Happy, Texas

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source: Happy, Texas

Once again, William Macy proved that he has incredible talent, and that does not include the wonderful performances of the other actors. The writing was outstanding. This was a fresh and creative plot. This is the type of movie I thoroughly enjoy. The children in the film also did a fine job. It has a lot of twists and turns which add greatly to the movie. Happy, Texas is a rather fast-paced comedy which holds your attention. Even though as film-making goes, this was a low-budget production, that did not in any way detract from the professionalism and filming. All of the actors truly excelled. I highly recommend this film.

Happy, Texas is a laugh out loud comedy starring Wayne Northam, Steve Zahn, William H. Macy, Ally Walker and Ileana Douglas. Northam is Harry and Zahn is Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr., both convicts who escape from a crashed van with another convict. The third convict takes off. Harry and Wayne steal a trailer, and then are mistaken for the owners, two gay guys, Steve and David, who are to put together a beauty pageant in Happy, Texas. Deciding to combine their pageant work with robbing the local bank and skipping town, David (Zahn) and Steve (Northam) are surprised to find out that the it's a kids' beauty pageant. Wayne gets stuck getting the girls ready, while Harry befriends the bank owner Jo (Walker) so he can get the keys to the bank and any information he needs. Since the guys aren't gay, Steve finds himself falling for Jo and David gets involved with Doreen (Douglas), the kids' teacher. There are some unforeseen consequences, one of which is that the sheriff Chappy (Macy) is gay and declares his love for Steve. Then the third convict shows up. Very, very funny premise and a very funny script by Ed Stone, Mark Illsey, and Phil Reeves, with Illsey giving brisk direction, Happy Texas is funny, sweet, and crazy. Unlike many comedies today, it doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator with crudeness. Very enjoyable, with Macy's crying jag the funniest thing in the movie, or maybe Steve Zahn preparing choreography for the girls is the best. Hard to decide. See it for yourself.

Happy, Texas follows your standard deception comedies. Harmless deviants who assume a false identity (or some kind of false characteristic) lead on a couple of nice town residents, inadvertently bring some joy to the town solving whatever problem they have, and meanwhile, not going through with the scheme they had originally attended before they won the trust of the town, only to be exposed anyway and things ending up with a happy resolution for all. Movies like these, too, are a dime a dozen in Hollywood. Similar instances that I can think of are: 'The Experts,' 'She's All That,' '10 Things I Hate About You,' and so forth. They need not be romantic comedies, but they usually are. And Happy, Texas is just one more forgettable version to top the list. Here, three guys are suddenly prison fugitives after the van they're riding in overturns. One goes his own way while the other two stumble upon a small Texas town, and steal the motorhome of two gay men who are notorious for their work in preparing young girls for pageants. So the two guys pose as the gay pageant duo and help out the town's pageant woe's while plotting to rob the local bank. Of course, they gain the trust of the town and both fall in love with two local women and meanwhile help out the Sheriff figure out his sexual identity. And then the first guy returns and threatens to blow their cover, especially because he wants a piece of the bank action, too. At least Steven Zahn was a little funnier here in his ritual performance as the dimwitted spaz.

Whether you're a good guy or a bad guy, in Happy, Texas you've got heart. Though the plot gets wacky, the "just plain folk" element keeps the craziness in check. It's really refreshing to finally see a film with gay characters that aren't in drag or snapping their fingers. It IS possible to have a funny gay character without being flamboyant. Sure, there is a lesson to be learned as in most films, but we care about these characters as they get deeper and deeper into trouble. I had a big smile on my face after watching this film, and it stays with you a while. How many other films give you a gift like that?

Somewhat funny, but also disappointing film about two escaped convicts (Steve Zahn and Jeremy Northam) who are forced to pose as two gay men who have been hired to put on a pageant in a small West Texas town after they steal the couple's recreational vehicle. Some funny moments follow and the usual confusion starts, but in the end there is nothing to really recommend this dud. William H. Macy is the film's greatest asset, playing the town sheriff who is struggling with his own sexuality. However, that performance cannot save the rest of the film's numerous shortcomings. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Stupid, dull, extremely low-budget (and it shows) "comedy" abou two escaped convicts who steal a van and have to portray two gay men putting on a beauty pageant (don't ask). The plot is unbelievable and stupid; the acting is, with one exception, lousy; the dialogue is terribly unfunny; and the film is so obviously made for straight audiences who think it's OK to be gay...as long as we don't see anything too "offensive", like the two guys kissing or hugging. Also, there's no way the residents of a small town in Texas are going to be so accepting of two gay men. The only bright spot here is William Macy as a gay cop, he manages to give a very realistic performance and makes the bad dialogue sound pretty good. All in all, though, this movie should be avoided at all costs.

There are spoilers in this review. Let's see, where oh where have we seen this premise before: group of misfits rides into town, shakes up the backward townsfolk, and shows them that life is worth living. Sniff-sniff…I smell another rehash of a plot older than time itself. Happy, Texas is about two small-time crooks who masquerade as gay men to put on a `pageant' featuring little girls in a place called, improbably, Happy, Texas. Just why the town should spring for such an endeavor is never explained, and the end result is a `pageant' that only the parents of the girls would want to watch. I guess a bunch of little girls who sing off key and can barely walk, let alone dance, must be a source of civic pride somewhere in the United States. Typical of Hollywood films, there's at least one child who speaks like an adult and can throw a mean punch like a fifty-year old drunk, dropping a man ten times her weight (if you're a budding screenwriter, for God's sake please PLEASE don't ever write a character like this). There's also a masculine and forthright woman named `Joe' who runs the town bank, and by gum no one is going to tell her what to do. The prevailing notion among Hollywood screenwriters is that if you give the characters some quirky traits you can make them instantly loveable. Who cares about character development when you have a woman banker named `Joe'? The townspeople are broadly-painted caricatures of small-town bumpkins; I guess that's supposed to make them charming. This film looks and feels so much like Raising Arizona that one wonders if there were some Coen brothers wannabes behind the production of this film, which is really sad because aside from Fargo, any Coen brothers film is largely unsatisfying. Happy, Texas, does not fail to leave the same lingering sense of unfullfillment. There is no substance to this film. All the actors float over the scenes like two-dimensional cutouts, saying their lines and squinting as they practice their southern accents. There is no sense of urgency or habitation, and everyone seems so involved with themselves that they can barely acknowledge the existence of others. Many, many little self-involved soliloquies dot this film from start to finish as each character thinks the others want to know all about him. Someone please explain to me why Hollywood thinks that characters talking endlessly about themselves is not worse than its polar opposite: action movies where explosions occur every five minutes and the hero utters some inane catch phrase after dispatching twelve attackers. Plot holes abound. Why did the guy go on the date with the sheriff, for instance? He could just as easily have turned him down. The dialogue is a howler. `There is nothing fuzzy about what I feel for you.' I think that line is from Shakespeare. I recommend you avoid this tiresome video and find something else. Like the AOL disks you get in the mail, this DVD is suitable only as a coaster.

SPOILERS Every so often there's a film you see advertised on video/dvd or see on television which you've never previously heard of. It could be because it's a low budget piece which never made it to the cinema and if it did it was for one week, or it could be because of something else. I'm not sure why I'd never heard of this film until it was on television tonight, but what I am sure of is that it's quite good. In "Happy, Texas" we're presented to the not so original chain gang jailbreak. Two of the three escapees are Wayne Wayne Wayne Jnr (played in usual standard by Steve Zahn) and Harry Sawyer (Jeremy Northam in an unusual comedy role). These two men steal a homosexual couples portable home and eventually end up impersonating the couple in a small town called Happy in Texas. The men are faced with the problems of keeping people believing in them, dealing with their roles as organisers of a young girls beauty pagent, and avoiding falling in love with some of the women townsfolk. This film is as to be expected really. In Zahn it has a daft, excentric appeal to it, whilst Northam is also good as the more serious partner who falls for the bank owner. Added to these an outstanding, if light hearted, performance by William H Macy as the closet homosexual Sheriff who falls for Northam and we're presented with a happy comedy which might not win any awards, but is going to make you feel good about yourself. Happy is a place named for a purpose. If you watch "Happy, Texas", you might not laugh too often, but you'll certainly come away feeling good to be alive. One to watch when you need cheering up.