Farce of the Penguins (2006) (V)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

Bob Saget

Writer:

Bob Saget (writer)

Release Date:

22 February 2007 (Iceland)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

What Happens In Antarctica... Stays in Antarctica

Plot:

A mockumentary that illuminates penguin survival and mating rituals, as well as one bird's search for love while on a 70-mile trek with his hedonistic buddies.

Plot Keywords:

Penguin | South Pole | Bird | Flatulence | March

Cast

Samuel L. Jackson	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jason Alexander	...	Penguin on Belly (voice)
Christina Applegate	...	Melissa (voice)
James Belushi	...	They're all bitches Penguin (voice)
Jason Biggs	...	Insecure Penguin (voice)
Lewis Black	...	Jimmy (voice)
Mario Cantone	...	Sidney (voice)
Dane Cook	...	Online Penguin (voice)
Dave Coulier	...	There's no snow Penguin (voice)
Norm Crosby	...	Carl's Grandfather (voice)
Drea de Matteo	...	Ester (voice)
Cliff Dorfman	...	Angry Penguin (voice)
Adam Duritz	...	Sensitive Guy Penguin (voice)
Vanessa Lee Evigan	...	Hilton Penguin (voice)
Harvey Fierstein	...	Sheila (voice)
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Helen (voice)
Gilbert Gottfried	...	Freezing Nuts Penguin (voice)
Alyson Hannigan	...	Hottie Penguin (voice)
Jim Hazelton	...	No Personality Penguin (voice)
Jonathan Katz	...	Steve The Owl (voice)
Jamie Kennedy	...	Jamie (voice)
David Koechner	...	Melvin (voice)
Brie Larson	...	I need a Z-pack Penguin (voice)
Lori Loughlin	...	Melvin-Smacking Penguin (voice)
Jon Lovitz	...	My eyes are up here Penguin (voice)
Norm MacDonald	...	Join Twosomes Penguin (voice)
Carlos Mencia	...	Juan Sanchez (voice)
David Michie	...	Sly Penguin (voice)
Mo'Nique	...	Vicky (voice)
Tracy Morgan	...	Marcus (voice)
Bob Saget	...	Carl (voice)
Jonathan Silverman	...	Seal Critics (voice)
Nick Simunek	...	Daddy likes that Penguin (voice)
John Stamos	...	What's global warming Penguin (voice)
Jodie Sweetin	...	He's so gross Penguin (voice)
Abe Vigoda	...	Penguin from Boca (voice)
Damon Wayans	...	Hey, that's my ass! Penguin (voice)
Rob Weiss	...	Pissed Penguin (voice)

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive crude sexual content and language.

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R | UK:15 | Finland:K-11 | Singapore:NC-16 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:12 | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

FOTP Productions

Trivia:

With the exceptions of Candace Cameron Bure and Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, the entire family cast from "Full House" (1987) had speaking roles in this movie.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Neither Arctic Foxes nor Arctic Owls occur in Antarctica. The same is true of several species of penguins shown.

Quotes:

Melissa: [about Helen] Has she ever held on to a man?
Vicky: Only by the throat.

Movie Connections:

References La marche de l'empereur (2005)

Soundtrack:

No More Baby

Interesting idea for a parody, too bad it had to be so unfunny and dull

In 2005, "March of the Penguins", the award-winning documentary about the treacherous lives of emperor penguins in Antarctica, was released, and that was the year I saw it. It was definitely eye-opening for me, since I had no clue how rough those penguins had it! Since then, for quite some time, I've been aware of the title, "Farce of the Penguins", but didn't see it for a while. This is a direct-to-DVD send-up of the 2005 documentary, with real stock footage of penguins and sometimes other wildlife, put together to make a story, with dialogue added. This could have turned out to be a really good film if it was actually funny, which it unfortunately isn't.

Down in Antarctica, the male penguins are on their long journey to the breeding grounds, where the females are waiting for them. Two of these male penguins are Carl and Jimmy, best friends who talk a lot about relationships (including past ones), and other things, on their way to their destination. Meanwhile, as the females wait, there's also a lot of talk about sexual relationships back at the breeding grounds, especially between Melissa and Vicki. Carl and Melissa are both longing for a lover, and have yet to meet each other. Eventually, after the males finally make it to their destination and meet the females, Carl and Melissa soon fall in love. However, Carl and Jimmy's friendship gets awkward after Jimmy accidentally has sex with Melissa one night in the dark while she is asleep and he feels something soft!

Basically, "Farce of the Penguins" has the same problem as many other modern comedies. Two words that can be used to describe the humour in this spoof are crude and juvenile. Some of these comedies can be described as crude, juvenile, and FUNNY, while some can only be described as crude and juvenile. Sadly, this is one of the latter. The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, and during the opening narration, he says some very unfunny, juvenile things about growing your pubic hairs if you want to come to Antarctica. There are definitely a lot of sex jokes in the film, which includes clips of various animals having sex put in for laughs, and these sex jokes don't tend to be funny. Another thing, you guessed it, there are some fart jokes, which are also lame. It seems the juvenile gags were just thrown in, and could have been a lot funnier if it actually took some comedic talent to come up with them. Not only is the humour severely lacking, the plot is also dull, it never improves along the way.

This is definitely NOT the worst spoof movie I've ever seen. The worst spoof movie I've ever seen is definitely "Epic Movie", made by the infamous Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. I haven't seen any of Friedberg and Seltzer's other recent films, but they could easily be just as bad, so I'm not going to bother watching any of them, and if they were the ones who made "Farce of the Penguins", I'm sure it would have been worse (perhaps MUCH worse) than it turned out to be with Bob Saget as the writer and director. However, this spoof of the 2005 hit documentary on the lives of emperor penguins in their frigid habitat is still pretty lame, and it's probably a good thing it wasn't played in theatres, since that probably would have given it more undeserved attention. As a direct-to-DVD release, it seems to have been widely ignored, which is actually not a bad thing.