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: ‘Champions’ (2023), starring Woody Harrelson

March 7, 2023

by Carla Hay

Kevin Iannucci, Kaitlin Olson, James Day Keith, Madison Tevlin, Cheech Marin and Woody Harrelson in “Champions” (Photo by Shauna Townley/Focus Features)

“Champions” (2023)

Directed by Bobby Farrelly

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Iowa city of Des Moines and in Winnipeg, Canada, the comedy film “Champions” (a remake of the 2018 Spanish film “Campeones”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A problematic basketball coach, who was recently fired from a minor league team, takes on coaching duties for a group of young adults who aspire to compete in the Special Olympics. 

Culture Audience: “Champions” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Woody Harrelson, director Bobby Farrelly and formulaic comedies that aren’t very funny.

Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, Matthew von der Ahe, Ashton Gunning, Tom Sinclair, Joshua Felder, James Day Keith, Madison Tevlin, Kevin Iannucci and Bradley Edens in “Champions” (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)

The intentions might have been good, but “Champions” is mostly cringeworthy comedy about a grouchy coach and his basketball players, who aspire to compete in the Special Olympics. This misguided movie is an awkward mixture of sappiness, crudeness, bad jokes, and negative stereotypes. To put it bluntly: “Champions” is not a movie that can be considered a worthy showcase for people with various disabilities. Most of the movie is just downright embarrassing for everyone involved.

Directed by Bobby Farrelly and written by Mark Rizzo, “Champions” is yet another “underdog team” sports movie, where the coach (usually middle-aged, usually cynical) is hoping for a personal and professional comeback/redemption by coaching a group of misfits (usually young, usually unruly) who are on a losing streak. “Champions” is a remake of the 2018 Spanish film “Campeones,” and it’s another example of a Hollywood remake that is inferior to the original movie. A remake is supposed to be a chance to improve on the original movie. In that regard, “Champions” is an utter failure.

In “Champions” (which takes place mostly in Des Moines, Iowa), the jaded coach is Marcus Markovich (played by Woody Harrelson), who gets fired from his job as an assistant basketball coach for a minor league team called the Iowa Stallions. Marcus was ousted from the team for instigating a physical altercation during a game with head coach Phil Perretti (played by Ernie Hudson), because Marcus disagreed with a game strategy that Phil wanted. Marcus was also recently arrested for crashing his car into a police car while Marcus was drunk.

In other words, Marcus (who wants to eventually become a National Basketball Association coach) has a bad temper, and he’s a screw-up. In court for the drunken car crash, Judge Mary Menendez (played by Alex Castillo) sentences Marcus to 90 days of community service. As part of his community service, he’s ordered to work at a non-profit community recreation center, which just so happens to have a group of young adults with “intellectual disabilities” who need a coach for their basketball team. In front of the judge—and to the embarrassment of Marcus’ attorney Charlie McGurk (played by Mike Smith)—Marcus calls these disabled people the “r” word.

And so begins the predictable journey of Marcus trying to train this team into going from a losing streak to achieving the goal of competing in the upcoming Special Olympics, which will take place in the Canadian city of Winnipeg. (“Champions” was actually filmed in Winnipeg.) Marcus gets some coaching help from an acquaintance named Sonny (played by Matt Cook), who has NBA connections. This basketball program is overseen by recreation center manager Julio (played by Cheech Marin), who is as reliable and even-tempered as Marcus is unpredictable and a loose cannon. Julio tells Marcus, “They don’t have to be champs. You just have to make them feel like a team.”

The team that Marcus coaches is called the Friends. The team member who gets the most screen time and personal backstory is Johnathan (played by Kevin Iannucci), nicknamed Johnny, who is living with Down syndrome. In the beginning of the movie, Johnny is afraid of taking baths or showers. Guess who’s going to help Johnny overcome this fear? The movie’s jokes and gags about Johnny’s body odor get tiresome very quickly. Johnny works at an animal shelter, so the movie can have some contrived cutesy moments with pet animals.

Also on the team is Benny (played by James Day Keith), who lives on his own and works in a restaurant that’s owned by a jerk named Frank O’Connolly (played by Sean Cullen), who is corrupt and a bigot. Another member of the Friends is Marlon (played by Casey Metcalfe), who is color blind and appears to be an idiot savant, because he rattles off encylopedic trivia and facts about various things. Cody (played by Ashton Gunning), who has multicolored hair, works at a dye factory, is a part-time musician as a guitarist in a rock band, and has to let everyone know repeatedly that he has an active sex life that includes threesomes.

Darius (played by Joshua Felder) doesn’t want to be a part of the team at first, but he eventually changes his mind. Cosentino (played by Madison Tevlin) is the team’s token female. Showtime (played by Bradley Edens) is the team’s tallest member. Craig (played by Matthew von der Ahe) is a welder in a vocational school. The other members of the team are Arthur (played by Alex Hintz) and Blair (played by Tom Sinclair), who are mostly overshadowed by the louder and more extroverted members of the team.

And it wouldn’t be a formulaic movie about a hardened sports coach who finds his soft and sensitive side without the coach having a love interest. In this case, her name is Alex (played by Kaitlin Olson), who is in the movie’s first scene, which shows Alex and Marcus the morning after they had a drunken hookup. Alex (who is sarcastic and sassy) starts off thinking that Marcus is just a meaningless one-night stand. But, of course, their relationship turns out to be something more, especially after it’s revealed how Alex has a personal connection to someone on the Friends team.

“Champions” has some entertaining basketball scenes and good comedic timing from the more experienced cast members. But the movie is a huge letdown in the way that the team members are often written as buffoonish stereotypes. And almost all of the movie’s jokes (for people with or without disabilities) are irredeemably awful. For “Champions,” the real losers are viewers who lost any time or money by watching this messy and very unfunny film.

Focus Features will release “Champions” in U.S. cinemas on March 10, 2023.

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