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Land Ho! Review

By David Kempler

Doesn't Stick the Landing

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Buddy-comedies have been around forever. Every year, a bunch of them are released. "Land Ho" features Colin (Paul Eenhorn) and Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson), as the two older buddies on a road trip to Iceland. The premise is promising. The execution is disappointing.

Colin is an Australian bank employee. Mitch is a surgeon and Colin's ex-brother-in-law. Colin is very reserved. Mitch is loud and specializes in in-your-face sexual innuendo. He never passes up a chance to make a sexual remark, no matter how inappropriate the moment or situation.

I think he's supposed to be cute, but it's more discomfiting than cute. I can't be certain what effect Aaron Katz and Martha Stevens, the co-writers and co-directors, were going for though. Colin's responses to Mitch are always understated, slightly embarrassed, but never quite disapproving. Colin is Jack Lemmon to Mitch's Walter Matthau.

Their quest is to just enjoy themselves by getting away from their personal disappointments in life, but throughout their entire time spent in Iceland, nothing much really does happen. Oh, Colin gets a bit of a relaxing diversion, and Mitch gets to misbehave without getting into any messy situations, but by the time it's over, you'll wonder what the point of it all really was.

The biggest issue I had with "Land Ho" is that I kept expecting something to happen that would offer a plot twist or at least a surprise, but it's mostly about wandering around largely bleak surroundings, without even a hint of tension for either gentleman. In a buddy movie, there must be something that brings the buddies closer together or tears them apart, at least temporarily. Katz and Stevens feel otherwise. They are content to just let them wander. Watching "Land Ho" will unfortunately make your mind wander as well.

What did you think?

Movie title Land Ho!
Release year 2014
MPAA Rating R
Our rating
Summary Buddy movie follows two gentlemen vacationing in Iceland. Very little else happens.
View all articles by David Kempler
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