When Nature Calls

When Nature Calls (1985)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: Charles Kaufman

Starring: David Orange, Barbara Marineau, Nicky Beim, Tina Marie Staiano, David Strathairn

From: Troma, but don’t be turned off by that

Yes, I’m technically reviewing a Troma movie, but it’s really only from that company as the owner’s brother directed this. The movie is far from the puerile and immature crap you get from that company, although on the DVD you get an introduction that’s terrible as it shows off Troma's style in the worst way. The less said about it the better.

This actual movie is a parody film a la Airplane or The Naked Gun and I first heard about it from reading someone’s review on a site a long time ago. I mean, I have no idea what the site was and by this time I’ll presume it’s long gone from the Internet. The reviewer really enjoyed the movie and once I saw that the movie has brief roles from a bizarre grouping of people (the late wrestling manager Classy Freddie Blassie, G. Gordon Liddy, Gates McFadden*, comedian Morey Amsterdam, and even legendary baseball player Willie Mays), it sounded so odd I was glad I was able to find it on DVD. It turns out, after viewing it, it really is an entertaining film and I’m surprised there seems to be a lot of hate for it online. When you compare it to the God-awful parody garbage we’ve gotten in recent years (the feces from those talentless Epic Movie/Date Movie/etc. douches as the prime example) the film looks especially good.

• Star Trek: TNG fans will be delighted to know that McFadden appears in a shirt and her panties.

You start off with some fake trailers a la Grindhouse before you get to the movie itself, which concerns a family man in the city who needs a break from that hectic life so he decides to take them and himself and they move to the countryside. That’s pretty much it for the plot. It’s filled with gags throughout. I mean, it’s rather heavy per minute and it has different varieties of humor so if something didn’t make you laugh, the next joke or visual pun likely will. You get everything from a spoof of Ingmar Bergman movies to the family’s teenaged daughter and a grizzly bear falling in love (it’s tame), from jokes about Jerry Lewis being terrible to an intermission that spoofs those old candy ads with cartoon characters/claymation that you’ve seen somewhere before as a bit of nostalgia for what was shown way back when at the cinema/drive-in, but in a cruder way that you’ve seen before.

Sure, it’s uneven and aside from some crude bits it’s otherwise tame, but for a low-budget thing I think it’s a movie worth checking out if you enjoy how parody movies SHOULD be. It’s also better than Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. If you’re able to track down this movie, you may think it’s worth what may be quite a bit of effort.

I’ll be back the last day of this month with a new review.