By Rob Shaer
for MovieSet.com
Trailer Park Boys II: Countdown to Liquor Day
Synopsis: From series creator, writer and director Mike Clattenburg, comes the latest mis-adventures of Ricky, Julian and Bubbles, three wildly self-destructive Maritimers with big plans for legitimacy, easy dollars and another drink.
Stars: Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay and Mike Smith
Written by: Mike Clattenburg
Directed by: Mike Clattenburg
Opening on: September 25, 2009
By eleven pm last night the sidewalk in front of the Rio Theater on Broadway at Commercial felt like a block party complete with catering, music and second hand atmosphere. By catering I mean Uncle Fattih’s Pizza by the slice, by music I mean a blaring boom box and by atmosphere I mean Rum and Cokes swilled from Gatorade bottles and the product of BC’s most notorious cash crop.
The line for the midnight screening of the new Trailer Park Boys movie, ‘The Trailer Park Boys II: Countdown to Liquor Day‘ started with a few souls and slowly grew one skateboard and mullet wig at a time all eager for the return of Ricky (Robb Wells), Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and Bubbles (Mike Smith). By the time I took my seat I was confident that my first mistake of the evening would be the most significant, I had stopped for coffee when I should have stopped for a six-pack of O’Keefe’s Extra Old Stock.
The Rio put on a show that was well received by the half-full theatre and what the Rio lacked in filled seats the audience certainly made up for with enthusiasm and intoxication! Long before the curtain was raised above the stage a Jim Lahey-like character pushed a shopping cart around the theatre finishing up on stage to the wild delight of the audience. With prizes offered for Trailer Park Boys Trivia, and best costume the audience was well warmed before the opening credits could be seen through the thick haze of blue smoke.
That this Canadian cult TV show may not translate well to the big screen was entirely lost on the audience who enjoyed a call and response relationship to what was happening on screen. For every Trailer Park Boys idiom uttered by Ricky, Julian, Lahey, Randy, Bubbles or J-Roc on screen the audience offered a counter part in kind. To Julian’s omni-present, and ever up right, rum and Coke, to Ricky’s sagging track pants and Bubbles with his odd ingenuity, the audience responded positively to every wild act of self destruction and ridiculous piece of dialogue.
With half-baked plans for great success our trio, Ricky, Julian and Bubbles are released from their most recent stint behind bars with big ambitions for their return to their homes in Sunnyvale Trailer Park. Julian, rum and Coke in hand, is seeking legitimacy and fortune through his trailer-based, four-year business plan-backed Success Auto-Body. Ricky is more resigned and without pretense for the parole board when he says that he’ll “grow a little dope” because that’s what he is good at, and Bubbles, poor Bubbles, whose greatest ambition is to rub cat food on his face to win back the affections of the 27 trailer park kitties he cared for before returning to prison.
Watching these characters is like watching a slow moving yet catastrophic train wreck as it happens. Plans for legitimacy and success come off the rails early in the movie when Julian and Ricky make off with a Department of Corrections van in order to rob a liquor store to pick up a little start up money for Julian’s best business ambitions. While this is an early beginning to the end, the train continues to fall from the rails, for our protagonists, car by car until the end credits roll.
For fans of the show, and previous movie, like so many in the Rio Theatre’s audience, there will be no expectation other than watching how the Trailer Park Boys will self-destruct in this latest installment. There is no expectation of redemption, success, or finding peace in the trailer park, the only expectation is of having a “massive failure on our hands” as Bubbles so simply states, and with this in mind Countdown to Liquor Day is a success as it certainly was to the largely teen-aged audience at the Rio.
Countdown to Liquor Day isn’t going to win any critical praise and anyone who might suggest that this is the funniest Canadian movie ever made was either high or drunk on the worst kind of rotgut rum available in the liquor store. While somewhat able to stand on it’s own, this is a movie for fans and unlikely to win over legions of new viewers. You have to appreciate actors as committed to characters as this cast, but we watch not because we feel connected but because we are anxious to see what could possibly happen next.
It should be no surprise to anyone that our adventure comes to a crashing end in a high-speed police chase through down town Halifax with Rickey and Lahey peeing on each other from different cars. Director Mike Clattenburg hasn’t created satire or a parody, this is pure farce and it is only because Ricky, Bubbles, Julian and the lot are so irredeemable that they are so easy to watch.
The show started long before the lights went down, with cheers and jeers, costumes and the great wafts of pot smoke. The crowd, as much spectacle as Ricky, Julian and Bubbles, were as entertaining as anything I saw on screen. With shouts of “C***sucker” and “I don’t even think those are real jeans!” the audience, feeling much like a high school grad class sleep over, had itself laughing long before Ricky had picked his first fight or Bubbles dropped his first f-bomb.
Trailer Time
Check out the trailer for the movie
And if you liked that check out…
Countdown to Liquor Day Video Clips!
Behind the Scenes of Trailer Park Boys II: Countdown to Liquor Day Join the documentary crew behind the scenes of TRAILER PARK BOYS II: COUNTDOWN TO LIQUOR DAY to catch the boys up to their usual no good.
Behind the scenes of Trailer Park Boys II: Countdown to Liquor Day It’s all fun and games on and off the camera!
Trailer Park Boys II Clip – A potential construction accident is about to occur Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and Randy (Patrick Roach) watch in horror as Mr. Lahey (John Dunsworth) goes on a rampage in TRAILER PARK BOYS II: COUNTDOWN TO LIQUOR DAY.
Trailer Park Boys II Clip – It’s called thinking Bubbles (Mike Smith) tells Ricky (Robb Wells) that the talking he hears in his head is called thinking in TRAILER PARK BOYS II: COUNTDOWN TO LIQUOR DAY.
Trailer Park Boys II Clip – Be careful who you love Mr. Lahey (John Dunsworth) gives some free love advice in TRAILER PARK BOYS II: COUNTDOWN TO LIQUOR DAY.
Trailer Park Boys II Clip – It’s just me and the liquor now Randy (Patrick Roach) walks out on Mr. Lahey (John Dunsworth) in TRAILER PARK BOYS II: COUNTDOWN TO LIQUOR DAY.
Trailer Park Boys II Clip – He’s hooking for cheeseburgers Ricky (Robb Wells), Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and Bubbles (Mike Smith) catch Randy (Patrick Roach) hooking for cheeseburgers in TRAILER PARK BOYS II: COUNTDOWN TO LIQUOR DAY.
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