Fubar (2002)

Special, heartfelt, wonderful. Couple a boneheads with moments of beautiful human depth and relate-ability. It's what I love about Kevin Smith's films when he really gets it right. Enjoyable.What I love about the Canadianness is that even in conflicts there is an underlying politeness and even niceness that I hope to emulate. It's like when kids fight, they have the humanity to forgive and forget in like a minute.Filmed really well as well. Considering the budget they must have had, it is seamlessly wonderful in that you never really feel like 'oh this is a documentary and I'm supposed to forget the camera is a weird thing to be there', you're just there with them in an effortless looking but very difficult way to achieve.

There were a couple of drunken character moments early in this film that gave me some good strong belly laughs but the longer the film went on the less I laughed and the more I just winced, sighed and eventually bailed 30 minutes before the end. I very rarely stop watching a film mid-way, it has to be an especially cringeworthy - almost embarrassing experience for me to turn off early - strangely the last film I watched to provoke an early exit was MacGruber - perhaps it's the mullets. In my opinion, the Fubar producers' choice to inform the audience in the opening credits that the film was a fictional documentary was a bad error on their part and ruined any opportunity they had to successfully dupe the viewer into believing this could possibly be a 'real' documentary. Perhaps there was legal reasons for this admission but even if it had been omitted, the woeful performance of Gordon Skilling as the straight man Farrel would most likely have raised most viewers suspicions as to the truthfulness of what they were watching.The longer I watched this film, the stupider I began to feel, whether it be through some strange osmotic character/viewer transmission or just for the fact that I was continuing to watch a film that proclaimed itself to be a fictional documentary still painfully attempting to pretend to be a documentary. Overall, the whole experience felt like being back in late primary school with a bunch of filmmakers who only had three fingers and yet were still trying to give me a decent Chinese burn. All a bit lame.

Honestly the first 30 minutes of this film is fairly painful as we watch the main characters played by Dave Lawrence and Paul Spence go through their childhood, as twenty-somethings with meaningless jobs and non existent friends and six pack after six pack. Farrel, the documentary filmmaker, decides to follow these Canadian fellows and make a film on their "so-called" life. As one character discovers a health issue that turns his life upside down, the two characters (and the filmmaker) start a journey into the woods and mother nature to excise their fear. It's only at this point that the film really gets going and the director is finally able to take the saran wrap off the characters and let them emote something more than pure silliness. The production value is low but the story while simple is executed well. Look forward for the Director's next film about a deaf deejay: All Gone Pete Tong.

I'm gonna keep this short and sweet just like the movie. I give this movie a 10 rating for the pure entertainment factor. Now if you're one of those people that think singing in the rain is one of the best movies ever made or you sip tea and read a book on a Saturday night then this flick's not for you. If you're a "normal type" person and like to give'er like most of us fun-lovin Canadians then you won't be disappointed. Fire up & check it out. "More cheers more beers, that's it that's all"