April 25, 2014

Tribeca Review: The Bachelor Weekend (The Stag)


Thank God for VOD. Seriously, it’s a blessing. The fact that I can watch films from this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and not have to leave my room is a luxury. Sometimes I have seen films and thought, “Man, I wish I had actually experienced this with an actual audience.” This is not one of those times.

I was really looking forward to seeing the Irish comedy The Bachelor Weekend. It seemed like a light hearted, funny, brofest from across the pond, and it was on the top of my "must see" list. I chose to watch it On Demand, since I had fallen ill that week, and couldn’t make it to any of the screenings.

The Bachelor Weekend (or formally titled The Stag) is a story about a group of friends who decide to go out into the wilderness to celebrate their mate’s pending nuptials. However, each one of them has their own respective issues that are soon dealt with while braving the elements and trying to survive the weekend. “Uninspired” is the word I would use to describe this film. It has all the basic components of your typical “male bonding” film like The Hangover (nudity, sex jokes, gay jokes, crazy hijinks, ect.), but it just wasn’t all that funny to me. Some of the characters were very one dimensional with no real development whatsoever. It felt like I was watching an incomplete film, and I was just waiting for something more (anything really!)

I did have a few chuckles, however. Peter McDonald (The Machine. Yes, that's his name throughout the entire movie) who plays the crass older brother of the Bride, is really the only person carrying this film (and seems to overshadow the rest of the cast.) Which is disappointing, because you have some really talented actors, who could’ve been used much better. This film would be perfect to view on Netflix, on a lazy afternoon. The Bachelor Weekend is not bad, but it’s defiantly a missed opportunity for what could’ve been a really funny film. Grade: C-


1 comment: