Go West

From BYU's Divine Comedy to Studio C to JK Studios, this group of comedians have proven they have what it takes to make people laugh. With Go West, they've done what I always wished I could have done with my friends back in the day, make a feature-length film for a wide audience to enjoy. And while it's obvious that this movie was made on a shoestring (boot string?) budget, the writing is solid, the humor is plentiful, and the acting is entertaining. My family enjoyed watching this together to commemorate Pioneer Day and my kids have been quoting it even since then. You understand. Good job, gang!

As is the case with any feature film based upon and written by a sketch-comedy property, Go West is a mixed bag of material.

Some of the scenes really fell flat with repetitive "jokes" that were devoid of any sort of structure that could be construed as comedy.

But the infectious personalities of the cast and the blend of dry delivery and absurd style of humor really worked for me more often than it didn't. The film's finale also had plenty of cleverly-inserted payoffs to jokes that were set up earlier in the film.

These types of movies usually have a few bright spots amidst a total mess, but for me this had some really messy spots amidst a mostly admirable effort from a small studio.

Go West is an Indie Comedy about the Oregon trail. It's wacky, fun and always entertaining.

Don't go into this expecting a story and you'll get more out of it. The main characters have excellent delivery and lines though some of the side characters fall short. The actors play multiple roles, the most consistent actors are Whitney, Mallory, Steven, Natalie and Matt. A few segments just aren't funny and serve no purpose but these are short thanks to the fast pacing.

Despite its shortcomings the movie is hilarious most of its runtime and the rapid delivery assists when some jokes don't work. The cast is charming and clearly tons of love was poured into the movie.

I'm a big fan of the original cast of Studio C for their light-hearted humor in sketch comedy. This movie is a longer version of a sketch comedy with many jokes- some hits, some misses- that decently highlight the humor style of each of the cast members. You can see hints/characteristics of old Studio C characters throughout the movie. If you are already a fan of the cast and are familiar with their style of humor, I think you will enjoy a decent portion of this film. But if not, maybe try some of their old Studio C videos to see if you like this type of humor first.

My favorite characters in this movie are played by Jason and Whitney as usual.

I wanted to like this movie more than I ended up doing. I enjoyed many of the skits from the original "Studio C" cast, so perhaps I was expecting a bit more. There were things to like and laugh at, others not so much. The packed theater I saw the movie with seemed to get laughs mostly from the younger folks (tweens and teens), not so much from the adults.

Pros: Natalie Madsen and Stephen Meek are good in the lead roles/straight men amid all of the quirky characters. Sean Astin is funny and is good as the narrator. Jason Gray is still the funniest actor in this bunch. No bad language or lewd anything, apart from a veiled reference to a man being attacked in the crotch by a buffalo, resulting in his voice going up a few octaves.

Cons: I was a bit taken back by the puns and jokes about dysentery, polio, skin diseases, etc. Perhaps it's because I have eczema myself, or perhaps it's because I have ancestors who really suffered through these issues while making their way out west, and such ailments were not a joke to them. *Shrug* The cast tries a bit too hard to be Monty Python-esque, with the 10 of them playing multiple characters; it gets a bit confusing at times as to who is who. Sometimes quirky gets mistaken for funny, which is sometimes a downside to both older and new "Studio C" episodes. A few fart jokes.

Overall: good popcorn flick for a Tuesday $6 movie at the Megaplex. If you're a "Studio C" fan, you'll enjoy it. If you're not, I reckon you won't. 6/10.