Very hard to believe anyone READ THIS script (supposedly on the hot "black list" of desirable scripts in 2010!) and thought... "yeah, let's spend $$$ to make this". There is not enough material here for a mildly amusing Saturday Night Live SKIT of 5-6 minutes...and certainly not a 98 minute movie.
So much goes wrong here, it's hard to list. Unfunny, slow, long, none of the jokes land... if you want to parody something, usually you have to love it in some way. It's not parody if you just dunk on something you loathe & despise. The scriptwriter and director here clearly didn't love or like the real Bob Ross, or even have a sense of humor about his work -- they outright held his work AND HIM in total contempt.
Worse, they can't do math. The real Ross was born in 1943 and died in 1995 at only 52 (cancer). The show started in 1983 and ended in 1994, just months before he passed. So it only ran 11 years! And well AFTER the 1970s which are referenced constantly here. Ross was already 40 when it started! Not a teenage hippie!
He was also a married man (admittedly 3 times) and had kids. Not a bachelor having sex with random women at work in a tricked-out 70s van. So do the math here: Ross would be 80 today. Big duh, people -- of course a show from the early 80s would feature dated painting styles. It was FORTY YEARS AGO.
And if "Carl Nargle" started his painting show in the 70s (*soundtrack, which has some fun choices, is all 70s hits)... and if it IS today (cellphones, Juicy Couture, etc.)... how can he still be in his 40s? Including his same age ex-girlfriend and his boss?
It makes no sense to set the film in the 70s, or jump around in time... where are people getting all the antique cars? The vintage VCRs and TV sets? The retro furnishings? Burlington VT is a modern, even hipster city -- not some remote rural backwater.
The real Ross was a big success, who earned millions -- not a loser flunky pretending it is 1970 and making $46,000 a year. He licensed books & painting supplies, and made a fortune.
This doesn't work as parody about Ross, nor about humble generic paintings that ordinary folks might like to produce -- nor about public TV (which could well do with a scathing parody!) -- it's just limp, unfunny and has a sneering, snotty tone making fun of Ross's body of artwork in general and senior citizen audiences in particular.
Bob Ross never had a serious competitor, let alone one who was MIXED RACE and LESBIAN... hello? Can someone spell "Panderverse"?
A grating, pathetic waste of everyone's time. Owen Wilson, otherwise a decent comic actor, should be ashamed of himself.
So much goes wrong here, it's hard to list. Unfunny, slow, long, none of the jokes land... if you want to parody something, usually you have to love it in some way. It's not parody if you just dunk on something you loathe & despise. The scriptwriter and director here clearly didn't love or like the real Bob Ross, or even have a sense of humor about his work -- they outright held his work AND HIM in total contempt.
Worse, they can't do math. The real Ross was born in 1943 and died in 1995 at only 52 (cancer). The show started in 1983 and ended in 1994, just months before he passed. So it only ran 11 years! And well AFTER the 1970s which are referenced constantly here. Ross was already 40 when it started! Not a teenage hippie!
He was also a married man (admittedly 3 times) and had kids. Not a bachelor having sex with random women at work in a tricked-out 70s van. So do the math here: Ross would be 80 today. Big duh, people -- of course a show from the early 80s would feature dated painting styles. It was FORTY YEARS AGO.
And if "Carl Nargle" started his painting show in the 70s (*soundtrack, which has some fun choices, is all 70s hits)... and if it IS today (cellphones, Juicy Couture, etc.)... how can he still be in his 40s? Including his same age ex-girlfriend and his boss?
It makes no sense to set the film in the 70s, or jump around in time... where are people getting all the antique cars? The vintage VCRs and TV sets? The retro furnishings? Burlington VT is a modern, even hipster city -- not some remote rural backwater.
The real Ross was a big success, who earned millions -- not a loser flunky pretending it is 1970 and making $46,000 a year. He licensed books & painting supplies, and made a fortune.
This doesn't work as parody about Ross, nor about humble generic paintings that ordinary folks might like to produce -- nor about public TV (which could well do with a scathing parody!) -- it's just limp, unfunny and has a sneering, snotty tone making fun of Ross's body of artwork in general and senior citizen audiences in particular.
Bob Ross never had a serious competitor, let alone one who was MIXED RACE and LESBIAN... hello? Can someone spell "Panderverse"?
A grating, pathetic waste of everyone's time. Owen Wilson, otherwise a decent comic actor, should be ashamed of himself.
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