\u201cSideways,\u201d<\/a> \u201cAmerican Pie,\u201d \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d), some invented. I\u2019ll admit, it took a minute to understand what the filmmakers were doing (their grandiose statement in the movie\u2019s press kit is purposely unenlightening) and, thus, for this grab bag of nonsense to sink in.<\/p>\nStill, once you realize what the heck it is you\u2019re watching, you might just settle in for a more diverting \u2014 or less terrible \u2014 time than first expected. But the lower your entertainment bar, the better.<\/p>\n
The barely-there plot finds a group of pals and wine aficionados, a.k.a. the Napa Boys, gathering in the California valley (Malibu subbed) for a screwball adventure that, among much else, will involve a coveted wine competition at something called the Great Grape Festival.<\/p>\n
The hapless group includes its leader, the crassly horny Jack Jr. (Corirossi), sad-sack widower Miles Jr. (Weitzman), conflicted family man Kevin (Nelson Franklin), underdog vintner Mitch (Mike Mitchell) and a kinder, newer member known only \u2014 in an all-caps nod to \u201cAmerican Pie\u201d \u2014 as Stifler\u2019s Brother (Jamar Neighbors). Meanwhile, a devotee and \u201cinvestigative podcaster,\u201d Puck (Sarah Ramos), also joins the guys on their wayward journey.<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s goofy conceit is that this is the fourth installment of a Napa Boys movie series (based on nonexistent graphic novels), with the official on-screen title of \u201cThe Napa Boys 4: The Sommelier\u2019s Amulet\u201d (Dig that \u201cIndiana Jones\u201d-style font.) As a result, it unfolds as if the viewer is already intimate with a franchise\u2019s culture and lore, dropping us smack into the thick of things with little, if any, context. Confused yet?<\/p>\n
This ploy hands Corirossi (a former head creative at Funny or Die) and Weitzman a license to be as slapdash and surface as possible, which, it would seem, is also part of the picture\u2019s wobbly in-joke. Because this alt comedy makes no bones about its characters or situations being even remotely logical or realistic, anything goes \u2014 and does. You sometimes wish it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Case in point: After a meds mix-up, unruly Jack Jr. (he and Miles Jr. are always addressed with the suffix) unleashes his explosive diarrhea into a barrel of contest-qualifying wine, after which he \u201cspontaneously\u201d ejaculates into it. And then, natch, the judges must sample the concoction. It\u2019s an awful, protracted sequence that begs the question, satire or not, is this truly the funniest bit they could hatch? (To be fair, it\u2019s likely some viewers will, uh, eat it up.)<\/p>\n
That aside, the film\u2019s barrage of scenes, sketches, shout-outs and absurdist scenarios leading up to the climactic wine-making championship are largely harmless flights of farce. These involve sex, love, death, near-death, maybe incest, lots of wine tasting (why is the vino here iced-tea brown?) and a moose on the loose.<\/p>\n
There are also rides in Jack Jr.\u2019s showy \u201cWine Wagon\u201d SUV (license plate: IH8MERLOT), beatific montages backed by swelling strings celebrating the \u201cjoys\u201d of Napa Boys life (\u201cTo be a Napa Boy is to be free!\u201d) and a surprise \u2014 and rather pointless \u2014 cameo by those other movie \u201cbrainiacs,\u201d Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith). There\u2019s also an anxious visit to Jack Jr.\u2019s onetime hookup, the now-elderly sexpert called the Milfonator (Eve Sigall). Oh, and is that really iconic filmmaker and vintner Francis Ford Coppola as the wine competition\u2019s \u201csuper-secret celebrity guest judge\u201d? (Two guesses.)<\/p>\n
All this inanity takes place over the course of a handful of days, during which no one ever seems to change clothes. Couldn\u2019t Jack Jr. have packed at least two Hawaiian shirts?<\/p>\n
And what of the title\u2019s elusive sommelier (DJ Qualls of \u201cRoad Trip\u201d fame) and his mystical green amulet? He makes an almost tacked-on, Yoda-like appearance, but it\u2019s too little, too late.<\/p>\n
The game if uneven cast includes Paul Rust (channeling Paul Reubens, with whom he co-wrote 2016\u2019s \u201cPee-wee\u2019s Big Holiday\u201d<\/a>) as Squirm, Mitch\u2019s insufferably cruel wine-making rival; David Wain (who directed and co-wrote \u201cWet Hot American Summer,\u201d another spoofy touchstone here) as the wine contest\u2019s even-handed host; and playing the guys\u2019 various love interests: Chloe Cherry, Vanessa Chester, Riki Lindhome and Beth Dover.<\/p>\nReportedly shot in under 10 days, the film features such fun needle drops as the Supremes\u2019 \u201cYou Can\u2019t Hurry Love,\u201d Gerry Rafferty\u2019s \u201cFamily Tree\u201d and, of all things to accompany a seduction scene, \u201cThe Girls of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll\u201d sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks and the Chipettes. How this proudly low-budget effort managed to license those tunes is as curious as so much else in this ragtag oddity.<\/p>\n
‘The Napa Boys’<\/p>\n
Not rated<\/p>\n
Running time: <\/b>1 hour, 32 minutes<\/p>\n
Playing: <\/b>Opens Friday, Feb. 27 in limited release<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That the \u201cThe Napa Boys\u201d won\u2019t be everyone\u2019s cup of tea \u2014 or in this case, goblet of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[111374,167829,18,117,597,6061,167831,167826,19,17,124571,2971,1382,327,167827,167828,1215,167830,123977,44085],"class_list":["post-359569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-american-pie","tag-armen-weitzman","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-group","tag-guy","tag-horny-jack-jr","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-license","tag-love","tag-movie","tag-movies","tag-napa-boys","tag-nick-corirossi","tag-point","tag-sad-sack-widower-miles-jr","tag-scene","tag-sommelier"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116144261280469390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}