be a lot better than what Bob Saget came up with.