Dax Shepherd Provides BROTHER’S JUSTICE On Demand (Tribeca Film On Demand)April 20, 2011
Tribeca Film Enterprises
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: BROTHER'S JUSTICE (Tribeca Film).
Dax Shepherd Provides BROTHER'S JUSTICE On Demand (Tribeca Film On Demand)
By Adam Schartoff
In the wake of Rob Reiner’s SPINAL TAP and a subsequent series of Christopher Guest “mockumentaries” comes BROTHER’S JUSTICE directed by and starring actor Dax Shepherd and co-directed by David Palmer. Dax (PARENTHOOD, THE FREEBIE) plays a variation of himself, a proto-Hollywood actor/producer who is constantly pitching movie ideas despite how developed or undeveloped those ideas may be.
Feeling as though he has been typecast as a comic actor, Dax’s latest inspiration is to reinvent himself as a martial arts action hero; a sort of latter day Chuck Norris. Dax thinks he’s on to an ingenious plan when he comes up with the title BROTHER’S JUSTICE.
Dax Shpeherd: BROTHER'S JUSTICE (Tribeca Film)
There’s not much more to it than that. For the balance of the movie, Dax and his best pal, producer Nate Tuck (who also happens to serve as this film’s producer) try to pitch this moronic idea to a bunch of industry insiders.
One of the joys of BROTHERS JUSTICE is all the familiar faces that pop up throughout the movie, and who gamely play along. One of those faces belongs to Tom Arnold (TRUE LIES), who seems to be having a grand time in particular. In one of the film’s funnier running gags, Dax convinces Arnold that he will be playing his brother when in reality he is being cast as the father.
It’s these sly jabs at Hollywood vanity that keeps this movie so likable. In truth, there doesn’t seem to be any attempt to make this satire anything more than the B-movie that it ultimately is. Suffice it to say, this movie is something a goof but, wisely, it never tries to be anything else.
Don’t look for a message.
Also in on the joke are Jon Favereau (IRON MAN), Carson Daly and Bradley Cooper (apparently cast here prior to the release of THE HANGOVER) and David Koechner. There’s not much of a point going over the rest of the movie’s gags, most of which work through sheer repetition.
David Koechner, Bradley Cooper: BROTHER'S JUSTICE (Tribeca Film)
In other words, this is a movie whose jokes work directly as a result of quantity over quality. And while the cast may not quite live up to BEST IN SHOW or A MIGHTY WIND, BROTHER’S JUSTICE is the product of intelligent folks setting out to entertain (themselves mostly). No gag is too “inside” to alienate its audience.
BROTHER’S JUSTICE should play well on VOD. There’s no opportunity that someone might feel swindled by having gone to a movie about guys who want to make a movie when the movie doesn’t even exist.
Dax Shpeherd: BROTHER'S JUSTICE (Tribeca Film)
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.
Look for BROTHER'S JUSTICE (Trribeca Film On Demand) under your cable system's On Demand section.
Read More of Adam's Reviews and Interviews:
HIGH COST OF LIVING - DEMAND IT
WRECKED - DEMAND IT
BROTHERHOOD - DEMAND IT
RUBBER - RISK IT
FREAKONOMICS - DEMAND IT
