Let’s not relieve our comic heroes of all of the blame. They chose to base their films on Cross’ Ronnie Dobbs character, a redneck who he gets arrested on every single episode of a COPS-like television show. Ronnie was a big hit on MR. SHOW and appeared numerous times, but he’s funnier as a concept than a full-fledged character; eighty-five minutes of his redneck-who-is-dumb-yet-insightful schtick is a little too close to the cinematic experience of watching a Gallagher special. Bob plays Terry Twillstein, another creation of MR. SHOW, who is one of those guys with the weird British accents on informercials. His failed infomercial for a device that destroys food is one of the few really good bits in the movie, though to a large degree it’s only repeating a sketch we’ve already seen on HBO.

There are a couple of stream-of-consciousness asides that revive the spirit of the dearly departed MR. SHOW but most of the film is a straight narrative about Terry taking Ronnie to Hollywood and introducing him to the life of a celebrity. Cross and Odenkirk aren’t even allowed to play multiple characters in the story, one of their greatest strengths, as many juicy supporting roles are handed to people outside the MR. SHOW family. A pool party brings out a barrage of celebrity cameos including Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Rebecca and John Stamos, Garry Shandling among others, which reeks of sweeps month desperation.

Still, I really enjoyed one moment in particular. An old man, called “The Valedictorian of Hollywood” is used a couple of times (though not often enough) to comment on the main narrative. He interrupts a brewing homosexual love scene because of censorship concerns and instead shows a deleted scene (which was also deemed racy) from a children’s film starring Jack Black, singing a musical number about beating a woman in her most sensitive and explicit of areas. After the song, The Valedictorian returns to the screen to say, “I’m sorry, that was an unfair example. The preceding clip was cut for reasons of time, not content.”