Sometimes when you watch something after reading a bad review for it, you've already braced yourself to hate it from the start and will never give it a fair chance. The Extra is one film I'm glad I pulled off a shelf at Blockbuster without prior recommendation, and I was later shocked at reading some of the scathing reviews it has gotten.
There's some good slapstick in The Extra, but I found the characters to be the most endearing bit about the film. I'm not familiar with Jimeoin's stand-up work , but I thought he and the cast did some pretty good caricatured performances. Jimeoin's character is amusing in his earnestness and haplessness, cheesy at times but intentionally so. The script is rather simple (has a couple of ironic twists and inside jokes, though) but has some nice parody, and is pulled off effectively by the cast of comedians each doing their thing. It's also nice to see a comedy these days that doesn't need to rely on explosive diarrhoea or sticking bodily appendages in apple pie to be funny.
For Melbournians there's some nice shots of familiar spots of the city, though it was actually quite funny (to me anyway) the way they seemed to romanticise it (Starry night skies, panhandlers making merry, kids laughing and playing football in the inner city alleys? It's like Baz Luhrman wrote this bit).
Though not very meaty and relying on a quieter sense of humour that might not be everyone's cup of tea, The Extra is definitely worth a watch. At best it's a clever comedy with quirky individual performances by a fine group of Australian comedians, at worst it's still a nice underdog's tale with some fun being poked at the film industry. Certainly worth a rental at the very least.
