Review: ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story,’ starring Mike Smith, Billy Bob Thornton, Robb Wells, JP Tremblay, Patrick Roach and Ronnie Wood

December 11, 2024

by Carla Hay

Mike Smith, Rob Wells and Jon Paul Tremblay in “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” (Photo courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment)

“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.

Patrick Roach and Mike Smith in “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” (Photo courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment)

“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.

Review: ‘Devil’s Peak,’ starring Billy Bob Thornton, Hopper Penn, Brian d’Arcy James, Jackie Earle Haley and Robin Wright

April 15, 2023

by Carla Hay

Hopper Penn and Robin Wright in “Devil’s Peak” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

“Devil’s Peak”

Directed by Ben Young

Culture Representation: Taking place in Jackson County, North Carolina, the dramatic film “Devil’s Peak” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A young man tries to start a life apart from his drug-dealing father, who expects him to take over this family’s criminal business, while the father of the young man’s girlfriend is the district attorney who has been targeting the drug-dealing father in a sting operation. 

Culture Audience: “Devil’s Peak” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching convoluted and fake-looking crime dramas.

Billy Bob Thornton in “Devil’s Peak” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

The novelty of real-life mother-and-son duo Robin Wright and Hopper Penn portraying a mother and a son in “Devil’s Peak” is not enough reason to watch this dreadful crime drama with a putrid plot and subpar acting. Almost nothing in this flop is believable. It’s the type of dreck that is overstuffed with bad dialogue and ridiculous plot twists that add up to a complete waste of time.

Directed by Ben Young, “Devil’s Peak” is based on David Joy’s 2015 novel “Where All Light Tends to Go.” Robert Knott wrote the low-quality adapted screenplay for “Devil’s Peak.” Just when you think the movie can’t get any worse, the last 15 minutes are such a pile-on of utter stupidity, it will have viewers rolling their eyes more than the tweaking meth addicts who are the customers of the drug-dealing family at the center of the story.

“Devil’s Peak” opens with a scene of a terrified-looking guy in his late teens named Jacob McNeely (played by Penn), who is half-crouched behind his truck that’s parked on an deserted road. He’s pointing his rifle at an approaching car and has the stance of someone who’s expecting a shootout. The movie circles back to this scene in the last third of the film to reveal who’s in this showdown with Jacob.

Viewers will know from the beginning of “Devil’s Peak” to brace for some bad dialogue when Jacob is heard saying in this voiceover narration: “In Jackson County, North Carolina, my family name meant something. Our family was a matter of blood, just like hair color and height. By the time I was 9 or 10, Daddy had me breaking down big bags of crystal meth.”

Jacob continues, “He got them from the Mexicans through his biker buddy Ed McGraw. The auto shop was a front, where I worked with Gerald Cabe and his skinny-ass brother Jeremy Cabe. They were the ones who did Daddy’s dirty work. And everyone in these parts knew he was not the kind of man you want to cross.”

If you can get past the ridiculousness that a guy who’s being groomed by his father to be a menacing drug dealer is still calling his father “Daddy,” there’s still more phony garbage to come in “Devil’s Peak.” It doesn’t help that many of the cast members either over-act or their acting is too stiff. Try not to laugh at the cringeworthy utterings of Jacob as he continues to tell his story in voiceover narration.

“Even though they were mean as hell,” Jacob says, “the Cabe brothers were the closest thing I had to kin. Methamphetamine was a living, breathing body in Jackson County. Daddy was the heart-pumping blood in every vein in the region.”

Jacob continues, “I got a cut from the sales, like most kids got allowance. But Daddy held on to my money. Maybe it’s a life I could’ve accepted, like generations of McNeelys had done before me. But Maggie Jennings, she made it so I couldn’t.”

Viewers soon find out that Maggie (played by Katelyn Nacon) is Jacob’s 18-year-old girlfriend, who lives with her mother and stepfather in an upper-middle-class part of Jackson Country. Maggie is a “good girl” who plans to go to the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Maggie wants Jacob to go to the same university with her at the same time.

But Jacob’s ruthless father Charlie McNeely (played by Billy Bob Thornton) has other plans for Jacob: He expects Jacob to stay in the family’s meth distribution business. Charlie says to Jacob at one point in the movie: “We did not choose this way of life. It chose us. It’ll be that way until we ain’t breathing.”

And to make matters more complicated, Maggie’s stepfather is district attorney Bob Jones (played by Brian d’Arcy James), who is up for re-election and has been targeting Charlie and his gang for a major drug bust. Bob has secrets that are eventually revealed in the movie. The secrets should come as no surprise to viewers who’ve seen enough of these types of films where politicians can be just as corrupt as the criminals.

As a money-laundering cover for his drug dealing, Charlie owns and operates a mechanic shop called McNeely’s Automotive. All of the men who work at the shop, including Jacob, are really part of the McNeely drug gang. The aforementioned brothers Jeremy Cabe (played by Jared Bankens) and Gerald Cabe (played by David Kallaway) are stereotypical sleazeballs. (The story in “Devil’s Peak” takes place in North Carolina, but the movie was actually filmed in Georgia.)

One of the worst and most unbelievable things about “Devil’s Peak” is that the McNeelys are supposedly the most powerful drug-dealing family in Jackson County for generations, with the current district attorney intent on busting them. But only two cops are part of this story: Sheriff Rogers (played by Jackie Earle Haley) has been in law enforcement in Jackson County for years and knows all about the McNeely family. A junior officer named C. Bullock, also known as Bull (played by Harrison Gilbertson), is a hothead bully who likes to pick on Jacob.

Sheriff Rogers has a soft spot for Jacob’s mother Virgie (played by Wright), a forlorn meth addict who has been trying unsuccessfully for years to conquer her addiction and clean up her act. Virgie and Charlie have been divorced since Jacob was a child. Charlie is still bitter because Virgie cheated on him when they were married, but viewers will get the impression that hypocrite Charlie isn’t exactly the “faithful spouse” type either.

Virgie is currently down on her luck, unemployed, and living in near-poverty. She doesn’t have a car, but sympathetic Sheriff Rogers sometimes gives her car rides and looks out for Virgie as much as he can. The movie shows hints that Sheriff Rogers probably has romantic feelings for Virgie. Because of her drug addiction, Virgie has been in and out of Jacob’s life. Charlie has been the parent who has primarily raised Jacob. And Charlie doesn’t let Jacob forget it.

As the emotionally broken Virgie, Wright gives perhaps the closest thing to an authentic-looking performance in “Devil’s Peak.” Unfortunately, she’s not in the movie for very long (her screen time is less than 20 minutes), and her scenes consists mostly of Virgie apologetically trying to reconnect with Jacob, or Virgie defensively trying to convince suspicious Charlie that she’s not a confidential informant for the police. Virgie is openly driving around with Sheriff Rogers in his squad car, so it’s no wonder that Charlie thinks that desperate drug addict Virgie might be getting paid to set up Charlie to get arrested.

Charlie has a girlfriend who’s young enough to be his daughter. Her name is Josephine, nicknamed Josie (played by Emma Booth), and she goes along with whatever Charlie wants. Josephine shows a little bit of sassiness and occasionally talks back to Charlie, but he’s really the one in control of the relationship. “Devil’s Peak” is ultimately a male-dominated movie where the few female characters in the film just react to whatever the men are doing.

The rest of “Devil’s Peak” involves murders, a kidnapping, chase scenes and a race against time for people who want possession of Charlie’s hidden stash of cash. Thornton’s portrayal of Charlie is a caricature of a villain, with every action utterly predictable and soulless. Penn, who pouts his way through his performance, lacks charisma in his role as protagonist Jacob. And that’s a problem when viewers are supposed to be rooting for the protagonist.

“Devil’s Peak” tries to cram in too many “surprises” in the last 15 minutes of the film. It all looks so fake, because the movie makes it look like there are only two cops in Jackson County who are dealing with the huge mess that Charlie causes in this story. There are many more than two people to blame for the mess that is “Devil’s Peak.”

Screen Media Films released “Devil’s Peak” in select U.S. cinemas on February 17, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on February 24, 2023.

Billy Bob Thornton backstage at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards

January 9, 2017

by Carla Hay

The 74th annual Golden Globe Awards took place on January 8, 2017, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.

BILLY BOB THORNTON

Golden Globe win:

Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama

(“Goliath”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Ji6glwVsM

Here is what this Golden Globe winner said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.

Billy Bob Thornton at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards
Billy Bob Thornton at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW

Can you elaborate on what you said in your acceptance speech about sticking up for people?

I said that it’s easy to talk about people. It’s hard to stick your neck out. And I guess my point about that is a lot of people in the entertainment business get called “privileged” and yet … I came out here in poverty and spent a decade trying to eat. And that does things to you. At the end of the day, what separates people who come to these awards shows and who do television shows or movies or whatever it is or write a score, there are people who are willing to take a chance.

And maybe it was safer to work, but if you wanted to make something out of yourself, you’re willing to go take the chance. And so when people in this day of the social media, and when people are slamming each other left and right, what they have to remember at the end of the day is those who talk about those who do things, that’s not a very good job.

That’s why when the legitimate press … when you write a review or talk about something on your TV show, it comes from a place of knowledge, as opposed to a place of hatred or jealousy or whatever it is, you know. And I think we’re living in that society right now. I let it bother me for a few years. And now, when I accept an award, I accept it with pride, because I know I tried.

Who are you most excited to see tonight?

I was excited to see my wife being happy. I mean, she’s happy every day, but tonight, she’s just proud to be here with me and everything. But in terms of celebrities, I was very excited to see Warren Beatty because he’s one of the guys I admired growing up.

What drew you to your “Goliath” character?

I always wanted to play a lawyer, because I think lawyers and actors have the same job. A lawyer is trying to convince a jury, and an actor is trying to convince an audience. And I did it in “The Judge” with Robert Downey [Jr.] and [Robert] Duvall, but it was kind of a big cameo. It wasn’t really a full part. I’d always wanted to play a lawyer for a period of time, but mainly I wanted to play a guy who was trying to fight his way back from nowhere—and I’ve had to do that a few times, so I kind of related to the character.

You’ve said the “Goliath” was one of the best crews you ever worked with, and you recognized your PA [production assistant] in your acceptance speech. Can you talk a little bit more about the crew?

It was a very, very good crew on “Goliath.” There were people who enjoyed being there every day. They got who the actors were and related to us in that way. Luke Scott was a kid who was only 23 years old, and he passed away last year.

Luke made me want to come to work. He was the guy who, when I got there, I know that his face was such a joyous face. And he was so happy just to be there and have that job and be around a business that he wanted to be around.

To lose your life at 23 years old when you’re just starting something like that, I thought, “I can thank people all night long. I can thank lawyers and agents and everybody, but at the end of the day, the two entities I have to thank are Luke Scott, this PA that made me happy to be there, and Amazon, who was willing to do the show.”

Amazon is a company that was very kind to us and allowed us to be what we wanted to be, and in fact encouraged us to be more than what was there. But if I thank them publicly, then I need to thank every lawyer, and that takes a lot of time. So if I had to pick one out of two, I pick the kid who’s not with us anymore.

How would you say luck or blessings fit in addition to the chances you’ve taken and how good your work is?

In terms of luck and all that, I’ve kind of left it up to providence in a way because if Fred Roos hadn’t seen me in the theater back in the early ‘80s, I’d be nowhere. But then again, if this unemployed actor who I met named Don Blakeley hadn’t met me three or four years before that, I would never have been in the theater were Fred Roos saw me.

People say, “Was ‘Sling Blade’ the turning point?” or “Was ‘Once False Move’ the turning point?” And sure, you can say that in a way, but the fact of the matter is, if it weren’t for Don Blakely, this actor who would feed me when I was starving and who introduced me to somebody and put me in a play in this little theater group where Fred Roos, a big producer came and saw me, then none of that would have happened. So you have to really go way, way back.

So I think, as opposed to those defining moments that people usually pin on movies, I think you really have to think more about those people that led you to that moment. So my hat goes off to Don Blakeley, just like it went off to Luke Scott, a PA who made me want to come to work. I think the little woman and the little man aren’t recognized enough in the trajectory of someone’s career.

We have not heard about the future of “Goliath” from Amazon. What have you heard, and what are your hopes for the show going forward?

If I told you, I’d have to kill you. They would like to do another season, I know that much. This one was written in a way that it had a beginning, a middle and an end, so that was kind of the intention. But once they see what the potential is—and I honestly believe there’s more potential for the show than what was in the first season. I love the first season, but I think there’s so much more to mine.

I think we need to know where this guy came from and what happened and what it is that made him who he is and what his sense of justice actually is and what his desires are and what he does think about these people. And I think another season could unfold that and could answer a lot of those questions and lead the audience down a path that’s much stranger and much darker. I know that Amazon, to their credit, wants to do it, and I think it just depends on if they come up with the right story.

Is there some talent that you’re not so good that you wish you were better at?

Absolutely. I’m the worst dancer, maybe in history. I grew up as a musician, as a drummer, so I have a natural sense of rhythm. It’s not about that. On the dance floor, I freeze up like you can’t imagine. It’s incredible.

When I was in junior high school there was a band called the Yardleys in my hometown of Malvern, Arkansas, and they were like the Beatles to us. And they had a dance in the old high-school gymnasium.

And this senior in high school named Joan Burnett asked me to dance and her boyfriend Bucky Griggs was a drummer in the Yardleys. And she came over and got me by the hand and led me out to the middle of the dance floor because I was friends with her little brother, who was in school with me.

And I stood there sweating, like my hands are sweating, and I thought I was having a heart attack at 13. And I lost my mind I didn’t know what to do. So when I watch people dance and look at the old movies when actors couldn’t just be actors; they had to ride horses, shoot guns, dance, sing, everything—I admire those people so much, because now we can just sit in a room and a chair and talk, but they just have to do everything. I’m so fortunate, because I just can’t dance.

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