THE SASQUATCH GANG (2006)
Tagline: An epic tale of nerds and turds.
(Drama, Adventure, Comedy) [PG-13]
Well, I gotta go. My mom thinks I'm at the pet store looking at kittens.
This movie is actually from some of the guys that created NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. So if you hated that movie, this one probably won’t be for you either, unless you are just a huge fan of one of the actors or actresses in it.
In this one, a kid named Gavin Gore (played by Jeremy Sumpter known for SOUL SURFER and PETER PAN) and a few friends stumble upon some footprints and scat in the woods that they are pretty certain to belong to bigfoot. They tell the local authorities and an expert is brought in to verify the findings. Meanwhile, Gavin’s friend Hobie (played by Hubbel Palmer who actually wrote for the NAPOLEON DYNAMITE TV Series), struggles with Gavin’s potential new love interest, the insecure girl at the video store named Sophie (played by Addie Land) In addition to all this Gavin's next-door neighbors owe a ton of money to a collector so they are dreaming up unconventional ways to make the money. None of them are good…
First off, this movie is told in a really interesting fashion. We are given the events that happen near the end of the movie first, then smaller tales are told from the perspectives of everyone involved. We get Gavin’s neighbor’s viewpoint (one of which is Justin Long), we get Gavin’s viewpoint, Sophie’s viewpoint, Hobie’s, and a bit of the police officer’s. In that way, this movie is quite a bit different from NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, but in the humor department, we get a lot of “like” characters from that movie. Sophie is a LOT like Deb only Deb was less worried about her looks. Shirts (one of Gavin’s neighbors who never wears a shirt) is a lot like Kip. There isn’t really a Napoleon-type character in this movie, but Gavin is the main character and he is just as nerdy and geeky as Napoleon was. It’s possible Justin Long and Joey Kern were put on the posters for this movie because they were more well known. The actual movie is far less about them and more about Gavin and Sophie. That also unwisely tried to call this THE SASQUATCH DUMPLING GANG at one point, which is just a really freaking horrible movie title.
Acting-wise this thing is rough as hell, but that is likely intentional. The movie is actually quite a bit funnier than NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and has some crazier antics throughout. Jon Heder has a very brief role, but Jon Gries (who was Uncle Rico in NAPOLEON DYNAMITE) is the main cop looking into the alleged bigfoot prints.
What went wrong – Unfortunately Hobie’s jealousy of Gavin gets really weird in this movie. He also doesn’t handle that Sophie rejects him very well and that leads to some dark thoughts in his head. Literal lies. While this is definitely realistic, I found it odd that this was part of the larger movie which dealt mostly with light-hearted issues. Even Sophie quickly overcomes her self-doubt. Hobie feels like a character that would end up stabbing a famous tennis star. I am not saying that jealousy and acting out of that are not parts of real life, but this movie could have done without that plotline. I also love Carl Weathers so seeing him reduced to a bigfoot investigator in the way his character is handled in this movie is worse than him playing Chubbs in HAPPY GILMORE. Chubbs wasn’t a horrible character, but unfortunately, Dr. Artimus Snodgrass (who he plays in this movie) is. Seeing him in THE MANDALORIAN as Greef Karga does my heart some good. I grew up watching Carl Weathers as a larger-than-life actor with tons of talent.
What went right – This movie is freaking funny for the most part and although it’s got its cringy moments I feel like this could have been a cult classic like NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, I actually think I liked it slightly better in a lot of ways but doesn't have nostalgia going for it that NAPOLEON DYNAMITE does. The characters that were “likable” really resonated with me.
Overall I have to give this thing a 4 out of 7. I don’t think this will ever gain the notoriety it probably deserves, but if you liked NAPOLEON DYNAMITE at all, this is almost a must-see. If I watched this over and over, I am sure it would get to a 5 out of 7. This is going to be a movie for some that will take several views to get into.
I know what you are thinking. This review for THE SASQUATCH GANG needed a few more NAPOLEON DYNAMITE references.
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