Leslie Nielsen's "2001"

[Squishy]

Blargh! Over a year ago, I saw a poster for 2001: A Space Travesty in Japan. This cheesy-looking Leslie Nielsen vehicle (Italian perhaps? I forget) finally gets its US premier Sunday night (1/13) on Sci-Fi, so now we 'Mericans can share the joy. Here's an idea about the quality of the movie: it features a computer-gone-mad named SAL--with a stereotypical Italian accent. Get it? GET IT? SAL!

Can one's sides ache from NOT laughing?

Drink deep from this well of pain. Savor it.

[Squishy]

...if you follow the "External Reviews" links at the IMDb entry, you'll find verification that this movie may very well be unwatchable. Thus the gauntlet is thrown. Build your stamina; Inspector Gadget 2 is coming out next year.

Starring French Stewart.

Surely, these are the End Times.

[Abby]

Couldn't be less funny than Repossessed ... could it?

[AndyC]

...or his Fugitive spoof.

Wow, a 2001 parody. How original, and it only took them 30 years to think of it.

[AndyC]

At least it's going straight to video.

The first Inspector Gadget was disappointing, not just because it was a piece of s**t, but because it didn't have to be. With Matthew Broderick in the title role, I thought they might be going for something a little better than a crappy kids' movie. The special effects were also pretty good. If it had been done as a straight sci-fi/comedy/action flick, with no love-powered bionics, colourful whirligigs or other magical s**t, it would have worked. Instead, they turned Inspector Gadget into Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with legs.

[The Bard]

How come Leslie Neilsen still gets to make movies since "Dracula Dead and Loving It" But Mel Brooks is on Broadway?

[Squishy]

I hope I didn't lead anyone astray: Travesty premiered on Comedy Central, not Sci-Fi.

AndyC, your last sentence regarding Inspector Gadget hits it right on the head. They screwed up everything but the effects. I surely could have done without the Amosmobile, especially, and Andy Dick. (When, oh when, will it be Christmas Time in Hell?) Brrrrrrr. But, my God--FRENCH STEWART? French this, Stewart. I'd rather sit through a Gadget Boy and Heather marathon--or gouge out my eyes.

Heh heh--remember when Penny's laptop/notebook ("computer book") seemed totally silly? Oh, sure, real ones don't have lasers and can't reverse the polarity of the Earth's magnetic fields or summon Jesus through time and space, but the thing was ahead of its time. The idea of an entire computer that one could carry around in a backpack was completely preposterous horses**t.

[Rev. Darkstar]

The good news is that it's going to be "straight to video" so it wont be holding up any good stuff at the cinema.

[Karahde Khan]

Wasn't that the name of the computer in 2010?

[Squishy]

No, it was HAL. See, that's the, um, "joke;" SAL is an "Italian name," so the computer in Travesty talks like Luigi The Pizza Man Stereotype in The Simpsons. You know, something like:

"Hey, Dave, watta you do, hah? You know I canna letta you do that, Dave, you big sockamaboosh. Now I'm-a gonna have-a to break botha you legs, Dave. Daisy, Daisy, whatsa matta you..."

[Abby]

How come Leslie Neilsen still gets to make movies since "Dracula Dead and Loving It" But Mel Brooks is on Broadway?

Interesting you mention that -- Leslie's been on the road performing a one-man play for the majority of the past few years. He performs in the UK a lot. It's sort of his "dream play" from what I gather. It looks like he only returns to California every other month (or less) to appear in his bi-yearly comedic masterworks, does some charity work, then he jets off again to do his play.

While Neilsen has been in some clunkers, you can't forget Brooks' crapheap -- crowned by Life Stinks, I'd say.

[Cullen]

One of HAL's descendants, in "2010", is named SAL.  She has a bit part.

[Mofo Rising]

I\'ve been catching bits and pieces of this over the last couple of days.  I really enjoy it, but only in the same way I enjoy movies like TROLL 2.

2001: A SPACE TRAVESTY is spectacularly inept.  Not only is it not funny, but you wonder if anybody, anywhere, would ever think anything in it smacked of humor.  Watch for a scene in an elevator where, for no reason whatsoever, the girl Nielsen is riding with suddenly flips upside down and they are stuck holding each others legs.  Then, when the doors open, they are forced to talk to another person while continually flipping around so the person talking can face the person they\'re talking to.  Funny?  No.  Needlessly complex?  Yes.  A bizzarely incomprehensible attempt at humor?  Hell, yes.

As the movie progresses things just get weirder.  I assume they thought it would be inspired insanity.  Well, they got the insanity part right.  What is the deal with the opera with the Pope in the audience?  The two terrible Clinton impersonators?  They don\'t even actually parody 2001, really.  It\'s just a standard Nielsen crapfest set in space.  And it\'s still not funny.

But 2001 is mining a vein of cinematic awfulness that few movies ever reach.  I enjoy it because it\'s so stupid.  (I enjoy a lot of things because they\'re stupid.)  Of course, if I ever end up watching the whole thing in one sitting I may change my mind.