As a tradition, each year in memory of Paul Walker, I review a movie that he starred in as long as I run out. I miss him terribly still... he was truly one of my favorites. This is for you, happy birthday!
Meet the Deedles (1988)
Twins Phil (Paul Walker) and Stew (Steve Van Wormer) get kicked out of school as they only care for surfing, and their rich father sends them off to learn an important lesson about being responsible adults. In order to please their father they decide to lie so they can become rangers at Yellowstone Park, where they end up, with their silly ways, to really help out.
I put off this movie because I knew it was just a silly comedy, but I promised myself I would get through all the films that Walker did, and well, times are still hard, I do believe that humanity is going to ignore 2021 if they can, and so I was looking for something entertaining. First off, I would like to say that this movie is silly, but it has a wonderful cast: Ana Gasteyer, A.J. Langer, John Ashton, M.C. Gainey, and the villain was no other than Dennis Hopper. Disney already knew where to put its money. Second, as silly as it is, the movie has a couple of scenes that got me giggling. It is a perfect movie to watch with kids. There is this gopher story line, as they disrupt the camp sites at Yellowstone, and they are hilarious. There is one scene where the gophers are eating on a picnic table, unphased by a kid that is just screaming behind them. I am sure they shot it separately, but it made laugh.
If I do have to be critical, however, the "dumbing down" factor of this movie was just too much. Not only are the main characters meant to be silly, but also the henchman of the villain. The movie ended up with no smart people essentially to contrast the ... well, stupid.
You either have the main characters be silly but lovable, or you have villains that are laughable. This was just too much. And I am not a fan of toilet humor, but it as expected in a kids movies. Altogether, of course, we know from the beginning that the main characters are going to succeed, and they seem to have redeemable qualities, but they come out of nowhere for two characters that were introduced as idiots without basic schooling. And cars keep jumping off of cliffs, I don't know what budget they had for those scenes! That said, I love to check the trivia page of movies I found for example that the movie title is a play on
The Beatles album "
Meet the Beatles!".
So watch it? It is a harmless Disney family movie. You have probably seen hundreds like it, some a lot better, I am sure. But if you are having a family afternoon, the gophers are definitely cute and entertaining. And well, Walker is just super cute.
Until the next post on my list of chores!
