DVD Review:
2001: A Space Travesty
Written by: Kage
Alan
Film Rating:
D
DVD Special Features: N/A
My how the mighty have fallen. Whatever
happened to the Leslie Nielsen we
came to love, honor and wholeheartedly laugh at in films like
"Airplane" and
"The Naked Gun"? Even "Wrongfully
Accused" had its moments, but then there was a string of films
that barely even saw a video release, like
"Camouflage", and the a hint of a "Titanic" spoof
that was listed on IMDB for
a while and then quietly disappeared. Even some of his
films made within the
last year or two haven't seen a video release in the US yet
("Kevin of the
North") and who knows what's going to happen with "Men With
Brooms". It
seems that a number of directors want a piece of Nielsen before he
retires,
only they aren't willing to put the work behind a decent story, budget
and
script to make it worth our while.
"2001: A Space Travesty" is exactly that, a travesty. After
a cute (though
silly) introduction that explains the beginning of the universe, we're
introduced to US Marshall Richard Dick Dix (Nielsen). I
guess that's a joke
of some kind, but it's never really played as one or punned or
anything.
Lame. As with a more successful previous role as a somewhat
brain dead but
always serious Detective, Dix stumbles his way through crisis after
crisis
while never really understanding what he's doing or what he's done. An
incident early on in this film has him busting into a hostage
situation and
berating the hostages for their treatment of the terrorists. While
slightly
amusing, the film goes downhill from there.
Cassandra Menage (Ophelie Winter) arrives on Earth from international
moon base Vegan pleading for help. It seems a doctor on the
moon has cloned the
President of the United States, replaced the real one and is holding
him
hostage. We're never quite sure for what or why the doctor
didn't kill the
real president in the first place, but... Oh, we wouldn't have a
reason to
send Nielsen up into space if he did that. Okay, I get it. Right,
so Dix is
off to the moon, which allows the filmmakers to spoof a little bit of
the
original "2001" with gravity and bathroom humor. Joy. How
refreshing. NOT.
There are aliens among us and they are all on the moon. Dix
is curious as to
their accents and is informed that they learned to speak English by
watching
television, hence they all speak like famous Hollywood actors. Spoof
some
films like "Total Recall", previous Nielsen installments,
"The Fifth Element"
and throw in lots of celebrity look-alikes and you might have had a
better
movie than this actually turned out if someone had thought to plan
anything
out and include real talent next to the star. Dix screws
everything up and
then has to travel back to Earth to undo that which he helped do on
the moon.
The tacked on ending is just downright stupid and feels as if it was
conceived at the last minute because their original one just wasn't
cutting
it.
Columbia really got suckered with this release and I think they knew
it.
First of all, it's only a Full Screen transfer. Believe me,
a Widescreen one
(if it even exists) isn't going to help this movie and the less we see
of the
ultra-cheap sets the better. The picture is decent and the
audio isn't bad
either, so Columbia did give us some solid work there. It's
just too bad the
movie stinks. As for extras, there are only a couple of
trailers. None of
this bothered me except for one thing; the price of the disc. You
are going
to pay $20+ for this lame turkey and, considering what you get, that's
unacceptable. Save your money. Save your brain
cells.
It's difficult to believe that Leslie Nielsen ever did anything
besides
comedy. I mean, the man was in "Prom Night" with
scream queen Jamie Lee
Curtis for God's sake! He's very talented and extremely
funny in person if
you've ever had the pleasure of seeing him on talk shows or in
interviews.
Unfortunately, he's also getting up there in years and I absolutely
despise
seeing him wasted in utter crap. Come on, Zucker brothers,
give this man a
movie so he can go out with a bang instead of a whimper! If
you have any
appreciation for Nielsen, avoid "2001: A Space Travesty".
Kage holds degrees in Creative Writing, as well as Film & Video. He has been
featured in a Life Journey Tele-Course, published poems in several national anthologies,
been a contributor to The Third Coast Magazine and written several novels. kage@modamag.com
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