FDR: American Badass!

From the outset this film looks cheap and you might consider not bothering to watch it based on that but if you stick with it the great cast suck you into it's unbelievably ridiculous world. Barry Bostwick's performance Carry's the film. There's a lot of modern street talk that he manages to pull off, even though some of it is borderline to silly but at the same time he turns in some great speeches that would be worthy of a far more serious film.

There's not much point in explaining the film, it's far to daft to attempt an explanation but it works, that's mostly down to the cast, the production, direction is excellent too, given the low budget nature of the film they made the most of what they had.

The spoof genre is one that most of the time goes horribly wrong. There are some that have worked really well over the years like Airplane, Naked Gun, Scary Movie, and Top Secret, but sadly very few really do much more than just annoy viewers. The latest FDR American Badass is not so much a spoof of other films, but just a silly over the top tale of history and violence. Is it possible that this silly premise could actually deliver a fun film or will it be another of the plain stupid ones that will be forgotten?

FDR American Badass follows Franklin D. Roosevelt as a werewolf hunter tracking down the like of Adolf Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito in his customized wheelchair of death. Let's start by admitting that there is nothing about this idea that is just ridiculous. This isn't the first of the presidents to tackle supernatural creatures, but it is the first to realize how silly it is and dive in head first. This is a really silly, over-the-top dumb film that will entertain if you let it. Barry Bostwick plays up his version of FDR while channeling Roosevelt, with a dash of Burgess Meredith's Penguin from the Batman series. His version is over the top and far from politically correct that really makes this film work. Set in a world that makes little to no sense with characters that seem to fit right in makes this film work. The effects and action are silly and low budget, but if they had done much more than that it just wouldn't work. They clearly knew what this film was and never tried to take itself seriously. Filled with over the top characters, silly make-up effects, a ridiculous storyline and a gaggle of nasty jokes, FDR delivers exactly what it sets out to do and brings the laughs with it.

Make no mistake, this isn't a good movie by any means, it's one that if you can get in on the joke you will have a fun time. This film sports a surprising cast of recognizable actors besides Bostwick including Lin Shaye, Bruce McGill, Ray Wise, Kevin Sorbo, William Mapother, Paul Wilson, Ahmed Best, Deon Richmond. How can any movie not work with Sorbo as Lincoln, Kenny from the Cosby Show, as well as Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito as werewolves?

A fun idea, but the filmmakers behind it have no talent or intelligence whatsoever. This is a horror/sci-fi/action comedy about Franklin Roosevelt. In this movie's alternate history, FDR contracted polio from the bite of a Nazi werewolf. The Axis forces are all led by werewolves, and FDR, with his souped-up, machine-gun wheelchair goes to war himself against them. The concept is gold, but the screenwriter (Ross Patterson - he deserves to be called out by name) does little with it besides tell dick jokes and have old people swear and smoke weed (always comedy gold, right?). There's a good dose of racist jokes, too, with Werewolf Hirohito being unwatchably offensive (basically the only joke involving the Japanese is that they can't pronounce the letter "r"). Barry Bostwick is kind of amusing at times as FDR, but he's pretty much asked to carry the whole movie so he just mugs as much as possible. The only cast members who come out clean are Bruce McGill as FDR's head adviser and Ray Wise as Douglas MacArthur. Kevin Sorbo (who co-produced) shows up as the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. William Mapother, a character actor I've always liked (particularly from In the Bedroom and Lost), shows up for a while, too. This is painful.

Nobody expected this movie to be high art. But it was enjoyable. There was the historical sacrilege and the jokes in bad taste and historical figures saying dirty words. But there was also real cleverness and, most importantly, a real love that shone through the film. Nobody involved was phoning it in. It seems like everyone involved in making this movie was having fun, and you couldn't help but have fun along with them. I had a friend over, we cued it up, and laughed quite a bit. And in a year, I will have forgotten about it.

If you are offended by jokes involving racist / sexist stereotypes, you might want to give this one a miss.

Am willing to bet not one person of million who saw this movie has noted the reference to "World War I" during a scene that takes place in 1931. Since WWII did not begin until 8 years later, how did they know The Great War was "World War I"? The movie itself I thought was very funny, and enjoyed it. It's obligatory now that every third word has to be f this and f that, in order to accommodate the teenagers. Only thing is, for this moving, the teenagers likely would not be interested anyhow, never having even heard of President Roosevelt. I spoke with a young woman, "history major" in her high school senior class, and she had no idea what was Pearl Harbor, that it was attacked, etc. FDR...who's he?