Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

Gentlemen Broncos is another completely bizarre outing from the mind of Jared Hess, the man that unleashed Napoleon Dynamite, Jon Heder, and the origin of the "liger." However, instead of spawning a new chain of merchandising revenue for Fox Searchlight, Broncos has conjured up a whole lot of nothing.

The film barely made it into any theaters, grossing a mere $113,000 (as of December 2009) in the ones where it did briefly appear. Apparently, Fox abandoned a wider release, because well... it's just not that good. It's actually not that bad, as it is bizarre, but not in a Napoleon Dynamite sort of way.

It kicks off in a Napoleon-esque way, with a series of bizarre drawings running over the credits. From there, we meet Benjamin (Michael Angarano), a homeschooled teen, who lives with his flaky mom (Jennifer Coolidge), sells her weird, way-overpriced nightgowns, and longs to be a sci-fi writer.

As part of the dream, mom lets him go off to Cletus Fest, a writer's convention that allows him to show off his work, Yeast Lords - The Bronco Years. Unfortunately, his dream soon turns into a nightmare when his idol, Dr. Ronald Chevalier (Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement), steals the prized piece to publish it as his own. In between this plotline, we also have a low-budget filmmaker who options Yeast Lords, a backstory about Benjamin's dead father, and mom's popcorn ball business.

That's not to say that Broncos doesn't have some merit in between the mess. We love that the film gives a hearty shout-out to bad sci-fi, as well as the chance to see Sam Rockwell (Moon), who unfortunately, is used sparingly throughout the film. That said, the audience for Gentlemen Broncos is very slim, as proven by the box-office receipts. We're guessing you'll either love it or hate it, but it's not even worth your time unless you find any of the above interesting. Even then, we'd recommend a rental first.

The Picture

While the film is sort of hit or miss, the 1.85:1 transfer isn't all that bad. The film really features two color palettes: one for Benjamin's real world and one for his fantasyland. The latter is where the film really pops, not just with spectacularly fake special effects, but also with a slew of interesting, sometimes oversaturated colors. Back in the real world, the colors are a bit dimmer, but very realistic. There's also a good amount of detail, most notably in Jennifer Coolidge's stringy hair and Sam Rockwell's fat, funky beard.

The Sound

With a $10 million budget, we expected a bit more in the sound department. The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack delivers the dialogue well, but with the exception of a few rockets firing, all of the other action sticks close to the front speakers. With bad sci-fi as the backdrop, we were just hoping for a bit more bombastic sonic action from all around.

The Extras

For such a small, limited release, there are a decent amount of extras. Sam Rockwell, Jemaine Clement or Jennifer Coolidge could have spruced up the commentary a lot. Instead, husband-and-wife team Jared and Jerusha Hess invited Munn Powell, director of photography, for the sit-down. The behind-the-scenes short is a quick, quirky look at the quick, quirky movie. All other extras are small -- literally. Each one takes up about one-ninth of your screen. It's a shame we couldn't have run them all at once as a timesaver. The deleted scenes are deleted for good reason, and the outtakes are a series of bloopers. The Mini Docs are the best of the bunch. These weird, semi-funny shorts ran on the web to promote the movie during the pre-release phase.

Final Thoughts

As much as we'd like to see, "Eat the corn out of my crap!" as a worldwide catchphrase, there's not much to look forward to in Gentlemen Broncos. Unless you're in need to reminisce about bad sci-fi, a limited audience and not-so-stellar Blu-ray release should keep this one at the bottom of your rental queue.

Product Details

• Actors: Michael Angarano, Jennifer Coolidge, Jemaine Clement, Mike White, Hector Jiminez, Sam Rockwell
• Director: Jared Hess
• Audio/Languages: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (Spanish, French)
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Region: A
• Number of Discs: 1
• Rating: PG-13
• Studio: Fox Searchlight
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: March 2, 2010
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• List Price: $39.99
• Extras:
  • Commentary by Director/Writer Jared Hess, Writer Jerusha Hess and Director of Photography Munn Powell
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Outtakes Reel: A Buttload of Keepsakes
  • One Nutty Movie: Behind the Scenes of Gentlemen Broncos
  • Mini-Docs