Starring: Ahmed Ahmed, Peter Billingsley, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, Justin Long, Sebastian Maniscalco, Keir O'Donnell, Vince Vaughn

Directed by: Ari Sandel

Wild West Picture Show Productions

The Official Site of Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show

Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show is a classic case of false advertising. The movie is sold on Vaughn’s name, and the previews promise the opportunity to see him laugh it up on stage with his nearest and dearest. In a way, that’s what the movie delivers, but not in the way you’d expect. We don’t find out until about 10 minutes in that you never really knew who his nearest a dearest were.

Jon Favreau (Swingers, Iron Man) and Justin Long (Dodgeball, Live Free or Die Hard) are all over the previews of the Wild West Comedy Show, leading one to believe that they may be featured for more than the 15 minutes they are. They may play Vaughn’s nearest and dearest on screen, but in the real world his best friends and bus mates are 4 up-and-coming comedians and Ralphie from A Christmas Story (Peter Billingsly, (a modern day super producer pulling executive producer duties here). Not exactly something the previews make crystal clear. Now, if that sort of misleading advertising is something you find bothersome you’ll not feel any better when I tell you that after being established as the shows MC, Vaughn himself takes a big step out of the spotlight. He continues on the journey, but rarely pops up on screen long enough to justify having his name in the title. Other than the fact that if it weren’t there, the movie never would have existed in the first place.

So everything featured in the trailer make courtesy appearances at best, the kid best known for nearly shooting his eye out in 1983 is calling the shots and I didn’t see one Wild West element to speak of! (sarcasm!) Basically, You don’t get what you’d expect, but you know what? What you get actually ain’t half bad.

In the spirit of the Old West variety tours, The Wild West Comedy Show set out to entertain the heartland with a unique comedic experience. Through a series of improved sketches, perfected routines and surprise musical guests they did just that, even if it was in an unexpected way.

After an opening where Vaughn, Favreau and Long ease us into things with a little familiarity, the movie casually shifts focus to the four young comedians hand picked by Vaughn to do the lion’s share of the entertaining at these 30 gigs. Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco are all faces that you’ve probably seen before but never really knew from where. All four are really talented, genuinely funny guys telling difficult jokes not just about the world we live in but about who they are as people in it. It’s a rare breed of comedian that can bring themselves to their act and make it work so successfully. It’s no wonder that since the Wild West adventure back in 2005 each comedian has graduated from “Who the hell is that?� to, “Hey, it’s that guy from that thing.�

As the tour pushes on we get just as much “behind the scenes/on the road� footage as we do of the rehearsed routines, and the movie subtly evolves into a road movie complete with awkward living conditions and a cranky, just out of bed Vaughn. It must have been a thrill to attend one of these live tapings in any of the 30 stops, but with this footage it really feels like we’re along for the ride, and we get to know these comedians so much more than we would have otherwise. In the end I think that’s what makes “what we didn’t expect� work so well. Getting to know these guys over the course of their adventure really endears them to you and really makes you appreciate how far they’ve come and how good they are at what they do.

You don’t get what you expect even if what you do get is actually worth getting (hold on, it’s about to get tricky), and what you get is really worth getting when you realize what you thought you might get was something you’ve already got. Ok, read that again and then catch up. (wink)

You might walk into the Wild West Comedy Show expecting Vaughn to be joking around with all his regular onscreen cohorts, and you may be disappointed when you don’t get that, but if you think about it, you already do have it. How far off are the onscreen counterparts from the actors that play them in movies like Swingers, Made or Dodgeball? The names and places may change but the camaraderie and the banter is still there. Do we really need more of that? Well sure, who wouldn’t want more, and it’s not like we’ll never get it, but try not to hold the fact that you have to wait another couple years against the Wild West Comedy Show, a unique, well done and pretty damn funny movie experience.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10 - There are plenty of strong laughs and a real unique experience in taking the journey with these folks, but I’m giving The Wild West Comedy Show a conservative rating because it never really jumps out of the box. I laughed hard and was genuinely entertained throughout but always felt like I was waiting for the big hit. Looking for the homerun to really make the movie a classic. After a lot of solid hits no one on the crew can really finish things properly.

I’ll pass but this is very easily a movie I would get wrapped up in should I stumble on it while flipping through the channels. Though to be honest, the DVD is begging for a list of classic extras. How many lost moments over the 30 days of inside bickering and early morning radio interviews do you think ended up on the cutting room floor? If they put together an outtake reel as well as they did a feature, it might be worth a rental.

This conversation actually happened, and what kills me is that it happened about 3 weeks after I put up this comic and review for Fred Claus. That joke didn’t come together as well as I would’ve liked it to and it stung so much more after I inadvertently baited Yeo into the punch line of today’s comic. Better late than never I suppose.

Hey Gang, be sure to tune in tonight for the Triple Feature where we’ll be discussing the big movies of the President’s Day weekend, Jumper, Spiderwick Chronicles, Step Up 2 The Streets and Definitely, Maybe. it’s really encouraging to see all 4 scrape their way into the top 5, and most of them with really good numbers.

I did manage to catch all four over the weekend and I’m happy to report that 75% of them are ones I would recommend catching on the big screen. I’ll let you try and figure out the lonely one that is a DVD rental at best, but don’t think too hard. Just tune in to tonight’s show and find out via my smooth and sexy radio voice. Not much else to report other than I should have a Jumper comic up by Wednesday and one for Spiderwick soon after. It’s getting crowded now though with a slew of major releases on Friday and the Oscars on Sunday! It’s a nice time to be a movie freak.