Run Ronnie Run! (2002) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)
Ronnie Dobbs is a lovable public figure in his small town in Georgia, kind of a redneck mullet-sportin' icon because he's never grown up, and still gets arrested a few times a week for sophomoric drunken stunts like riggin' the bowling return machines to spit out balls at cannon velocity, or stealin' the school bus. Ronnie gets arrested so often, and offers such totally implausible excuses to the police, that he is noticed by a Hollywood producer who is desperate for a new "Cops"-like reality show.

The producer bails Ronnie out and drags him to California to star in a one-man reality show called: "Ronnie Dobbs Gets Arrested," in which the unshaven bumpkin is dropped into a different city every week, and eventually arrested. Of course, Ronnie gets rich and famous, and brings all of his friends to Hollywood, where they mingle uneasily with the likes of Jeff Goldblum, Garry Shandling, and Ben Stiller. It's the Beverly Hillbillies for the new millennium.

NUDITY REPORT
  • David Cross showed his buns.
  • Mandy Patinkin was naked from the side, with nothing revealed.
  • Nikki Cox appeared in two very skimpy bikinis.

Although it came from the brains of the same guys who created the dependably hilarious Mr Show, the film itself just isn't too good, because there are a lot of dead moments when the jokes just don't work. In fact, virtually nothing from the main storyline is worth watching.

Don't write it off, however. The film includes all sorts of little digressions which have little or nothing to do with the Ronnie plot, and many of them are hilarious! Overall, the movie does have about 10 minutes of wild inspiration which make it a fun little project to watch with the fast forward button.

1) The Hollywood Gay Conspiracy is pictured exactly as conservatives might fear it most, with armies, spies, and war rooms.

2) Jack Black appears in a bit of completely unrelated lunacy. At one point, a stentorious film censor interrupts this film and announces that Run Ronnie Run has been cut, so you won't see the scene that should have come next,  but you will see a scene cut from a different film. The scene which follows involves a group of lovable chimney sweeps, ala Mary Poppins, singing a merry musical number called something like "Give 'er a kick in the cunt". Jack Black takes the Dick Van Dyke role as the head sweep. THAT was funny.

3) When the producer is considering what to do for his next show, he watches a little bit of the then-leading reality show called Elimination Island, which is sort of a Donner Party Reunion. The premise is that several people are sent to a deserted island with no food. Each week they vote for which member they will kill and eat! "And now, we feast!"

4) There is one of those "here are the rules of the theater, now go to the lobby and get a treat" cartoons, and that is wildly funny.

5) Mandy Patinkin appears as himself, playing the lead in "Ronny Gets Arrested: The Musical," the inevitable Broadway spin-off from the hit reality series.

6) There are mock rock videos with obscene and subversive lyrics sung in the manner of saccharine contemporary love ballads. Actually, that wasn't as funny as it sounds. The first 10 seconds were funny, but it dragged on repetitiously.

DVD info from Amazon

  • widescreen anamorphic, 1.85

  • about 10 deleted scenes

Unfortunately, all of those scenes, although very funny, had little or nothing to do with the main characters and didn't even feature the main performers. The Jack Black piece, for example, had absolutely nothing to do with this film.

It's a shame the writers couldn't figure out any relevant material that was as funny as the digressions.

The Critics Vote

  • no major reviews on line

The People Vote ...

  • IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.5/10. That seems too high to me, but the film does include some inspired moments.
  • Film festivals, cable, and home media - no theatrical release.
The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, I guess this film is a C-, as a high concept comedy which failed, but included some amusing digressions. The two guys who created the film now say that they were disappointed in it, so who am I to argue?

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