Cabin Boy

A reviewer below compared Chris Elliot to Andy Kaufman, and I don't think he knew how close that analogy really fits. Elliot is like Kaufman in alot of ways. Some people never really understood Kaufman's peculiar brand of performance, and from the looks of the reviews below, there are plenty of people who don't get Elliot. It was not always the *content* of Kaufman's performance that made you laugh, it was the fact that he was doing it in the first place. For those that saw "Man on the Moon", think about the Gatsby reading. It wasn't funny for an audience member at that Kaufman appearance to hear all of Gatsby being read, even LONG after the joke of doing it wore out. But paradoxically, if he hadn't done so it wouldn't have been as funny. What's funny is that he had the gumption to go ahead and finish the entire work, regardless of what the effect on his audience was.

Likewise, not everything that Elliot does is gut-busting hilarious. For those of us who like his work, it's the absurdity of what he did that counts. If you've seen Elliots short-lived TV series "Get a Life", than the perversely surrealistic scenery of "Cabin Boy" makes more sense. It's supposed to make the viewer feel like there is no normalcy to be found. I'm not claiming this was some great artistic acheivement, it's simply a good way to facilitate Elliot's brand of comedy. There was no comfortable, sane baseline in "Get a Life" to which characters could return, not even a basic continuity of plot between episodes (such as what characters are still alive.) Likewise, "Cabin Boy" is simply a string of absurd situations that when taken separately are not really "hilarious" in that sense. But taken as a totality, a fan of Elliot's humor appreciates the quirky nature of the film as a whole.

I say this not to convince those who don't like Elliot, only to justify the opinions of those of us who do in the face of people who simply write this film off as "horrible." In terms of quality, the TV series was Elliot's best work, but this film definitely has some appeal to some people. There really is a "cult" sort of following for this film, becuase some of us are sick of the cookie-cutter comedies that get churned out these days.

I've been a Chris Elliot fan since watching him on his old television series "Get a Life." I think he is the precursor to comedians such as Tom Green, and the modern gross-out comedy. The image of Elliot licking the boat with soapy water comes to mind.

Lots of people would label this movie as one of the worst movies of all time, but it's consciously absurd (or "wacky" as Christ Elliot's character might say). "Worst" movies are ones that think they are legit, like The Order, or Batman and Robin.

That being said, Cabin Boy is not the best comedy of all time. The crazy-funny parts are laugh out loud funny, but spread too far apart. I think this movie should have been wall-to-wall laughs. But it's worth it for the good parts, and Chris Elliot deserves our attention.

Watch some night alongside Freddy Got Fingered and Clifford.

Films are so much better today than anything made more than twenty years ago, especially comedies. This is one of the funniest films ever made. Just compare this film to anything that Jack Oakie was in and I think I can prove my point. Up until Cabin Boy I would have guessed no film could have been made to beat the comedy classic Meatballs 3, but as much as I adore that film, Cabin Boy surpasses it. If you like Meatballs 3 definately see Cabin Boy. If you don't like Meatballs 3, see Cabin Boy anyway because it is a funnier film. If you haven't seen Meatballs 3, skip it and watch Cabin Boy, it's a funnier film. Fans of Cabin Boys will tend to be younger and intelligent and critics will tend to be older and dumber. David Letterman does a cameo, but it's not very funny...probably because he's old.

I have been a loyal fan of Chris Elliott since his early appearances on

Letterman. This movie is typical of what happens when Elliott is given creative control -- wry, warped humour delivered in such a deadpan manner that you

don't know whether he is laughing at himself or if he really is a simp. This movie has given me countless hours of debate with fans and non-fans, as I have only encountered one other person who enjoyed Cabin Boy. We often lament Chris

Elliott's underrated genius and dream of the day when Cabin Boy takes its

rightful place in film history as a classic. Hard to believe its already been ten years since its release and I still crack up every time I watch it. Only thing that could top it would be a sequel -- Passion of the Cabin Boy, perhaps?

No, not in the 'it's so bad it's good' way. I truly think it's one of the funnier comedies of the last 20 years or so. Perhaps a lot of it depends on how you feel about Chris Elliot to begin with. I think he's priceless. Used to love his old show Get A Life and have followed him ever since. The plot of this, kind of a twisted version of Captains Courageous, really doesn't matter. What's fun are the numerous sight gags, Elliot's constant barrage of sarcastic one-liners and the generally anything goes attitude of the whole enterprise. The ship's crew, filled with a number of character actors we're not used to seeing in this kind of thing, are a wonderfully sleazy bunch. David Letterman's hysterically amateurish cameo at the beginning is the stuff of legend. "Wanna buy a monkey?" Ha! OK Citizen Kane it ain't. I own that on DVD btw. Right next to it is Cabin Boy.