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Comic Book - The Movie

Starring: Mark Hamill, Jess Harnell, Billy West, Tom Kenny, Kevin Smith, Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, Bruce Campbell, Donna D'Errico
Director: Mark Hamill

Reviewed by Chris Ching

I like Mark Hamill. Sure, his career isn't exactly in the same league as fellow Star Warrior Harrison Ford, but without his contribution to the original Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas' far, far away galaxy wouldn't have been so indelibly embedded in our public consciousness. Hamill is often knocked for being a bad actor, but it takes a lot to be a cinematic hero to millions -- witness the weak performance of Hayden Christensen in Attack of the Clones.

So it's hard for me to continue this review, because I'm going to wail on young Skywalker's ass like Vader on Bespin. I absolutely HATED Comic Book - The Movie.

Written, produced, directed, and starring Hamill, CBTM is a mockumentary in the style of This is Spinal Tap and Best In Show except that those flicks were good and this one isn't. The movie focuses on the San Diego Comi-Con, the biggest fandom event of the year, and the quest of fanboy Don Swan (Hamill) to ensure his comic book hero Captain Courage isn't bastardized in an upcoming Hollwood adaptation.CBTM has no script. No that's not a put down of the writing, it actually has no script. Hamill simply roughed out a flimsy outline for his cast to improvise with. The actors are primarily voice over stars from the animation world (Hamill himself voices the Joker on Batman) whose performances go along way into demonstrating why they're usually heard not seen. Their acting skills have all the craft and subtlety of a high school play. To witness Hamill's final soliloquy denouncing the corporate evils of Hollywood is to know the true sound of mediocrity.

The best part of CBTM are the numerous cameos by fandom heroes like Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, Bruce Campbell, and even Hugh Hefner seen taking a break between Viagra dosages. Kevin Smith provides some of the only true laughs during an interview segment with Don Swan, and my gut instinct tells me the reason why a big studio like Miramax put this movie out is because of Smith's clout with the studio.

Hamill said he didn't want to make a film like the Star Trek fan documentary Trekkies, which in his opinion looked down upon its subjects. But CBTM actually takes the piss out of comic book fans far more than anything in Trekkies. Various characters continually put down the attendees of the Comi-Con and being a past Con attendee myself, CBTM made me feel like the kind of goofball loser so many sci fi/comic/movie/etcetera dudes are supposed to be. And hey bucko, I ain't no goofball loser!

From the amount of bonus material accompanying CBTM, you'd think the creators believed they had the next Citizen Kane on their hands. You'll cringe hearing Hamill compare Donna D'Errico's acting ability to Lucille Ball during the audio commentary. Actually, the commentary is the funniest part of the movie just to hear these guys seriously talk about CBTM as if its a shoe-in for Best Picture at next year's Oscar ceremony. Aside from a nice Stan Lee segment, the rest of the bonus material is fairly worthless, especially a Comi-Con panel featuring the voice over stars talking about their animation work that is brilliant in its bizarre lameness.

At $15.99 and based on the subject, I figured CBTM would be a good purchase even though I'd never seen it. Boy, was I wrong. Save the money and go buy some comics instead; they'll be a hell of a lot more fun than this turkey of a movie. Sorry Mark.

Rating: (1 1/2 out of 4 stars)

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