Customer Reviews

Run Ronnie Run [VHS]

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Despite Bob and David's own scathing reviews and the at times slow pace of the film, Run Ronnie Run still stands as one of the best comedies in recent years.
Keeping in mind that Bob and David originally wanted to do an entirely different film but were pressured into making a Ronnie Dobbs movie.
Keeping in mind that Bob and David were eventually snaked by Troy Miller when they were barred from partaking in the editing process.
Keeping in mind that the story is thin and the pace fluctuates between raging Mr. Show hyper-irony and dull Hollywood shlock.
It's really not that bad of a movie.
The Thrilling Miracles segment was pure twisted genius.
The 3 Times 1 Minus 1 video was perhaps the most pointed take on...RnB love songs yet.
And the Ass Kicking Fat Kid scene was the best hurried plot resolution device I've ever seen.
Even if the plot was trite, characters thin and the pace slow, the calibre of comedy in this film is still unmatched by any movies of late and more than made up for its flaws.

In a day when it's hard to find a comedy that you can actually laugh aloud, Run Ronnie Run is just that. The characters are off-beat, and David Cross is at his funniest in this silly comedy. I highly recommend this movie to anyone that wants or needs a good laugh.

As a voracious Mr. Show fan, I had expected that Bob & David's feature film debut (as a team) would be as clever and as funny as Mr. Show, the vehicle that propelled them to cult favorite status.

However, operating under a studio that re-edited and reworked their movie, Bob & David lost their creative control over their project. The result is a movie not worthy of the Mr. Show moniker. Significantly dumbed-down, and played out like a one-note joke, Run Ronnie Run is less like the fresh inventiveness of Mr. Show, and more like one of those tired SNL movies which features a once-brilliant character just going through the motions.

In the end, it's easy to see why Bob & David wanted to discard this film, a mangled version of their concept. Shame on New Line Cinema for tainting the genius of Bob & David, and then shame on them for refusing to issue this film a theatrical release, only to offer the film on DVD for a quick buck.

Still, for Bob & David DVD completists, this is a must-have companion to Mr. Show.

If you liked "Mr. Show" on HBO, you'll enjoy this movie. I understand that it takes a certain type of sense of humor to appreciate this kind of seemingly senseless humor. David Cross and Bob Odenkirk are an amazing comic pairing and they've produced some great comedy together over the years.

I thought this movie was funny. The characters played by Cross and Odenkirk are based on a skit they did on "Mr. Show". They've developed them and stretched them to ridiculous lengths to create an entire film based on the simplistic personality of Ronnie Dobbs - the mullet-wearing hick rebel who can't keep himself from getting into trouble and being arrested.

I would say the highlight of the film would have to be the R&B montage they created for Ronnie's love scene with Nikki Cox's character. It's hilarious. Plenty of star cameos in this movie help it along. It has its moments, but I don't believe it's the best movie Cross and Odenkirk have in them.

DVD includes a few deleted scenes and not much else.

The long-awaited Mr. Show movie, brought to you by those two funny monkeys, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. Despite huge cuts and delays (this was supposed to be theatrically released like three years ago, but everybody associated with it balked come distribution time), and the modest panning of it by Bob and David themselves, I'm happy to say Run Ronnie Run is pretty good. Not great, but how many comedies based on sketch show characters really soar?

This one is about Ronnie Dobbs (played by Cross), a white trash bumpkin who repeatedly finds himself being arrested on a popular reality television show which in deference to Michael Moore, shall remain unamed (`Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do...'). This gets the attention of an effeminate British Tv producer (played by Odenkirk) who has the brainy idea to create a reality show based solely around Ronnie getting arrested. The show is a hit, and Ronnie must deal with that cursed, cursed demon called mega-popularity and wealth.

Ronnie's character is toned down a little from the Tv series, showing a genuine love for his down-home wife (three times divorced) and basically setting the plot, which is `get back to basics and regain lost love.' Also, much of Ronnie's gags we've already seen on the show (just about all of them actually, except for a laugh-out loud scene where a drunken Ronnie, `resplendent' in a Sammy Hagar t-shirt, drives a hijacked school bus through a high school dance's giant tiki head and then tips it over on the football field, pinning his buddy underneath). Bob merges two of his characters from the show (the psychotic British infomercial host and the effete Tv producer) But that's all incidental. The new gags here are hilarious.

Particular standouts are:
-The piece of glass from the exploding food processor flying into the chick's chest being looped on the editing machine (it sounds sick, but really, you gotta see it)
- The Three Times One Minus One video: 3x1-1 are Bob and David's brilliant R+B alter-egoes, who do a sickeningly funny send up of the played out `I wanna sex u up' set. The lyrics are amazing...
- Jack Black's chimney sweep musical number on the London rooftops
-The guy sitting in the bathtub during the first Ronnie chase...oh man.
- The fat kid martial arts sequence (particularly for the song being played in the background)
- Mandy Patinkin singing the Ronnie Dobbs theme wearing nothing but a straw hat (and with the same starry eyed passion as if it were Somewhere Over The Rainbow).

This isn't the best structured film you've ever seen, and it doesn't hit every time. If your idea of a good comedy is Airplane or Hexed, you'll love this. Its a pretty good sendup of the garbage being pumped into our living rooms by reality-programming-happy Tv suits every night, with enough poop jokes to keep the kids laughing. There's also a slew of cameos; Jeff Goldstein (I mean Goldbloom), Ben Stiller, R. Lee Ermey (Sir! Yes sir!), Dave Foley, Scott McCullough, Andy Richter, as well as most of the original Mr. Show cast, all very funny. As a matter of fact, I don't see why Bob and David aren't at least marginally proud of this. Its not the masterpiece Mr. Show was, but its not a total loss. Maybe all this false humility is just to catch us Mr. Show fans with our pants down...make us lower our guard and be more forgiving of their first film foray. It'd be just like those creeps...

Well anyway, when its funny, its very funny indeed.

For those fans of Mr. Show, beware. This movie is not endorsed by Bob and David, and the choice to actually release it was not theirs. They did make the movie, but they were not happy with it when the finished. There was an earlier cut of the movie (probably including some of the deleted scenes on the DVD) that Bob and David were actually willing to release, but this is not it.

That being said, the movie is still good (Watch out for a 'dirty' cameo by none other than Jack Black himself, I fell out of my chair laughing). It kind of breaks down in the end, when the story actually has to take precedence over the sketch style comedy. My only other complaint is that too much of the movie was already done better in the show! Bob's speach about letters Ronnie has recieved, and Ronnie Dobbs the musical were so much funnier when they were sketches on Mr. Show than they are in the movie. And they completely throw out Entitilitis. "The killer what took me is entitilitis. No one knows what entitilitis is, or where entitilitis comes from, but entitilitis kills." Comedy gold.

Reasons to see this movie:

-Good movie
-TONS of cameos:
-THE R. Lee Emory
-Jack Black
-Dave Foley
-Andy Richter
-Jeff Goldblum
-Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park
-MUCH more
-The soundtrack, which features many of the bands created over the years for Mr. Show, including Tool's alter egos.
-Bob and David. These guys rock. They rock SO hard.

I work on a submarine for the Navy, so you can imagine we get pretty bored, really quick down there. Movies are one way we pass the time when we aren't doing maintenance, or operating the ship. Our whole crew loves this movie, no matter how many times we have watched it, watching "Run Ronnie Run" is the surest way to put a smile on the face of our crew. Our current record is Playing the movie 6 times in one day!

Having already established myself as a fan of HBO's subversive comedy sketch MR. SHOW WITH BOB & DAVID, I have to admit that I found much of RUN RONNIE RUN -- the expansion of a sketch idea previously worked out on MR. SHOW -- absolutely hysterical. Granted, RONNIE isn't for everyone. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't know who David Cross or Bob Oedenkirk are. I wouldn't recommend it to the casual viewer of DVD comedies. I wouldn't even recommend it to any member of my own family.

But, I'd certainly enjoy the skit-style entertainment with a gaggle of my closest friends.

Ok people, put down your wine glasses and foie gras appetizers. Gosh, what a bunch of snobs.

This movie is funny, F-U-N-N-Y, funny. If you're looking for complex plot, and clever humor, you shouldn't pick up a film that has the words "from doin' time to prime time" on it. Seems like a simple premise to me.

My brother insisted that I watch this movie, and, admittedly, after seeing the title, I was reluctant initially. After many, and finally, painful laughs, I have decided that I was rewarded with what I expected: a funny movie. Nothing more.

(Note: If you are a stodgy, dry type, please don't view this movie. Go out with your uptight pseudo-friends, and make fun of the rest of us "common people." If you have the ability to laugh occasionally, make fun of yourself, and don't take yourself too seriously, grab a beer, or two, and watch this. You won't be disappointed!)

I am a Mr. Show fan and I have to tell you before purchasing this to not let the fact that it is from Bob and David fool you. This movie was made by New Line to appeal to the "main-stream" in order to do so they basically removed most of what made Mr. Show so great: Wacky, inane, and off the wall fast-paced humor.

Instead Troy Miller of Dumb & Dumberer imfamy made this into a 90 minute running gag that unfortunately slowed to a slow walk at about 15 minutes. There are brief cameos from some Celebs like Jeff Goldblum, Laura Kightlinger, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Scott Thompson, and Maynard from Tool. As well as Mr. Show Alums like Brian Poeshen, Tom Kenny, Mary Lynn Rashkub and Jill Talley actually has a big role in the film.

That being said there is still a few flashes of brilliance which are without a doubt Bob and David's work. A parody of Survivor, the crazy explainations of Ronnie Dobbs and a great animation/live action cut featuring Jack Black.

Unfortunately though that doesn't make up for the complete lack of plot and much needed insertion of humor. I don't blame Bob and David, I would put this disaster solely on Troy Miller and New Line Cinema for not allowing them to make a movie for Mr. Show fans. I think you're money would be better spent getting the new Mr. Show Season 3 DVD, it will showcase Bob and David's skills much better to people.