Andy Gallant, Billy Bob Thornton, Brad Stella, Charlie Lightening, comedy, Dale Murray, Duff McKagan, JP Tremblay, Lennon Stella, Maisy Stella, Martin Freeman, Mike Smith, movies, Patrick Roach, Peter Leseprance, reviews, Robb Wells, Robert Sheehan, Ronnie Wood, Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties, Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story, Trailer Park Boys
December 11, 2024
by Carla Hay
“Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story”
Directed by Charlie Lightening
Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of Canada and Europe, the comedy film “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” (the fourth movie based on the “Trailer Park Boys” TV comedy series) features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A bumbling Canadian country music band called the Shitrockers get into all sorts of silly trouble while on a European tour with American actor/musician Billy Bob Thornton and his rock band the Boxmasters.
Culture Audience: “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” will appeal mainly to people who are “Trailer Park Boys” fans, because everyone else will find this cinematic junk very hard to take.
“Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” collapses under the weight of its stupidity. This putrid comedy is the “Trailer Park Boys” stars’ weak attempt to be like the 1984 mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” but “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” is as painfully unfunny as getting a spinal tap. Avoid at all costs. Fans of the TV comedy series “Trailer Park Boys” will no doubt love this dumpster movie, but it’s hard to imagine “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” being able to win over many new fans.
Directed by Charlie Lightening and written by Mike Smith, “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” has a flimsy plot that shows no imagination and is vastly inferior to what many people can see for free on amateur comedy channels. What’s even more annoying is the fact that what could have been a 30-minute TV episode is stretched into a too-long 111-minute, time-wasting, boring movie that’s polluted with too many bad jokes and an overload of irritating characters. It’s truly low-key torture to watch all of “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties,” because you can almost feel brain cells rotting from watching this garbage.
“Trailer Park Boys” is a mockumentary comedy series about the wacky and frequently intoxicated residents and associates of the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. “Trailer Park Boys” began as a series on Canada’s Showcase network from 2001 to 2007. The series was revived on Netflix from 2014 to 2018. In its current form, “Trailer Park Boys” can be seen on production company SwearNet’s online platforms. “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” is the fourth “Trailer Park Boys” spinoff movie, after 2006’s “Trailer Park Boys: The Movie,” 2009’s “Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day” and 2014’s “Trailer Park Boys: Don’t Legalize It.”
In “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties,” Sunnyvale Trailer Park resident Bubbles (played by Smith), a bespectacled dimwit, wants to enter a songwriting contest, so he forms a country music band, which he names the Shitrockers. Bubbles says his father originally came up with the name Shitrockers. Bubbles is the band’s lead singer/guitarist, and he holds auditions to find other band members. “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” is a reference to the fact that Bubbles likes cats.
Bubbles’ two best friends—emotionally stunted Ricky (played by Robb Wells) and schemer Julian (played by John Paul “JP” Tremblay)—get involved in these shenanigans, of course. Ricky is skeptical that Bubbles can make a success out of the Shitrockers. The other band members are bass player Wayland (played by Brad Stella), guitarist Dwight (played by Zach Selwyn), guitarist Slug (played by Peter Leseprance), drummer Travis (played by Andy Gallant) and pedal steel guitarist Willie (played by Dale Murray), who all have generically anonymous personalities in the movie.
The Shitrockers have songs such as “Home Is Where Your Shit Is” and “Liquor and Whores” and are unsurprsingly a terrible band. They enlist Sunnyvale Trailer Park assistant manager Randy (played by Patrick Roach), another idiot, to be the band’s tour manager. Randy (who likes to walk around topless as often as possible) is openly gay. His sexuality is the butt of many unamusing jokes in “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties.”
Somehow, the Shitrockers end up in Europe, where they meet actor/musician Billy Bob Thronton (playing a version of himself), who invites the Shitrockers to join Thronton and his band the Boxrockers on the Boxrockers’ European tour. (“Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” was filmed on location in Nova Scotia and the European cities of Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Liverpool, Glasgow, and London.) Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood (also playing a version of himself) is a friend of Thornton’s, so Wood is also on this tour. Wood shares top billing for the movie, but his screen time is less than 15 minutes.
Many ridiculous and moronic antics ensue on the tour—much of it already done in other comedies about touring musicians, such as unfriendly audiences, things that get stolen while traveling, someone in the touring entourage who gets lost/goes missing, and the band getting stuck in certain places while trying to get to the next concert gig. Here’s an example of what “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” tries to pass off as comedy: The first time that Billy Bob and Ronnie invite the Bubbles and his friends to party with them, Bubbles doesn’t go because he’s gotten so nervous, he’s urinated on himself. When they are in Liverpool, England (world-famous for being the hometown of the Beatles), Randy thinks the biggest band to come out of Liverpool is Elvis Presley’s band.
It goes on and on like this for the duration of this messy and rotten movie, which managed to get cameos from Guns N’Roses bass player Duff McKagan, actor Martin Freeman, singer Eric Burdon (former lead singer of the Animals), Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen, and former “Nashville” actresses/singers Maisy Stella and Lennon Stella—all portraying themselves. Irish actor Robert Sheehan (formerly of Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy”) also has a cameo as an unnamed horny date for Randy. The cast members portraying themselves don’t do anything special. And all the performances from the principal cast members are simply atrocious.
As bad as the movie’s plot is to endure, you need a special type of stamina to listen to Smith’s whiny voice for the entire duration of this obnoxious film. His voice is the very definition of “grating.” Ultimately, the movie’s biggest problem is the story, which is just irredeemably awful. The horrible screenplay for “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” would’ve been put to better use as lining for a kittie litter box.
Blue Fox Entertainment released “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” in select U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024.