Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003)

Hollywood's Pauly Shore loses everything, fakes his own death, and gets caught.

Director:

Pauly Shore

Writers:

Kirk Fox, Pauly Shore

Stars:

Ashley L. Anderson, Pamela Anderson, Camille Anderson

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ashley L. Anderson	...	Ashley
Pamela Anderson	...	Pamela Anderson
Camille Anderson	...	Michael Madsen's Girl
Beaumont Bacon	...	Pauly Look-A-Like Contestant
Adam Barnhardt	...	Lawrence
Dan Barnes	...	Cop #4
A.J. Benza	...	A.J. Benza
Susan Berger	...	Tourist #2
Jaime Bergman	...	Zoey Abernacky
Blunt	...	Newspaper Stand Attendant
B-Real	...	B-Real
Todd Bridges	...	Todd Bridges
W. Earl Brown	...	Bucky From Kentucky
Julia Brox	...	Springer Girl #2
Julie Bruce	...	Tourist #9 in Van

Storyline

Hollywood comedian and actor Pauly Shore loses everything: his house, nobody in Hollywood wants to represent him, he moves back home with his mom and is now parking cars at The Comedy Store. Then one night when he's up in his mom's loft, a dead famous comedian appears who tells Pauly to kill himself cause he'll go down as a comedic genius who died before his time. Pauly then fakes his own death, and the media goes crazy. Celebrities are talking about him on MTV and girls are fighting over him on Jerry Springer. It's everything that he wanted. His plan worked. A week or so later, the L.A.P.D. is tipped off about his whereabouts and they break down the door of the seedy motel room in which he's hiding out and throw him in Los Angeles County's celebrity wing.

---

Plot Keywords:

2000s | failing career | riches to rags | faked death | los angeles california | 

---

Taglines:

Hollywood will never be the same.

---

Genres:

Comedy

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, sexual content and some drug references

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

January 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

You'll Never Wiez in This Town Again

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,000, 19 September 2004

Gross USA:

$11,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Landing Patch Productions

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Entirely funded by Pauly Shore.

---

Goofs

When Pauly puts on The Jerry Springer Show, in prison, nothing is plugged into the outlet behind the TV.

---

Quotes

Pauly Shore: FUCK YOU SANDLER!
Adam Sandler: [Offscreen, in a mocking voice] Fuck you Sandler! Fuck you Sandl... AHHH HORSESHIT!

---

Crazy Credits

After the credits is a picture of Pauly laying next to Sam Kinison's grave.

---

Connections

References Jury Duty (1995)

---

Soundtracks

Little Girls
Performed by Oingo Boingo
Written by Danny Elfman
Courtesy of A&M Records under lincense from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

What's the opposite of a narcissist?

A narcissist is one who has excessive love or admiration of oneself. You'd think a person who writes, directs and stars in a movie about himself would fit that definition. But it's the exact opposite.

"Pauly Shore Is Dead" is a satirical, self-deprecating (self-loathing?) autobiography by a man who was once on top of the world but now he's flattened by it. The movie is mostly predictable, with silly gags and one-liners typical of the plastic 80s and early 90s partycoms we loved so much. Pauly stayed true to the genre that made him a hit.

But what I liked were the introspective moments peppered throughout, particularly toward the end, where we see that maybe Pauly could, in fact, be another Robin Williams or Adam Sandler... a typecast slapstick comedian who manages to break out of the mold and become a legitimate actor. The story is superficial, and if you choose to read between the lines--realizing that this movie itself is part of the autobiography--it's a grand experience.

Dozens of great cameo appearances make this film a treat. From the opening scene with arrogant Charlie Sheen, to the clips of angry Ben Stiller, to the scene with penniless Gerardo rapping on the side of the road (remember "Rico Suave"?), to the bit with ditzy Paris Hilton or clueless Britney Spears ("Pauly Shore? Oh you mean the guy who was on MTV *before* I was born!") there's tons of comedic eye candy, especially for the 90s pop culture crowd. I think that's the key to all the fun. You don't necessarily need to be a Pauly fan in order to be entertained, as long as you recognize some of the big & upcoming stars of the late 90s.

"Pauly Shore Is Dead" is not a big budget production, so don't expect polished Hollywood finesse. It seems like a lot was shot on digital cameras, giving it a cheap, homemade feel (deliberately?). The soundtrack is sorta cheezy (again, deliberately?) but with a few big hits like The Cars "Let the Good Times Roll", a tune by Eminem, and ironically a tune by Limp Bizkit, whose singer appears in a cameo handing a demo cd to Pauly and subsequently getting into a fight, yelling "You'll see! My band is going to make it big and we'll never ask you to be in our video!" (the irony being that Pauly has appeared in several).

So brush up on your 90s pop culture, then pop this movie in & have a blast. Movies I would compare this to are "Best in Show" (or any of the excellent Christopher Guest mockumentaries, "Napoleon Dynamite", and a weird, undiscovered dark comedy called "Circus Maximus ".