Porklips Now

The single best movie parody of all time. This short includes all of the major themes and "quotable quotes" of the movie applied to an absurd topic. It was timely (release within a year of the original movie), well produced and executed, included an actor who had been lost to popular attention (wasn't he dead?), and even included some of the hype surrounding the original. If you view any one movie parody, this is the one. The real question is -- where is it?

This truly hilarious take-off of "Apocalypse Now" is as filled with textured background gags as any Kurtzman-Elder page from the old "Mad" (check out the books in the bookcases Fosselius pans across while Mertz reads poetry to Dullard, for example). You might remember Fosselius from the great parody "Hardware Wars" he produced for about 29 cents and which got its first exposure on local Bay Area television fave Bob Wilkins' "Creature Features." Here, Fosselius works with a big budget (at least $1.25!) and the result is this 28-minute epic that zeroes in like a laser on every pretentious absurdity of Coppola's magnum epic. My favorite bit comes at the end when Dullard comes after Mertz with a knife and Fosselius cuts to a meat slicer churning out very thin slices of bologna. Yeah, there's a few dead spots, but well worth seeking out if only for the raspberry it blows directly in Coppola's face. Don't get me wrong - I like "Apocalypse Now" and Coppola, but I just crack up every time I see this. A classic!

"Porklips Now" has got to be the funniest spoof of a feature film that I've ever seen! One thing that makes it so good is that it stays so close to the original movie (Apocalypse Now). Almost every scene in this short parallels a classic scene from that movie. For example, the one guy who is skate boarding behind the car while holding the rope, is like the guy who was water skiing in Apocalypse Now. Or, the arrow through the head prop, hilarious. This short even captures some of the strange atmosphere from Apocalypse Now. Favorite line at the end of the movie: "Oh Dullard, you slay me".....DULLARD: "Actually, I was just about to do that". Its been a long time since I've seen it, so the dialog might be slightly different, but it was something like that.

Billy Gray is perfect as Dullard. He sort of reminds me of Charlie Sheen with his reactions and facial expressions. The rest of the cast of unknowns also do a very good job.

I'm sure this will make its was onto DVD at some date and time- I just hope its in my lifetime! A friend of mine had it on Betamax way back in the eighties, but it should be on DVD by now.

Someone I don't know online provided a print of this short film that I had somehow either never heard of or completely forgot about. I was crazy about Apocalypse Now and have seen it many times and know it well as I'm sure most on here have do as well, and this was a cute, clever, low, low, low budget parody of the greatest film about the Vietnam War made so far. This is always amusing and sometimes laugh out loud funny. Of course, the presence of Billy Gray who I watched in the original broadcasts of Father Knows Best was a surprise and he is in the spirit of things here. I hadn't thought about him in years. Outside of the sitcom pablum, a big hit in its day, he showed flashes of real talent, but he just quit the biz after this. You don't see that often. Anyway, a crudely made fun little parody of a great film.

The way Ernie catches the whole mood and style with what was probably a super 8 camera and a dull patch of suburbia is amazing. The writing was incredible in the way he turned his bad clichés into almost sensible strings of thought, not to mention the great camera work. We've all heard of stream of consciousness, I guess you'd call this stream of punconsciousness.

Every time I see this, I actually manage to see something new, be it one of the ads that flash by way to fast, or something so obvious you slap yourself for missing it before. The attention to detail is much better than several big budget movies manage, it's too bad that big budget directors aren't required to make at least ONE no-budget film.

One doesn't NEED to see Apocalypse Now to get this movie, (Yet another sign of it's quality) but it would definitely help. I saw this after seeing the original, but I would love to see someone see them in the opposite order and watch their reactions. Although Apocalypse Now has many 'black comedy' moments, seeing Porklips Now first will probably have a very interesting effect on what gets laughed at.

I give this a full 5 stars