Rating -

Comedy (US); 1998; Rated PG; 93 Minutes

Cast
Steve Van Wormer: Stew Deedle
Paul Walker: Phil Deedle
A.J. Langer: Lieutennant Jessie Ryan
John Ashton: Captain Douglas Pine
Dennis Hopper: Frank Slater
Eric Braeden: Elton Deedle

Produced by Christopher Cronyn, Andy Heward, Rick Johnson, Aaron Meyerson, Dale Pallock and Artie Ripp; Directed by Steve Boyum; Screenwritten by James Herzfield and Dale Pollock

Review Uploaded
8/21/98

"Meet The Deedles" is one of the worst movies that has ever been conceived. I loathed and despised absolutely every pathetic second of it, all while attempting not to nauseate in disbelief right there in the theater. Absolutely nothing could have saved this dreadful excuse for entertainment. As one person behind me noted as he witnessed one of the film's many lame jokes, "It makes 'Flubber' and 'Mr. Magoo' look like one of Ingmar Bergman's movies.'

This is the type of movie that, after fifteen minutes, you find yourself so appalled that it becomes a temptation to walk out of the theater and demand your money back. Several people did, too, at least when I was there. Those who stayed behind threw popcorn at the screen, booed it, and often spurted out language that can't even be repeated here. Earlier, when I went up to the ticket booth and bought passes for this movie, one person behind me noted that "it will really piss you off." I don't necessarily believe people who tell me this, but with this case, I deserved what I got.

The film is an absolute disaster; one so crappy and so misconceived that Disney's studios verify that their live-action department has finally fell into the hole. After last year's "Flubber" and "Mr. Magoo," the live-action Disney department declares its initial crown of being THE single most worst department of modern-day movies, ultimately setting aside Warner Bros. and Paramount to much smaller prizes. This is quite a shock; so shocking that perhaps Walt Disney himself would have killed someone if he had witnessed it. It's an absolutely dead-wrong act of mercy to call the film bad; it is so awful that it's not even funny, and it is so stupid that I seriously have doubts that anyone on the film's set was a normal human being. I might believe that perhaps the creators of "Meet The Deedles" were on pot or cocaine when they made the film, but I will absolutely not believe that anyone knew what they were doing here.

Here's your synopsis: two brothers, set up to be air head surfers, are sent away to camp one year in hopes that someone there will straighten out their notoriously rotten behavior. When they get there, the tourists and park administrators think that they are actually park rangers. This setup persists to various other subplots, one involving a crazed park ranger who wants to sabotage old faithful, and several others, each so dimwitted that the Deedles' fiascos actually seem intelligent. The jokes are ultimately unlaughable, especially when they stretch to the point of a man and woman eating worms in the forest. Both of them chomp down on one end of the same worm, and are led together by it in sort of a "Lady And The Tramp" kiss.

Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. That was so funny I forgot I had laughing muscles. It is scenes like this that are so manipulatively pathetic that you sit there and wonder "what are we expected to do here? Are we expected to drop to the floor in hysterical laughter? Are we expected to cackle with total delight over these unfunny scenes? Does anyone expect us to even crack a laugh here?" I think not.

To top that all off, the movie, as I learned after it was all over, was supposed to capture the farse of that 'unlikely duo' formula that we witnessed in films like "Beavis And Butthead" and "Bill's And Ted's Excellent Adventure." Those movies were funny--"Meet The Deedles" is not. Anyone who sees it deserves what they get.