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Kabluey review
:. Director: Scott Prendergast
:. Starring: Lisa Kudrow, Scott Prendergast
:. Running Time: 1:27
:. Year: 2007
:. Country: USA
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Goofball comedies centered on weird characters are a blast when they find the right balance between irony and the bizarre without indulging in self-pity, as current masters of the genre Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) and Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) can attest. What these directors understand is that in order to make that type of humor work, characters need to have some kind of strength and that overplaying their ridicule might end up killing it.
For his full-length debut, writer/director Scott Prendergast used his own experience as a baby-sitter for his sister-in-law to build a film about a simple guy bordering on autistic who is at odds with some bratty kids. But the real center of the story is without a doubt this big blue mascot suit in which he dresses up for his day job. From giving away flyers on empty roads to awkwardly walking around and getting into fights, this grotesque suit is used as a gimmick to make us laugh, which initially works.
However Kabluey quickly turns into a one-joke movie once the element of surprise has passed, which is often the case when shorts are turned into features. You can't even fall back on the storyline to make up for it, as male babysitters from hell have become somewhat of a cliché after multiple incarnations including tough guys Arnold and Vin Diesel.
If Kabluey were to pretend to be nothing other than an amateurish indie debut, you could probably cut it some slack. However, the fact that the cast features recognizable faces wasted in poorly written characters — including Lisa Kudrow playing against-type — makes Kabluey a shiny broken toy, a vanity project sunk in dorkiness.
Fred Thom
 Movie Reviews since 2012
Reviews since 2012
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