Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury

Poolboy 2 is a sarcastic mockumentary, in the style of Garth Merenghi's Darkplace (cue blood).

The premise is this: a rich, eccentric heir of ten years old gets to write, direct and produce his own movie.

The end result is a hodge-podge affair, littered with obvious gaffes: support crew visible in shots, smoking uncut cigars, camera crew visible in reflections, telephones still ringing after they've been picked up. The whole movie is a joke, which is precisely as it was meant to be (clueless reviewers take note).

While not as smart as Darkplace, it is certainly as silly. The random voice overs (the censors were adamant all references to witchcraft were removed) in particular were often hilarious.

For the people that still don't get it: this is a movie that was made to look bad. In fact it was made to look absolutely terrible _on purpose_. Please don't review this movie with silly comments like 'the acting was awful', of course the acting was awful, it was supposedly directed, written and produced by a 10 year old! This is all obvious to the majority of people with a sense of humour but I will state it here for the few that still don't understand: the terrible editing, the ridiculous plot, the never ending stream of racist vitriol: these were all deliberate.

TLDR; Ridiculous movie based on a ridiculous premise. Lovers of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace will see obvious similarities here and will most likely have a fun time. If you don't like or understand comedy or sarcasm then don't bother. If you are overly sensitive to racist comments, you will also want to give this a miss.

This movie is absolutely ridiculous and dumb, but I never stopped laughing throughout. Don't expect a high budget film with the craziest plot, but if you want to laugh, this one ought to do the trick.

I'm not sure what got me to give "Poolboy" a chance. Maybe it was because I had a free rental, or that it had the great Danny Trejo in it. Deep down, I suspected it might be a lazy effort, but I was wrong. Although the movie is very low budget, the effort by the cast and crew is VERY enthusiastic. Gags are executed one after the other at such a rapid pace that at times it makes the legendary Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker comedy look like slowpokes. And while the movie had a poverty row budget, it actually manages to take advantage of it to execute some pretty funny gags.

The movie definitely has some funny moments. However, there are plenty of gags that also fall flat. Many of the gags are the kind you would associate with teenage boys who get their hands on a camcorder and try to make a comedy. While that kind of thing can be funny in small doses, they stretch it out for ninety minutes, which is long past the breaking point. Also, while the movie is refreshingly politically incorrect, there are enough slams against Mexicans that might make some viewers uncomfortable.

Still, the movie has its moments. And I can say with confidence that I think there are a lot of people out there who would find this movie funnier than I did. In fact, I would not be surprised if in several years the movie manages to build a substantial cult following.

I watched this movie at a friend's tonight and I can unequivocally say that his is one of the most satirical movies...ever! It is smart (a number of self-referential levels, as well as allusions to other, commercially "good" (i.e. "popular") movies and TV shows: Rambo, Airwolf and the The Deer Hunter comes to mind. "American ideology" is deconstructed and re-imagined as (alter)native; the nativity of a clown.

But it's also so stupidly bad at the same time, you would sometimes forget you're watching a satire.

It's either brilliant or the worst movie ever.

I think it's both: watch it!!!

I recently stumbled upon Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury and was inspired to write this review. The storyline is quite simple. Vietnam military veteran returns home from the war to Van Nuys California and finds that white suburbia has been tarnished with migrant laborers performing pool cleaning labor. His wife takes off with a Mexican pool cleaning rival. He soon realizes that he must clean all the Mexican's out of white suburbia. Five minutes into this movie (if you can make it five minutes) and you will be screaming that beyond being simply a horrible movie it is offensively racist as well. But like a hooded cobra which mesmerizes it's prey before injecting lethal poison and destroying all sense of movie viewing taste; ten minutes into Poolboy and you will begin to notice some critical facts.

Some low budget movies may have an offending story or awful acting. Perhaps they have terrible special effects or have a cheap overall feel. But few can combine all of these items together as well as Poolboy. The more I watched the more fascinated I became. It wasn't one of those "it's so bad it's good" situations. It was more along the line of of being artistically terrible. In fact, within those ten minutes it became the "best worst movie" I had seen all year.

Everything about Poolboy is awful. The acting has industry veterans such as Kevin Sorbo, Danny Trejo, Robert LaSardo along with total unknowns who were probably working as boom operator's before their "lucky break." Regardless of the experience the acting was ALL BAD. Not only was the acting bad but the special effects were terrible. I swear you could see the Heintz and Karo labels littering the ground with all the watered down blood. The movie is filled with many of these cheap special effects. Halfway through the movie I wondered what the point of all the bad special effects were, but then I though perhaps Poolboy served as an industry junior special effects camp that helped pay for some of the budget costs for the movie. The camera work and setting was also terrible but at least they splurged and got one of those camcorders with a stabilizer.

The main character of the movie was Kevin Sorbo playing Sal Brando (i.e. poolboy). As a fan of Kevin's it was almost a tearful event watching him play this part. This wasn't Captain Dylon Hunt of the Andromeda or Hercules battling the Gods. This was simply Kevin Sorbo having to put food on the real life family table. Damn you TV land!! Put together a decent show for this talented actor.

Like a bar of extremely bitter dark chocolate, Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury isn't a movie for everyone. Most people will probably turn off this movie and run from the room gagging within a short amount of time. However for those who can choke this movie down it has provides a strangely rewarding experience. I am convinced that Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury remains a contender for not only this year's "BEST WORST FILM" but will stand out for the entire decade!