Chain of Fools

source: Chain of Fools

source: Chain of Fools

Although the writing and acting of each one of these bumbling idiot characters is, dare I say, genius, Orlando Jones and Elijah Wood do a particularly bang-up job. Wonderful job casting ever single actor here as well.

"Chain of Fools" is one of those zany ensemble-cast spoofs on crime films. The "Fools" include Selma Hayek as a Playboy-posing police sergeant; Steve Zahn as an incompetent barber; Jeff Goldblum as a generic stylish thug; Elijah Wood as the world's youngest hit man; David Cross as an overgrown Boy Scout (literally); Tom Wilkinson as a vengeful wealthy industrialist; Orlando Jones as a beefy transvestite; and Lara Flynn Boyle as a treacherous ex-wife. Normally I love ensemble films, and this particular one had a great cast (well, Steve Zahn didn't particularly shine in this film, even though he has the most screen time). The problem with CoF is the parts aren't strung together that well. The plot is mediocre, the editing is haphazard and the story doesn't flow too well at moments. But the characters do provide quite a few laughs themselves. So it's better than your average schlocky comedy. 7 out of 10. Barky

I was very impressed by this movie. It contained a totally awesome cast lineup, was genuinely funny - very remarkable on such a low budget. And it also moves fairly tightly and briskly, with none of the pretentiousness of most B-grade "arthouse" fare. The cast ensemble was an absolute dream in fact. Stalwarts like Jeff Goldblum, Steve Zahn, David Cross, David Hyde Pierce - and that lady who now plays the wife in "Scrubs". They were excellent. And Elijah Wood is totally awesome in this. I once said that he had totally lost his comic touch or interest after the NORTH fiasco. Well, I now have to completely eat my words. He showed a lot of the brilliant personality that he displayed as an all-time great child actor - especially as Huck Finn. This is the role that I would class as his definitive transition role from child protégé to credible adult actor. It contains most of his charm and personality that were the highlights of his early career, with the professional maturity of his later work. And once again I am totally blown away by Tom Wilkinson. His was a great role for a jobbing British actor in Hollywood; and he handles it wonderfully. This would be the perfect foil to his dramatic antagonist in Mel Gibson's THE PATRIOT (see my review); and a great foretaste of his comic flair as Doctor Chasubile in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. This movie really worked a lot better than I thought it would. I was expecting some dour, slow-paced cynical "modern" serio-comedy with garish visuals and poor pacing - like RUSHMORE, or ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, or ADAPTATION; i.e. **way** self-consciously smug, with far more drama than comedy. But instead I got a snappy, witty, intelligent little character comedy with enough imagination and pacing to really keep it rolling along. It lacks the real punch of a classic movie like THE STING, Jim Carrey's THE MASK, or even ZERO EFFECT; but on its own terms it is very watchable, and totally deserves a lot more success. I thoroughly recommend it to everyone. A movie that's definitely worth renting.

With the caliber of actors in this movie I had expected more. While no Pulp Fiction a faster pace and tighter action would of made a tremendous difference to the movie. The ex-wife popping in and out to deliver her lines and disappear again failed to do more than register as exposition. The constant suicide references reminded me of the orphan comments in "The Pirate Movie" IE; "We are all orphans". It was a little far-fetched that three of the characters lost parents to suicide, two of them consider suicide and the screenplay was suicide. It was hard to connect with these characters as they seemed to be walking through the movie. There was the odd funny and well done scene like Kresk and Micky in the bathroom, but for the most part it didn't draw you into the story.

I was quite surprised by this movie, had not heard of it but did a lot of LOL. Some real characters in unreal situations. And that scoutmaster. These guys are real losers but you gotta like them. I also felt the use of flashbacks and jumping around in time was done quite well. A real sleeper worth a watch.

Annoying characters, doing annoying stupid things, can be kinda hard to relate to, and they certainly where in this film. It's comedy classic to have stupid people doing stupid things, but if the creators also want the audience to be involved in the ups & downs of these characters they got to give us some kind of reason, any reason... they didn't here. Steve Zahn is likable and charmingly goofy, I guess they just hoped that would be enough... I was fairly entertained anyway though, not because of the lazy faux-Tarantino time shifts, or the I-can't-really-be-bothered direction ("lowkey", if one wants to be charitable), but because most of the truckload of stars they had wheeled in has at least one or two amusing tricks they always can rely on if everything ells fails; I rarely laughed at the obvious "witty" lines or comedy set piece bits, but several times I snickered and giggled at some funny little look or tilt with the head. The plot was just the usual losers & crooks doing stuff on account of some McGuffin; I thought those went out of style back when Two Days in the Valley was released, but it seems like I was wrong. Still, seeing Elijah Wood as a 17 year old hit-man who smashes chair on people's heads was at least something different, and Salam Hayek in her underwear is always nice, so despite the fact that I can't really claim this is a good movie per se, I would still recommend it for anyone looking for a very undemanding time killer.

i am an ardent fan of traktor... or at least fan of certain elements in traktor and was sadly disappointed by the film. the storyline was not the ingenious silliness one expects from traktor's work. i'd love to make some specific comments, but i began nodding out after jeff goldblum was left in the ex's apartment. sorry, but i cannot recommend this one... not even to my little brother.

Robert Bollingsworth's dying words are "Where is the moose?" (or, possibly, "When will the moose come?"), which must be an inside joke for the Swedish audience from the two (Swedish) directors. Supposedly, the elderly Swedish king, Gustav V, (the present king's great grandfather) once fell asleep in church during a lengthy sermon. Suddenly, the king awoke, and believing he was on a moose hunt, he asked aloud "När kommer älgen?", which literally translates into "When does the moose come?". The phrase has been used e.g., by the Swedish comedians "Hasse & Tage", Hans Alfredsson and Tage Danielsson, in one of their stage productions, where Tage Danielsson played Gustav V.