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: ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’ (2020), starring Ronnie Wood

September 18, 2020

by Carla Hay

Ronnie Wood in “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (Photo courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment)

“Somebody Up There Likes Me” (2020)

Directed by Mike Figgis

Culture Representation: This documentary about Rolling Stones lead guitarist Ronnie Wood features Wood and an all-white group of people (mostly British) who talk about Wood, his artistic accomplishments and his personal life.

Culture Clash: Wood is candid about problems he’s had in his life, including his drug addiction and alcoholism.

Culture Audience: Besides the obvious target audience of Rolling Stones fans, “Somebody Up There Likes Me” will appeal to people who like survivor stories of people from the classic rock era.

Ronnie Wood in “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (Photo courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment)

Considering the copious amount of books, news reports, feature articles and documentaries about the Rolling Stones, there really isn’t a whole lot that can be revealed about the band that hasn’t already been covered. The authorized documentary “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (directed by Mike Figgis) takes an engaging but not particularly insightful look into the life of Rolling Stones lead guitarist Ronnie Wood, who’s been in the band since the mid-1970s.

Wood has two memoirs (2008’s “Ronnie” and 2017’s “Ronnie Wood: Artist”) and an ex-wife (Jo Wood) who wrote her own 2013 memoir about their relationship, so the documentary is more of a snapshot of his life, rather than an in-depth portrait. Speaking of portraits, about half of the documentary is about Ronnie as a painter/illustrator. There’s a lot of screen time devoted to showing him doing hand-drawn portraits and talking about art and paintbrushes with fellow artist Damien Hirst, one of Ronnie’s closest friends. (Ronnie’s current and third wife Sally is one of his portrait subjects.)

This isn’t a biographical documentary that takes the conventional format of telling a life story in chronological order, from birth to when the documentary was filmed. Most of the footage involves just following Ronnie around and showing what he happened to be doing at the time. The “talking head” interviews are also selective: only a handful of people in Ronnie’s inner circle, including his wife Sally, friend Hirst, Rod Stewart (who used to be in the Jeff Beck Group and in the Faces with Ronnie), Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones rhythm guitarist Keith Richards and Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.

There also isn’t a lot of digging into Ronnie’s pre-fame life. However, Ronnie (who was born in 1947 in London) does mention his dysfunctional upbringing in his family of musicians. He describes his father Arthur and two older brothers Art and Ted as alcoholics. (All of them were jazz and blues musicians.) Art and Ted were also painter artists, and Ronnie has said in many interviews how much his older brothers influenced him.

Ronnie remembers that when he was a child, his family wouldn’t know which garden his father Arthur would be passed out in if they couldn’t find him. This chronic alcoholic behavior worried his mother. Ronnie says that Arthur never abused the kids, but his frequent absences did have a negative effect on the family. “He would be damaging by not being there.” Ronnie comments.

Considering that addiction can be inherited, it’s little wonder that Ronnie became a hardcore drug addict and alcoholic too. He’s already been candid about it many interviews and in his memoirs. His decadent past has also been extensively covered in the media. Therefore, the documentary isn’t interested in having Ronnie tell all the wild and crazy stories about himself that he already told years ago.

Ronnie got clean and sober in 2010, after Hirst and Ronnie’s son Jesse (who are also recovering alcoholics/addicts) did an intervention on Ronnie. But one addiction that Ronnie had a hard time quitting after that was nicotine. Ronnie had no choice to quit smoking after he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017. Luckily, the cancer was caught early enough where he could have surgery to correct the problem.

Ronnie says in the documentary that he used to smoke about 25 to 30 cigarettes a day. Now, when he goes for a medical checkup, the doctor tells him that he has lungs that look so healthy, it looks like he never smoked. “How’s that for a ‘get out of jail free’ card?” Ronnie quips. “Somebody up there likes me.”

If people are looking for a lot of Rolling Stones concert footage in this documentary, they won’t find it, probably because of licensing issues. There’s a brief clip of the Rolling Stones performing “When the Whip Comes Down” in 2018. But most of the on-stage footage is of Ronnie as a solo artist or archival footage of Ronnie in bands that he was in before he joined the Rolling Stones.

Therefore, when watching this documentary, expect to see quite a bit of Ronnie Wood and Friends, a bluesy rock group consisting of Ronnie and rotating group of singers and musicians. There’s footage of the group performing “Wee Hours” with Irish singer Imelda May, who’s interviewed in the film.

“Somebody Up There Likes Me” director Figgis appears in the film as an interviewer, which is a documentarian technique that mostly works for this film. During the times it doesn’t work, Figgis comes across as too chummy or star-struck, as if there was an off-camera agreement that he wasn’t going to ask questions that are too probing.

And, for the most part, the questions are fairly lightweight. But Ronnie has such a charismatic personality that he gives answers that tell more than the question asks. He comes across as someone who’s lived a pretty crazy life and has come to terms with a lot of his mistakes.

In one scene, when Ronnie gets a tarot card that reads “Fatal Impudence,” Figgis asks if those words could apply to Ronnie’s life. Ronnie replies, “I’m like Yogi Berra. You come to a fork in the road, take it.”

And when Figgis asks what’s the biggest “fork in the road” for Ronnie, Ronnie says, “It has been my love life. I’ve totally gone for risk.” Figgis asks, “Has that gotten you into a lot of trouble?” Ronnie quips, “It’s gotten me into a lot of pleasure.”

The tabloids have covered the numerous affairs and womanizing in his life before Ronnie married Sally, so the documentary doesn’t rehash all of that. However, it wasn’t all fun and games, since Ronnie admits a lot of people got emotionally hurt along the way. And he also opens up a little bit about the trauma he experienced when he says his “first love” (a girlfriend named Stephanie) tragically died in a car accident.

Ronnie also talks about the importance of apologizing to people he offended, which is a common requirement for people who’ve been in rehab. “You want the situation to resolve without any disastrous consequences,” he adds.

He also admits that he’s got issues with getting older. “I never got past 29 in my head. To be 70 is so weird. It’s so surreal. I didn’t get time would go so quickly. You almost feel cheated that time has gone by.”

In a very “Behind the Music” documentary formula of the rise, fall and redemption of rock stars, Ronnie’s marriage to his wife Sally (whom he married in 2012) is credited with helping him be an upstanding, clean and sober family man. Ronnie and Sally welcomed twin daughters Alice and Gracie in 2016. He has four other kids from his previous two marriages. Sally comments in the documentary: “Ronnie’s a happy person. He’s better sober.”

As for Ronnie’s former and current band mates, Stewart mostly remembers the first gig that the Jeff Beck Group played at the Fillmore East, the band was the opening act for the Grateful Dead. “We wiped the stage with them,” Stewart boasts. He has not-so-fond memories of Peter Grant, who was the Jeff Beck Group’s manager at the time. According to Stewart, Grant was a “bully” who preferred Beck over the other members of the band.

The archival performance footage in the documentary include the Birds (one of Ronnie’s early bands) performing “That’s All I Need You For” in 1964; the Jeff Beck Group performing “Plynth (Water Down the Drain)” in 1967; and the Faces performing “Stay With Me” in 1974. There’s also new documentary footage of Ronnie doing an acoustic performance of the Faces’ 1973 hit “Ooh La La.”

Ronnie shares his often-told story of seeing the Rolling Stones for the first time in 1963, and the band’s performance was inside a tent. Ronnie says that experience changed his life, and he knew from that moment he wanted to be in the Rolling Stones. It took 12 years for that to happen, when Ronnie was asked to be the lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones during their 1975 tour, after lead guitarist Mick Taylor abruptly quit the Rolling Stones.

Ronnie was described at the time as being “on loan from the Faces” during that 1975 tour, but the writing was on the wall, since the Faces were on the verge of breaking up that year anyway. Ronnie officially became a member of the Rolling Stones in 1976, but it wasn’t 1990 that he was became a full business partner in the band. The documentary doesn’t mention all of the behind-the-scenes legal wrangling that Ronnie went through to get to becoming a full band partner in the Rolling Stones. He talks about it in his memoir “Ronnie.”

Jagger says of Ronnie joining the Rolling Stones: “We really wanted Ronnie. He fit in very quickly.” The gig was so coveted that Rolling Stones drummer Watts says that Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page even auditioned to be in the Stones, even though Led Zeppelin was the biggest band rival to the Rolling Stones at that time.

Richards, who is the Rolling Stones band mate who’s closest to Ronnie, says in the documentary about Ronnie joining the band: “It was pre-destined, in a way.” And he describes their longtime friendship: “We’ve always had a friendly rivalry … The thing is with Ronnie, you’re such good mates, you can call each other any name under the sun, and it doesn’t matter.”

Jagger says the Rolling Stones benefited from Ronnie’s impish sense of humor on stage too: “These arena shows became slightly more humorous because of Ronnie’s personality. Ronnie brought a sense of fun to it.”

But there were dark periods for Ronnie too, particularly his longtime drug addiction (mostly to cocaine) and alcoholism. Through the ups and downs, rehab stints and relapses, “Mick never gave up on him,” says Watts. And when your best friend in the band is Richards (another notorious drug addict/alcoholic, who’s only admitted to quitting heroin), it’s no wonder that it took to so long for Ronnie to get clean and sober.

Avid fans of the Rolling Stones won’t learn anything new from watching this documentary. However, people who aren’t familiar with Ronnie might be surprised at how multifaceted he is outside of the Rolling Stones. “Somebody Up There Likes Me” goes out of its way to show the process of Ronnie creating some of his artwork, because it’s clear that he wants to be known as more than just a musician. This documentary doesn’t go deep into Ronnie’s psyche, but it scratches just enough beneath his public image for people to have a better understanding of who he is.

Eagle Rock Entertainment released “Somebody Up There Likes Me” in select U.S. virtual cinemas on September 18, 2020. The movie’s release on digital, Blu-ray and DVD is on October 9, 2020. “Somebody Up There Likes Me” was released in the United Kingdom in 2019.

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