Pauly Shore is Dead (2003) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Don't let the title get your hopes up. Pauly is very much alive, having spent some five years of his life writing and directing this semi-fictional account of his decline and fall from a completely inexplicable career peak.  Shore weaves real events and an honest appraisal of his modest talent together with a fictional story about how he once faked his own death in order to gain a 16th minute of fame, and the real material is so tightly interwoven with the fictional that you will rarely be certain which material is completely fabricated.

Pauly may not have been Woody Allen in the talent department, but it is obvious that he made lots of friends in his brief period of fame, because some very big stars came in to do a line or two for this movie: Sean Penn, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Chris Rock, Bill Maher, Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn all showed up to make fun of Pauly or his movies. They were joined by an eclectic group of lesser celebrities like Heidi Fleiss, Tom Sizemore, Charlie Sheen, Michael Madsen, Snoop Dogg, Andy Dick, Pam Anderson, Tommy Chong, Jerry Springer, Carson Daly, Tommy Lee, Carrot Top, Screech, Mini-me and many others, who commented on Pauly's real life or fictional death. Occasionally the stars ripped on themselves or each other. Michael Madsen and Tom Sizemore admitted that even they don't actually know which of them is which, just like the rest of us. Carrot Top and Kato Kaelin rejoiced that no matter how bad their lives have seemed, they were still better off than Pauly.

In general, I thought this movie was a lot of fun. It is really a pleasure to kick back, turn off the ol' brain, and see the stars make fun of themselves and Pauly, and there are some very funny guys who take their best shots - Stiller, Maher and Chris Rock are especially funny. It's cool to be inside and get the feeling that at least one sucky celebrity is completely aware that he sucks, and shares everyone else's opinion. (Well, maybe there are two such celebrities. Bill Shatner has been milking this same cow recently.) I was sort of disappointed by the full-length commentary, because it tends to turn the whole thing around again to give off the general impression that Pauly isn't really a guy who knows he sucks, but is rather a guy who is pretending to agree that he sucks in order to make this film. That isn't nearly as cool, and is sorta sad, when you think about it. In essence, it means that he's using this film to extend his undeserved fame in the same way that he used the fake death in the storyline.

Well, whatever.

I suppose he doesn't completely suck, at least not any more, since he created this movie, and it gave me a few laughs. Either way, I still got a kick out of it, and that's astounding when you consider that it's a one man project assembled by Pauly Shore! The DVD is also a good value, loaded with insider looks at stars, the making of the film, and some early reactions to it. The 4.1 at IMDb is obviously general anti-Pauly feeling from people who haven't actually seen this. (Such feelings have a strong historical justification. As I write this, a Pauly film called Bio-Dome has the honor of being the worst reviewed film in history, according to Metacritic.) I really believe that if you can separate this film from your general distaste for Pauly, you may just like it. Although it has some cringe-inducing moments, Pauly Shore is Dead is generally funny and peppy. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I recommend it.