It continues to be diminishing returns from Napoleon Dynamite director,
Jared Hess; which is saying something since that overhyped and overrated
goofball comedy isn't very good. Hess always comes up with ideas that are
completely out of left field, such as his previous film nobody saw, Gentlemen Broncos, but he seems
to rely on that to be enough without making them very funny. The same
thing applies to his religious comedy, Don
Verdean, a poor attempt to spoof evangelicals and their mindless, desperate
followers. Should be an easy target, right? And yet Hess, along with his wife
and writing partner Jerusha, fail to summon a single laugh.
Sporting a talent-rich cast of Sam
Rockwell, Jemaine Clement, Amy Ryan, Danny McBride, and Will Forte, Don Verdean is a film that thinks it is much
funnier and smarter than it actually is. Rockwell, back in con-man mode where
he's arguably at his best, plays the titular archaeologist scamming the devout
into believing he's found significant religious artifacts. We're introduced to
him through one of those grainy TV infomercials from the '80s, which normally
would be enough to ward anyone off from his services. But alas he's able
to convince a fundamentalist preacher named Tony Lazarus (McBride) to bankroll
his expeditions in order to thwart the sudden popularity of an ex-Satanist (Forte).
Rating: 2 out of 5
