As the "genre spoof" genre runs low on genres from which to wring alleged laughs, a cosmic transference may be occurring wherein the "spoof" actually becomes the serious movie, at least by comparison.
Take The Comebacks, the pretty much wit-free utterly uninspired takedown of the spunky-underdogs-beat-the-odds genre that opened yesterday without advanced screenings for critics or the public.
Played straight, the girls' gymnastics movie Stick It, for example, was far funnier than anything The Comebacks does to send it up (The Comebacks is mainly a football movie satire, but it raises its leg and marks its territory on tennis, boxing, basketball and even, in a quick, tasteless reference to Duke University, lacrosse).
In fact, this is one of those spoof movies where you give up waiting for legitimately funny things to happen and spend your time spotting the movie being referenced at any particular time -- like counting out-of-province licence plates on a road trip.
Oh, look, there's a Mark Wahlberg look-alike wearing an oversized football uniform! They're referencing Invincible! And that grinning, mentally challenged black team mascot named "Ipod?" Darned, if that isn't a poke at Cuba Gooding in Radio (which might be funny if anybody actually saw Radio).
Sometimes, they even squeeze the reference into a toss-off line of dialogue, like checking off items in a scavenger hunt. "Who's the team playing today?" -- "The Titans. You remember them?" -- "No." I can just see the guy bursting into the moribund writers' room shouting, "Hey, you said I couldn't come up with a Remember The Titans joke! Well, eat your words, bitch! This is gold."
The plot (yes, there's a plot) involves Lambeau "Coach" Fields (David Koechner), ostensibly the worst coach in history (in the mildly promising first minute we see him as a Red Sox bench coach yelling out crossword puzzle questions to Bill Buckner at first base in THAT World Series game and playing his part on the sidelines the Italy-France World Cup championship).
Retired with his wife (Melora Hardin) and "hardcore" bad-girl gymnast daughter Michelle (Canadian girl Brooke Nevin), he's called back into action to coach the Heartland State University Comebacks of Plainfolk, Tex. There, he assembles a team featuring a bling-and-hos-covered receiver (Jackie Long), a sari-wearing girl kicker named Jizminder (Noureen DeWulf) -- a Bend It Like Beckham reference! Woohoo! -- and a young quarterback with a drag-queen dad and a tendency to fumble (wait until you see what happens when he finds out Michelle wears a "football" bra -- ouch, stop it, you're killing me!).
There's a twist on Coach Carter (Coach Fields is furious at his team for studying too hard), and lunkheaded nod to the Rock movie Gridiron Gang -- yet, another case where the reference is so ineptly handled they actually have to say the name of the film in a line of dialogue so you "get" it.
There are a handful of embarrassing cameos (Buckner as himself, Dennis Rodman, Eric Dickerson, Lawrence Taylor) and a lot of crickets chirping by way of crowd noise. All in all, it may be the worst comeback story in all of sports.
(This film is rated PG-13)
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