Episode 1006-
Boogy Creek II: And the Legend Continues
Movie
Summary: ...And continues, and
continues, and continues, until there is no joy or love left
in the world. But I get ahead of myself. Here's the
story:
Doc Lockhart, a professor at the University of Arkansas
(which is full of "insane hog callers," according to the
movie -- and they mean that as a good thing) is a
specialist in what one might call Boggy Creek Monster
Studies. For years he's been tracking the legend of a large
sasquatch-like creature that inhabits the bottom lands of
Arkansas. (Yeah, kiss my bottom lands,
one is tempted to say. But doesn't. Sorry, I digress again
in my eagerness to get to the hating of this movie.)
Anyway -- multiple sightings of this beast have been
reported over the years by many Arkansans, including a bland
deputy sheriff, an old guy who doesn't know how to change a
tire, and an intestinally active hick lawyer.
After fresh reports come in, Doc (a nickname
which connotes an affection that this crabby, self-important
bastard does not earn) gathers a team to go down there to
investigate. His crack research staff includes his prize
pupil Tanya, whose prized-ness seems to be based mostly on
her penchant or not wearing a bra; her friend Leslie, who
applies makeup with a trowel and whines incessantly; and
Tim, a nearly mute, constantly shirtless boy who is in real
life Chuck Pierce, the son of writer/ director/producer
Charles B. Pierce, who plays the loathsome Doc. Tim's state
of shirtlessness might be explainable as something for the
ladies if he were not basically a series of pipe cleaners
connected at the top by a blonde wig -- but Dad probably had
a hand in the casting, I'm guessing.
As the four get deeper into Boggy Creek country, they meet
progressively smellier people and have small and unthrilling
encounters with the creature. Until they meet the real
creature -- a big, fleshy, bearded mountain man named
Crenshaw, who wears nothing but stained overalls (one strap
unfastened, to titillate, I suppose) and a thick, tight
broccoli rubber band around his head which looks very
painful. Crenshaw supposedly has some knowledge of the
creature. The creepy, dyspeptic Doc finally discovers that
Crenshaw is hiding a baby Boggy Creek creature in his shack,
and is setting fires nightly to ward off its mother. Why?
This is a subject for further studies by the Boggy Creek
Monster Studies Department at that insane hog-callin'
school.
And oh yeah, Doc tells a lot of stories in flashback. One is
about a guy who gets so scared by the Creature he falls into
the hole in his outhouse and gets his own feces all over
him. Yay!
Prologue: The SOL starts a Cub Scout den. Crow has made a
macaroni replica of Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Servo turns up in a Brownie uniform which he
got out of a discount bin. He says the uniform is much less
constricting, what with his hoverskirt and all.
Segment One: On the SOL, Mike and Crow admire the
noodle-based Van Gogh. Servo has now changed into his
Flemish glassblower costume, which he also grabbed out of
the discount bin. That Servo!
Down in Castle Forrester, Pearl has come up with an
ingenious way to rule the world: have Brain Guy cut off
power to all the world's major cities, while Bobo
simultaneously buys up the world's supply of potatoes --
since, as many grade school science fair projects will tell
you, potatoes can conduct electricity. But Bobo gets
distracted from the latter task, simply buying a potato
smoothie for himself at the co-op. Pearl's plans are
thwarted.
Segment Two: Crow and Servo are caught in the middle of a
tussle. Mike comes in, wants to know what's going on. To
find out, they deploy the technique of flashbacks used to
such great effect in the movie. But as Crow, then Servo,
then Mike, each in turn flashes back to the fight, the
memory gets hazier and more Vaseline-covered. Crow does
promise, however, that his next flashback will contain a
cool car chase.
Segment Three: Down in the Castle, Pearl announces that she's
going to start trolling for lumpy, disposable
income-disposing tourists by spreading word of the Legend of
Forrester's Swamp. The guys on the SOL immediately conclude
that it is Bobo. She plays coy but employs Hank Brain Guy,
Jr. to sing his haunting folk song about the Legend. It's
long on intro and short on actual song.
Segment Four: Inspired for some reason by a quick shot of an
old man whittling in the movie, Servo starts a whittling
business, WHITLtech. But it's updated for our times: a huge
factory, run efficiently and with the bottom line in mind,
mass-producing small slightly pointed sticks. He also has a
bunch of WHITLtech plants "overseas." Mike voices some
opposition, but Servo has to leave in the middle of their
talk to brutally suppress some union organizers on the
factory floor.
Segment Five: Crow imitates Crenshaw from the movie,
starting fires on the SOL bridge. He and Servo are playing
Captive Baby Boggy Creek Creature and Big Smelly Mountain
Man. But they get tired of this and go off to play Wounded
Baby Unicorn and Skinny Sociopathic Janitor instead, leaving
Mike with the spreading fires. Presumably, poor Mike burns
to death. But it's just a show, I should really just relax.
Reflections: First, an open letter to Arkansas: For someone
from Brooklyn, N.Y., I have known a disproportionate number
of your native sons and daughters, in college and elsewhere.
To a person they have been intelligent, creative, and
unfailingly friendly and polite. I will not open the
question of that randy fellow occupying the Oral Office
right now. But let me say this in no uncertain terms: YOU DO
YOURSELF GRAVE HARM IN LETTING CHARLES B. PIERCE MAKE MOVIES
ABOUT YOU. After seeing Boggy
Creek II, I not only never
want to visit Arkansas, I want it wiped off the map with
extremely extreme prejudice. This is way over the top, but
neither is it fair or decent of you to support Mr. Pierce's
poisonous moviemaking IN ANY WAY. Please desist before you
do irreparable damage to your fine state, if you haven't
already. Thank you.
Now. My reflections: God,
this one was painful! It's the kind of movie that seems to
hate you; to wish you active harm; to kick sand in your eyes
and make you cry. And for me, this was personified by Mr.
Charles B. Pierce, who is apparently responsible for every
single aspect, every nano-second of this cruel and unusual
bit of celluloid. He chose to write and play a grim,
hostile, condescending, know-it-all of a man, a character
who is proven superior to everyone else in the story again
and again, who drills his lousy stinking voice-over
narrative into our heads every freaking minute of this film,
and who then has the temerity to wrap his movie up
suggesting his sour Nazi of a character is really an
ecological servant of God.
To Mr. Pierce: Bite every single inch of me! And do it now,
and then do it again!
By comparison to the pain caused by Doc/Pierce, Crenshaw the
mountain man was an urbane delight. And the poop flashback
was an utterly charming Noel Coward romp.
A note about this outhouse classic, though: we
had to cut a lot of it. Really. Imagine what was not there
in that scene. It was there. I'm talking sound effects,
grunting, and everything. the first time we saw it we had to
race each other out of the room to vomit.
I enjoyed singing and playing the gee-tar to Mary Jo's
"Legend of Forrester Swamp" lyrics, which were quite
hilarious and very Mary Jo-ian. And I was pleased to share
the stage with editing wizard Brad Keeley as a cute little
country boy, in his first appearance since playing the cute
little Amish boy in Agent for
HARM. I regret our show was
cancelled (don't let them tell you otherwise, it's all spin)
for many reasons, but one is that I never got to work with
Brad playing other than a cute little tyke. He might have
made a good psychopathic, shiv-wielding villain or
something. Albeit a cute one.
Brain Guy was fully clothed throughout this show, and that
was good for everyone. -- Bill Corbett.
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