On Demand Weekly

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: COLIN FITZ LIVES!. Tell us what you think here.

Every year on the anniversary of his death, hijinx takes place at the gravesite of the late rock star Colin Fitz. This year Fitz’s widow (Julianne Phillips) hires local security to keep watch over night. Mr. O’Day (William H. Macy), the security company’s supervisor, sends in two bumbling misfits, Paul (Matt McGrath) and Grady (Andy Fowle) to do the job.

Grady is a beer-swilling clod who spends his free time putting up posters of imaginary lost pets around the town. His new partner, Paul, is a more sensitive soul who has recently moved to the New England town where the story takes place. Paul listens to spoken word poetry on his Walk Man (this is the 90s) and is currently on a cleanse. Both men, as we learn over the course of COLIN FITZ LIVES!, are suffering from recent relationship troubles and are at crossroads in their own lives.

Over the course of the evening the two men encounter a number of memorable characters including the eccentric groundskeeper, (John C. McGinley of "Scrubs") a recovering alcoholic or gambler or what have you, as well as a suicidal fan boy, a stray dog, and a potential love interest for Paul in the form of Ann (a most welcome Martha Plimpton). Otherwise, the two men argue over an array of subjects including bottled water and the lyrics of John Lennon.

Nicknamed “The Best Film Never Released”, COLIN FITZ LIVES! premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 and then languished in limbo for years until director Robert Bella recently reacquired the rights to the film. Through a good turn of luck, Bella was able to get IFC Films and Sundance Selects to buy the film and distribute it On Demand. While it is a deftly enough written comedy, it does feel like it was adapted from the stage. Comic bits can feel a bit broad at times and scenes outside the cemetery, like Grady’s visit to his ex’s (Mary McCormack) house, feels a bit disruptive to the flow of the story.

COLIN FITZ LIVES! is an odd couple story, Grady filling the Oscar role while Paul plays Felix —and both actors do a reasonably fine job in their respective roles— but the ODD COUPLE, an adaptation, feels less staged than this film. A far better device is the use of interview clips with various fans scattered throughout the film. They feel improvised in a film that sometimes feels a bit scripted. The supposed fans reminisce about run-ins with the dead rock star, whose legend seems to have made their otherwise unpleasant stories a bit hazy.

COLIN FITZ LIVES! does a good job at satirizing the public’s obsession with rock stars and the long line of premature deaths among that particular population. Time does a good job of erasing blemishes and helping in creating myths. In Fitz’s case, a song poet in the tradition of Jim Morrison, his gravesite has become the destination for annual pilgrimages by wayward souls.

When Paul does learn the truth of the prior year’s incident, the mood of the film feels slightly derailed. COLIN FITZ LIVES! is a light good-natured comedy with strong offbeat characters. In the end, though, it might have been better served by being somewhat more seditious.

- Adam Schartoff
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Adam Schartoff is film journalist for several film-related web sites as well as Media Editor for WestView, a downtown NYC newspaper. He lives in Brooklyn.

See the trailer here on ODW.

COLIN FITZ LIVES! is Available on Demand until 10/19/10

TV 14 / 85 Minutes