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BUM
RUNNER Rating:   Directors: Kurt Christiansen & Steve Herold Producers: Steve Herold, Kurt Christiansen & Stephen R. Hicks Writers: Kurt Christiansen & Steve Herold Director of Photography: Dan Eriksen Cast: Joseph Reitman, Billy Allen, Fred "Rerun" Berry, Floyd Vivino Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
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Review by: Warren
Curry
3/9/03
It's been a long time since I've seen Fred Berry, better known as "Rerun" from the 70s sitcom What's Happening!! and its short-lived sequel series What's Happening Now!! In fact, his character from the series is apparently so much a calling card that the actor's even credited in Kurt Christiansen & Steve Herold's new short, Bum Runner, as Fred "Rerun" Berry. While Berry's presence anywhere is a good thing in my book, it unfortunately can't save this misstep of an attempted comedy.
Bum Runner has the production values of your typical Troma release, and also reminds me a bit in comic vibe of a much less successful version of the Carmine Capobianco-starring lost 80s gems The Galactic Gigolo and Psychos In Love (well, they were "gems" when I was 16, anyway. I haven't seen them since). Were I still in my teen years, Bum Runner may have played as farcical genius, and maybe the older I've become, the more my sense of humor has waned. O.k., I'm really giving the filmmakers the benefit the doubt here, because Bum Runner serves up its intended laughs in such inept ways, which I doubt could even be appreciated by the most goofy high school freshman.
The story goes like this -- 2 vagrants, Hat (Billy Allen) and Oatmeal (Joseph Reitman), make their living (is that an oxymoron?) by stealing things from other bums. They see an end to this day-to-day existence when they spot another street person (Berry), pushing around a shopping cart full of empty cans. Hat and Oatmeal realize that a successful heist of the cans and a quick jaunt to the recycling center will mean an early retirement to a bum paradise known as Crackworld. So, the main characters roll Rerun for his stash, and while Raj and Dwyane may be nowhere in sight, the man does have a plethora of other vagabond friends, who jump into shopping carts and try to chase the culprits down.
P.C. types might get up in arms about this film using homeless characters as the center of its comic exploits, but I only wish that this insensitivity was the film's worst offense. Frankly, the only times I was moved to chuckle was when laughing at (not with, mind you) the movie's middle-schooler-with-maturity-problems sense of humor. The gags lack anything resembling wit, and the home video look of the movie makes me harken back several years to afternoon's spent being forced to watch high school buddies' Basic Television Production projects.
Much like Dan Tester states in his review of another Herold short, H.R. Pukenshette, it really is mind boggling that a film sporting such lowbrow humor is playing at film festivals and connecting with certain people. Herold, with a few other shorts also under his belt, is certainly a prolific filmmaker and, hell, more power to him if he's found an audience for his efforts. I may not care for what he's doing, but if his goal is to make sub-Farrelly brothers comedies (and that's a gross overstatement of Bum Runner's sophistication), then he's on the right track.
And Rerun -- thanks for the memories.
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