An outrageous, over-the-top spoof, FDR: American Badass is the untold true story of our country's greatest monster-hunting president! Nobody expected this movie to be high art. But it was enjoyable. There was the historical sacrilege and the jokes in bad taste and historical figures saying dirty words. But there was also real cleverness and, most importantly, a real love that shone through the film. Nobody involved was phoning it in. It seems like everyone involved in making this movie was having fun, and you couldn't help but have fun along with them. I had a friend over, we cued it up, and laughed quite a bit. And in a year, I will have forgotten about it.<br/><br/>If you are offended by jokes involving racist / sexist stereotypes, you might want to give this one a miss. Gov. Roosevelt, a man's man of a badass if there ever was one, is stricken with polio after being bitten by a Nazi werewolf sent to eliminate him. The plan backfires. With his resolve strengthened by adversity, FDR goes on to become president and takes a hands-on approach to defeating the Axis werewolves in World War II.<br/><br/>This is an absurd film which intentionally shoots for a high level of camp. The mostly juvenile humor, which is not particularly clever or witty, relies heavily on the comic acting ability of the stars to make it work. It does work most of the time because Barry Bostwick is hilarious in his over-the-top performance as a Badass FDR and he gets excellent support from Bruce McGill playing his ever-present right-hand man.<br/><br/>As you might expect, this is a very hit-or-miss kind of humor. This isn't a problem if moving briskly from one gag to the next, but this movie chooses instead to draw out each gag as long as possible. It's fun when the gag is working but tedious on those many occasions when it isn't. The excessive make-up on the Axis werewolves makes it impossible for them to do any acting, which means that every scene with them in it falls completely flat. Several more scenes are weakened by supporting actors who try to out-emote Bostwick rather than playing straight-men for him. On the whole, however, it was a very fun movie to watch and is a must-see film for anyone who enjoys intentional camp.
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346 weeks ago