Panic Mechanic (1997)

Director:

David Lister

Writers:

Andre Scholtz (screenplay)
Leon Schuster (screenplay)

Release Date:

November 1997 (South Africa)

Genre:

Comedy

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Leon Schuster	...	Schucks
Frantz Dobrowsky	...	Jack
Tolla Van Der Merwe	...	Jakob
Nana Stapelberg	...	Gloria
Themba Ndaba	...	Billy / Gardener
Taryn Sudding	...	Annie

Runtime:

South Africa:100 min

Country:

South Africa

Language:

Afrikaans | English

Color:

Color

Can you let yourself be hijacked?

There are some quotes persons or whole families accept after watching certain movies or TV programs, and they can use them lifelong, while other people can't understand what are they talking about if they haven't seen the original. Someone who has never seen "'Allo 'Allo" can never get why someone laughs at "Listen carefully, I shall say this only once".

'Hi Jack' has for years been one of such quotes in my family. I have seen a clip lately on http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/2936/Hi_Jack.html - but it is too short; only listening to one or two minutes long introduction to the scene, when the narrator tells us the statistics about hijacks, and understanding the character's name is Jack can perform the effect on the audience. An opening scene like this makes people forgive weaker moments that movie might have later.

But, on the other hand, it can raise the expectations, and whilst you wait for movie to develop you suddenly find you are not sure if it is a movie at all. Long and frequent candid camera scenes make it sometimes look like New Year eve TV show. Sometimes you can't be sure when the genuine candid camera starts, or is it an ordinary movie acted scene.

I don't believe there are many nations that don't have their own candid camera programs. And usually these shows are very popular in the country they were made, but most frequently never cross the border. Most jokes, especially the best ones, can be understood if you are familiar with the circumstances they have been performed, often funny due to local dialect or some untranslatable word game. So at least you have to know something about the culture, people, history of the country that produced it, otherwise you will never understand how can anybody find it amusing.

However, many networks bring us American candid camera shows, or maybe made abroad but inspired by their type of humor: short slapstick jokes, mostly without words, usually a soul-less Laurel&Hardy or Chaplin ripoffs. They don't try to make us use our brains, as well as most modern globalization TV or movie successes, and they end in 10 or 15 seconds having nothing more to offer.

Schuster could have adapted his humor to international audience but he would have to reduce his ideas, clean jokes from everything local what he had built his career on. After Yankee Zulu, (which was a real movie and, despite of many weaknesses, had chances to be understandable and accepted, especially as it ends in rather bad Home Alone rip-off that is so popular worldwide) he returned to.his roots confirming his star position in RSA and ignoring the fact that people abroad won't even try to figure what it is all about. World doesn't know the complex South Africa situation, reducing it all to black-white relations. Schuster addresses Panic Mechanic to those who have enough previous knowledge. He wasn't teaching the others. He wasn't revealing big truths. He was simply using everyday life to entertain himself and consequently the audience. And, as everyday life is, this is sometimes more, sometimes less funny and successful.

If you don't look for big art, if you are ready to forgive a bit incoherent script (no major holes because there is no firm plot at all), but if your brain is working on level higher than slipping on banana or sitting on freshly painted bench - this is a movie that will hijack you.