Budz House (2012) and a Trope of an Opening

I’m going to be super forward this week in saying that the post will definitely be shorter than the past couple.  The last two weeks, I’ve written 3000-4000 words before editing.  As easy as the writing was because I had a fully formed idea, it was time consuming.  I don’t have that much time right now to flesh out a longer post.  School has started up and this has to be second priority to my schoolwork.  With that in mind, I’m still going to put effort into these posts and I’ll still try to give my usual level of quality (which, admittedly, isn’t anywhere near perfect).  I want to give anyone reading this a reason to keep reading.  I don’t want to let you guys down.  With all that said, let’s get onto this week’s post.

There has been a minor meme going around recently based on a cliché, somewhat irritating movie trope.  It’s the beginning of a movie.  Something crazy is happening.  The person who will be the main character is caught up in this event.  All of a sudden there’s a freeze frame or the character breaks the fourth wall and looks directly into the camera.  In many cases there is a record scratch sound effect that goes with it.  Then you hear something along the lines of “You might be wondering how I ended up in this situation.  Well, it’s a crazy story and it’s going to take a while to get into.  We have to go way back to…”  Then the movie flashes back to the beginning of the story and you get to see the events unfold.  You know the trope.

That trope has become a small meme, popping up every once in a while.  People will take a crazy looking screenshot and caption it with something like the quote I wrote out.  The fun they’re having is in turning every movie they know into one of these trope filled movies.  Things like this have happened before.  They will happen again.  But this one is strangely related to the movie I watched this week.

Budz House was released in 2011.  It followed a group of friends as they got wrapped up in the weed business.  Bud (Wesley Jonathan) was an aspiring comic book artist living in his mom’s house.  His friends JPeezy (J.T. Jackson), Pretty Tony (Aaron Scotti), and Ooley (Jorge Diaz) were always hanging around and smoking weed.  With the price of weed going up, they took it into their own hands to find some.  They stole it from Ooley’s cousin, Big Happy (Emilio Rivera).  After stashing the stolen weed under the porch, they discovered that it had grown into a secret grow op thanks to the poop dripping out of the pipes after Big Shitty (Faizon Love) clogged them.  One Punch (Gerald Kelly), the local drug lord, went after the friends to take back his turf while Big Happy went after them to get his product back.

If that sounds confusing, that’s because it is hard to explain the movie.  There wasn’t a single story that could sum up Budz House.  It was a series of small stories that happened one after the other.  There was the story about the mysterious dancing girl on the internet, followed by the story of getting more weed, followed by the story of selling the weed, followed by the story of Bud trying to sleep with the girl he thought was hot, followed by the bad guys going after Bud and his friends.  The stories didn’t overlap much.  They just happened to involve the same characters.  But that’s not what I want to write about.  What’s important is the beginning of Budz House.

The movie began with a bunch of people on a lawn pointing guns at each other.  They scuffled for a couple seconds before Bud turned to the camera.  There was no record scratch, but he was breaking the fourth wall.  That was enough.  He said that if you wanted to know what he did to have all of these people fighting each other, you would have to flash back to earlier in his life.  That was the only way to know what led to the current situation.  He also said the name of the movie.

Let’s break down the pros and cons of this sort of start to a movie.  There are two primary pros.  The first is that using a crazy moment can help to kick up the adrenaline of the viewers.  If you start the movie with action, it is easier to create interest.  This is especially true of stories that start slower.  The other point in the good column is that this kind of opening can create anticipation.  Viewers will want to know what unfolded to cause this event.  Why is the main character in the situation?  The movie spells that exact question out to you through narration or the speech of the main character.  In Budz House, it was Bud looking directly into camera and saying that you would need to flashback to understand.  The viewer looks forward to finding out how the things happened.

I would say that the cons greatly outweigh anything good from this kind of starting point.  Though the adrenaline is built up, it fades quickly.  In many cases, the rug is pulled out from under the viewer as soon as the real start of the story happens.  The introduction to the characters is much slower than the crazy scene.  It works with a cold open featuring James Bond because that resolves a mission and then you naturally begin a new one.  Showing a piece of a story then going back to the beginning without the resolution feels like it is cutting the momentum.  As for the anticipation, if you’re spending the movie trying to figure out how the events unfold, you aren’t giving enough focus to what is happening.  You’re watching characters get introduced but trying to put the pieces together and reach the end before the movie does.  The lack of focus can cause you to miss important details or completely lose interest before finding your answers.  It does a disservice to everyone.

Of course, this trope isn’t only apparent in bad movies.  There are critically acclaimed, hit movies that have managed to use this idea to a good effect.  The one I remember most, which isn’t quite the same because it lacks the narration or outright saying of “Can you believe this situation?” was Michael Clayton.  The movie began with a scene from later on, and the viewers spent the movie watching the events that led up to it.  The main note is that nothing points it out.  It just happens.  Maybe the thing that makes this trope so cheesy is that in many cases, filmmakers feel that their audience isn’t smart enough to understand what is happening without it being directly referenced.  Audiences aren’t that dumb.  They should get more credit.

With that trope going around the internet in meme form, it is apparent that many people know about the issues with it and are willing to parody it.  At the same time, proper parody needs some form of appreciation.  If you want to spoof this trope, you need to be able to appreciate it in all of its clichéd glory.  You need to appreciate it in movies like Michael Clayton, where it works well.  You also need to appreciate it in movies like Budz House where it doesn’t work as well.  Much like my love of movies, you need to be able to recognize the good and bad of something in order to fully understand it.

You can appreciate these notes as well:

• Budz House was suggested by @the_gaming_king, who seems to be suspended from Twitter.  I’m going to link to that suspended account anyway.
• Wesley Johnathan played Bud in Budz House.  You might remember him from Crossover.
• Budz House also featured Faizon Love, who was in Torque.
• Finally, Aldo Gonzalez was in Budz House, after already appearing in Date Movie.
• Have you seen Budz House?  Have you seen this meme going around?  Do you know the trope?  You can discuss this stuff in the comments section below.
• Are there any movies that you think I should watch for the Sunday “Bad” Movies?  You can tell me about them on Twitter or drop the suggestions in the comments.
• I have a snapchat (jurassicgriffin) on which I sometimes put up clips of the bad movies I watch.  Add me if you want to see the movie clips I share.
• Next week’s movie is the little known Redneck County Fever.  The only information I know about it is one of the actors, and I don’t know what character they play.  There is a black hole of information on this movie, so that will make for an interesting post.  Or not.  We’ll see next week.

Hamburger: The Motion Picture (1986)

There is this notion that modern comedies have attempted to capitalize on raunchiness while playing within the MPAA system.  They want to be raunchy while staying within the PG-13 range that garners the most money.  Not all comedies are like this, though.  The Hangover had success as an R-rated.  Sex Drive wasn’t a huge success, but fans have grabbed onto it as a modern example of good sex comedy.  The first example spawned a franchise while the other became a cult hit.  But the day of the sex comedy has long passed, finding its biggest wave in the 1980s.

The 1980s saw an abundance of sex comedies that capitalized on the raunchy style that is rarer in modern cinema.  1982’s Porky’s might be the pinnacle of this style, but there were other hits such as Bachelor Party and Revenge of the Nerds.  This was comedy’s response to the sexually stimulating slasher flicks that were finding success for horror.   They attempted to bring laughs, much like horror movies brought scares, while showing boobs and sexual activities.  The style hasn’t done too well outside of the 1980s since cinema has become increasingly more against nudity and in favour of violence and action.  There are reasons for this shift that I’m not going to go into.  I want to focus on sex comedies, specifically the one I watched for this post.

In 1984, there was a ski sex comedy called Hot Dog… The Movie.  I didn’t watch that.  I watched the similarly titled 1986 movie Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  It followed a group of students at a college for burger joint managerial hopefuls.  People went to the school to find out if they had what it took to manage a Busterburger franchise.  The concept was inspired by the Hamburger University program that McDonald’s runs.

There is a lot to discuss about Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  The core story was crazy, but there were wacky antics all around that I would like to shed some light on.  Through the characters, we’ll explore the jokes, stories, and sex.  This is not a movie that I would recommend people seek out.  It’s not good.  Perhaps this post will let you know all you need to know without having to watch it.  That’s my goal.  So, through the students of the univeristy, I’m going to share the craziness that was Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  Full spoilers ahead.

Russell Proco (Leigh McCloskey)

The main character of Hamburger: The Motion Picture was Russell Proco.  He always had women fawning over him.  It didn’t matter what the situation, women always wanted his hard loving.  Four universities had expelled him for how much sex he had.  It had been this way since his freshman year.  He could be doing the most mundane things and women would want to have sex with him.

After being kicked out of his fourth university, Russell’s parents (Robert Hogan and Lillian Garrett) sat him down and said he would never get his inheritance if he didn’t graduate.  They weren’t going to pay for his schooling ever again, so Russell took it into his own hands.  That’s where Busterburger University came in.  The university would pay for his schooling because they wanted franchise managers.  It was free of charge to attend.  He packed his bags and off he went.

Things started well for Russell.  He was roommates with Fred Domino (Sandy Hackett), who became his closest friend.  He was doing well in his classes.  Then the first party happened.  At the first party, Russell met Mia Vunk (Debra Blee), the daughter of Busterburger owner Lyman Vunk (Charles Tyner).  They began talking and a relationship blossomed.  The problem was that the drill-sergeant style teacher, Drootin (Dick Butkus), had feelings for her.  A one-sided rivalry was sparked that would continue throughout the movie.

Highlights of the rivalry included both Russell and Fred being caught off school property, and being punished through torture.  They were placed into pickle designed contraptions that they could not escape while different sauces were poured onto them.  The biggest point of sabotage to Russell’s university career, however, came when Drootin did everything he could to tank the final examination.

The final examination involved the managerial hopefuls running a Busterburger location for a day.  They had to keep everything on track and have good sales.  Drootin ruined that.  He angered police, brought in a bus filled with heavy eaters, and called in a biker gang.  The highlight of the whole final examination came when the heavy eaters were given laxatives in order to open up dining area space.  They crowded into the washroom, farting and trying to get to the toilet.  Someone began taking pictures.  The flash from the camera lit the flatulence and a whole side of the Busterburger building exploded.

In the end, though the franchise was destroyed, Russell and his crew of rag tag soon-to-be Busterburger managers got a passing grade and graduated.  Drootin got a promotion, but lost it due to his students’ revenge.  That will come up later.

Fred Domino

Unlike Russell’s storyline, which had multiple layers, the rest of the Busterburger University students had one-note stories.  Fred Domino was there to be a Busterburger manager, but he spent the entire movie wanting to have sex.  Specifically, he wanted to have sex with Lyman Vunk’s much younger wife, played by Randi Brooks.  He was the cause of much of the trouble that the students got into.

Fred Domino was introduced in the same scene as most of the students.  He arrived on the first day at Busterburger University and immediately ended up in the doghouse.  He sat on his suitcase while Drootin was drill sergeanting everyone, leading to one of Drootin’s best lines.  “You tired?  Why don’t you give your hemorrhoids a rest?”  It’s no Full Metal Jacket drill sergeant line (a movie that strangely came out a year after this, though this feels influenced by it), but for the sake of this comedy, that’s a good line.

Fred’s story began partway through his introductory scene when the Vunks arrived.  Fred saw Mrs. Vunk and immediately fell in lust.  They danced together at the first party.  But it was when Fred and Russell left school property that his story picked up.  The roommates went out for Chinese food and found Mia Vunk and Mrs. Vunk sitting at a table.  They joined the women until they noticed Drootin entering the establishment.  The two men dove under the table to avoid being seen.  While down there, Fred looked under Mrs. Vunk’s dress and saw that she was not wearing panties.  He began eating a different meal than Chinese.  She orgasmed at the table and then Fred and Russell were caught, leading to the pickle punishment.

One more big Fred and Mrs. Vunk moment came soon after the punishment.  During a strange church scene (all religious gospel was turned into a Busterburger religion), Mrs. Vunk wrote a note for Fred to meet her behind one of the buildings.  They met and ran off to have sex in a helicopter.  During the throes of making out, Fred accidentally turned on the helicopter.  Fellow student Magneto Jones (Chip McAllister) jumped in the helicopter to escape Busterburger University, and the helicopter took off.  None of them knew how to fly it.  Wacky antics ensued.  That’s about all of Fred’s story that doesn’t directly tie into Russell’s.

Nacio Herb Zipser (Jack Blessing)

Zipser always wanted to be the manager of a Busterburger franchise.  His childhood was filled with Busterburger food and the Busterburger theme song.  He was standing next to Russell when they arrived at Busterburger University and he was singing the song and snapping his fingers along with it.  Everything in his life revolved around the company and he was the most enthusiastic student.

His own story didn’t come into play until about halfway through Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  Prior to that, Zipser was a background character.  He would show up, share a line or two, and get out of there.  He screamed “Pool party!” after people fell into a pool and jumped in after them.  That was the character until he met Dr. Mole, the science teacher at Busterburger University.

Zipser wanted to get in with his professors, so he offered his help to Dr. Mole.  The doctor was happy to accept.  He strapped Zipser to a table in his laboratory and began to experiment.  Dr. Mole injected Zipser with fried chicken chemical.  It turned Zipser into a man chicken.  What do I mean?  Zipser began to cluck and grow feathers.  At one point he laid an egg.  He was a man turning into a chicken and the only people who knew anything about it were Zipser, Dr. Mole, and Lyman Vunk, who was overseeing the experiments because he wanted to launch a line of fried chicken to compete in another fast food market.

The rest of Zipser’s screen time was mostly background.  He was again relegated to the quick, semi-funny lines until the end of the movie.  When all hope was lost at the Busterburger franchise, Zipser was the saddest student.  It was his life’s dream to run a franchise and the dream was as shattered as the restaurant.  He got his moment to be sad about the situation.

Sister Sara

There is very little to this character.  She was extremely one note.  Her name was Sister Sara because she was a nun.  Yes, there was a nun attending Busterburger University.  During the student arrival scene, Fred Domino asked her why she decided to become the manager of a fast food joint.  Her response was that she heard voices.  The voices were the Busterburger theme song.  The hook of the song roped her into the fast food industry.

Sister Sara’s only big moment came when she inadvertently saved the day.  There was irreparable damage to the franchise that the students worked in.  The heavy eaters caused a bathroom explosion.  The biker gang and the police officers tore apart the tables and chairs.  And a chicken truck drove through the wall.  All hope seemed lost.  The students tried to salvage whatever they could, but it wasn’t enough.  Lyman Vunk made his surprise appearance while destruction was everywhere.

The students had no chance to pass the final test.  Drootin had made sure of it, out of his anger toward Russell and Fred.  During the disappointment and punishment portion of the scene, Sister Sara was in the background dipping one of the chickens from the truck into a deep fryer.  She took a bite of the cooked chicken and uttered the phrase, “It’s good.  By God!”  That phrase struck a chord with Lyman Vunk.  He passed the entire class because Sister Sara had a brilliant new catchphrase for the line of chicken products that were soon to be released.  Sister Sara saved the day.

Conchita (Maria Richwine)

This one should be quick as she was the least fleshed out of any student.  Conchita was a Latina student with a thick accent.  All she wanted was have sex with Russell.  She tried to proposition him during the first party.  Russell got away from her in favour of Mia Vunk.  When Russell was preparing for his final tests, she entered his room nearly naked and tried to have sex with him.  He turned her down.  She got angry and stormed out of his room.  That’s about it.  I can’t remember any other important things that she did during Hamburger: The Motion Picture.

Prestopopnick (John William Young)

In a movie about people going to school to become managers of a fast food burger joint, it makes sense that there would be a fat character.  Prestopopnick was that fat character.  He was introduced as a fat character with an eating disorder.  To curb his binging tendencies, he would strap a device to his finger that electrocuted him.  The shock would get rid of any hunger he had.  It was an extreme version of dieting.

Prestopopnick was only used in Hamburger: The Motion Picture for this electrocution gag.  It started in the student introduction scene, but the first big instance of the electrocution was during the party.  There was a table filled with food and he used his device to stop himself from eating burgers.  He jumped around the entire party while being electrocuted, and inadvertently started the pool party by knocking Russell into Drootin, who then fell into the pool.  Prestopopnick also fell into the pool, where he realized he was no longer hungry.

There was a quick moment of electrocution in the church scene as well.  A woman was sitting in the church with fruit on her hat and Prestopopnick wanted to eat some.  He hooked up the device to stop this urge and began shaking.  Magneto Jones tried to make sure he was okay, and ended up being electrocuted through contact.  The two of them shook in their church pew.  That was the moment.

Finally, there was the climax of the movie.  After the students learned they were getting passing grades, Drootin was promoted.  The students couldn’t allow that.  Prestoponick passed his device and it went from student to student, all the way to Russell.  Russell hooked Prestopopnick’s device to Drootin’s testicles and turned it on.  Drootin shook around and terrorized Lyman Vunk with his actions, causing the promotion to be rescinded and a demotion being handed out instead.  The device saved the day.

Magneto Jones

This character had a strange, sad story in Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  He was the only student at Busterburger University who did not want to be there.  He was kidnapped by the police and sent to the school because they needed diversity in their managers.  Magneto Jones was the only student.  His main career focus was to be a musician.  He was a singer who wanted nothing more than to escape and get to a gig.  This came up multiple times.

The first notable escape attempt that Magneto Jones made was while Russell and Fred were sneaking out for Chinese food.  They climbed on top of a truck.  When the truck was stopped and checked for smuggled materials, Magneto Jones was found in the back, trying to get to his gig.  The security people were distracted by his presence that they didn’t notice the other two students sneaking away on the roof.  The other notable escape attempt was when he jumped into the helicopter where Fred was trying to have sex with Mrs. Vunk.  Magneto Jones freaked out as the helicopter veered towards trees and buildings.

One other highlight came for Magneto Jones during the graduation ceremony.  I haven’t yet mentioned this part of the movie because it wasn’t too important to anyone’s story outside of “Hey! They graduated!”  The biggest story beat in the graduation ceremony was that Magneto Jones was the Busterburger University version of valedictorian.  He got up in front of everyone to give the final speech and instead broke into song.  Magneto Jones put on a full performance of the Busterburger theme song while everyone clapped and danced.  Then the movie ended.

Those were the seven students in Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  They wanted sex, they wanted food, and they wanted to run Busterburger franchises.  Their antics created wacky, yet not that funny scenes.  It was a comedy that didn’t fire on all cylinders, but was still something that I could write about with many, many words.  It’s strange how these things work out.

If Hamburger: The Motion Picture was a hamburger, it would be a fast food burger with a little too much sauce on it and not enough toppings.  They threw in a small piece of lettuce and half a tomato, but tried to hide the lack toppings with a thick layer of mayonnaise.  The movie had a half decent idea for a plot, but tried to hide the faults of it under a thick layer of bad sex humour.  It didn’t always go down well.  Perhaps another establishment, or filmmaker, could provide a better product to consume.

Here are some notes to consume:

• Jon Lovitz had a tiny role in Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  He was also in Bark Ranger and Mom and Dad Save the World.
• Helen Kelly was featured in Hamburger: The Motion Picture after having been in Ed.
• Finally, Bob Minor showed up in Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  He was also in Aces: Iron Eagle III.
• Have you seen Hamburger: The Motion Picture?  Did you find it funny?  Did you like it?  There is a comments section below to discuss the movie and the post.
• The comments section and my Twitter can be used to let me know about any bad movies that you think I should watch.  Let me know.  I like to discover new bad movies.
• Have you added me on snapchat?  I put clips of many of the bad movies I watch into my story.  Add me: jurassicgriffin.
• Next week’s movie is going to be Budz House, a comedy that revolves around marijuana.  It’s been a while since I’ve watched a movie that used drugs as a major story beat.  I’ll see you next week with whatever I write about it.