The Vern Reviews: American Rescue Squad.

American Rescue Squad

Cast: Tony D Czech, Douglas Sidney, Anika Reitman

Writers: Adam Diviney, Elliot Diviney

Director: Elliot Diviney.

When people ask me what political party I belong to.  My mind starts sprouting off lyrics to Public Enemy’s “By the Time I get to Arizona“.

“Neither party is mine, not the jack ass or the elephant”

What works best about this comedy is that it never wants you to side with either Republicans or Democrats.  It just wants everyone to use a little common sense and personal responsibility. Which(ironically) are the names of the two heroes in this film.

The story opens with our hero The Tax Payer(Jimmy Keebs) being sent out on a mission to assist a girl with child support.   This becomes nothing more than a trap set forth by a devious politician named Dick Panzy(Douglas Sidney) and his fellow cronies.  His Goal is to assassinate  and publicly humiliate the guy at his next rally.  With the taxpayer gone,the Government is clueless as to what to do next.  There is a great scene where Cornelius Pebblefoot(Craig Diviney) is talking with his other Government workers as to what to do next.  He pulls out a plan book and every option listed on there is to contact the Tax Payer.  Feeling completely hopeless, The Government takes the suggestion of one Richard Randolph(Tony D. Czech) A local janitor with a wild idea.  He wants to bring back the superheroes Common Sense(Roger Wayne) and Personal Responsibility(Anjel White) to help rescue The Tax Payer from being killed.  They soon join forces with Birth Control(Anika Reitman) and help take down villains like The Bible Thumper(David Otto Simanek), Bad Dad(Jarrod Crooks) and Donnie The Freeloader(Matt Tobin).  While on their quest the movie does have a few catchy songs that help emphasize the importance of its two heroes,Common Sense and Personal Responsibility.  There is a song about Birth Control in the form of one entitled”Irresponsible Lover’s Ballad”

(Spoiler Alert is just the name of the song. This trailer has no real spoilers, trust me.  Also this movie was originally called “Problem Solving The Republic“)

This is only the second feature I have seen from Elliot Diviney (“Potpourri” being the first) and not only are the story lines creative and the characters are interesting.  They are also very funny.  Even if a lot of the political humor went over my head.  There was a lot of  other great elements to grasp on to and enjoy with this one.   Elliot and his screenwriter Adam know how to write a very effective comedic scene.  Once the joke has been established, it doesn’t stay on it like a lot of other movies do.  It just moves on to the next. Even if one joke fails, another one is there to pick up some laughs seconds later.  There is little if no downtime when watching this flick.   The songs were also a big deal in letting me warm up to some of the topics that wanted to be discussed.  The song about bad drivers is one that we can all relate to because we have either seen it before or have actually done something like it.  I also liked the one about the people using welfare to not work because it hurts people who don’t want to use it as a crutch.

All of the actors in this are incredible and they make their characters very believable.  Even in moments that are quite absurd,I still bought into their stories. I can’t really focus on just one because they are all very well established and I hope to see them in more productions in the future.   For me watching “American Rescue Squad” was like watching The Zucker Brothers(“Airplane“) somehow infuse bodies with Trey Parker and Matt Stone(“Team America: World Police”) and then have a baby with Mike Judge(“Idiocracy“).  I really though that spoof and satire films were dead, but they weren’t.  I just was not looking in the right spot.  I should have had a little more common sense and personal responsibility of my own too.  Oh and a little birth control as well, just to be safe.

You can watch the movie now on Amazon Prime

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