Mr. Accident (2000)

Purely Joyful Movie!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Released in 2000, "Mr. Accident" stars Yahoo Serious as Robert Crumpkin, a geek and perpetual screw-up who works at an egg factor where the boss (David Field) is diabolically lacing the eggs with nicotine. Crumpkin unknowingly starts dating the boss' babe, Sunday Valentine (Helen Dallimore), which incurs his wrath. There's a subplot about Sunday's obsession with extraterrestrial life and a questionable hubcap which may or may not be of this earth. This is sort of an Australian version of various Jim Carrey comedies, like the Ace Ventura movies, in that Serious plays a goofy geek with an outlandish haircut and there's a lot of silly, slapstick humor and madcap antics. Thankfully, there's almost zero foul, vulgar verbiage. I understand why some people don't like the movie because of the quirky Australian humor that non-Australians have to adapt to and the relatively lame name of the movie. As far as the latter goes, while "Mr. Accident" is fitting, a better name would've been "Mr. Screw-up" or "Mr. Break-it." Another problem is that Robert Crumpkin just lacks the appeal of Ace Ventura and comes off more like Carrot Top's younger, naïve brother. I'm, however, giving the movie a solid rating because I found it consistently amusing once I got used to its unique Australian approach and sense of humor. The purpose of a comedy is to make you laugh and I laughed, even if a lot of it was laughing at how unbelievably goofy/silly/quirky it was. It was more roll-your-eyes laughing than laughing-out-loud, but nevertheless I laughed. Another great component is Helen as Sunday. She has a good supporting role and is just winsome and beautiful throughout. The film runs 89 minutes and was shot in Sydney, Australia.GRADE: B

In part, this is a slapstick comedy in the spirit of the silent film comedians, Laurel and Hardy, and the Three Stooges, for example. But, it's also a satire on the extreme lengths businesses sometimes resort to in order to achieve a competitive edge, as well as on the too frequent narrow- mindedness of parents and others who discourage imaginative activities in kids and others. It's also a love story between two wacky largely brainless people. Hellen Dallimore, as Sunday Valentine, is perfect as the cute cuddly moll of the boss of the egg processing plant, who discovers she has much more in common with Roger Crumpkin(Mr. Accident), despite his pathological clumsiness. North American audiences probably won't get the humor that the egg processing plant has been built in place of the famous bizarre-looking Sydney opera house, only one end of which remains to identify it. The rest of the roof has been reconstructed into several gigantic eggs that dwarf the original opera house. My favorite gag: the self-folding couch pull out bed, with occupant included. I wish this film could be redone, making fuller use of the comedic potential of the main ingredients, deleting some scenes and aspects that are not important to the main storyline and are not humorous, and ending with a much more positive and meaningful basis of attachment between Roger and Sunday. For example, the side effects of the addictive nicotine-laced eggs could have been played up more. In addition to suddenly becoming smokers, everyone could have started chewing and spitting tobacco. The egg tycoon becomes a spittoon manufacturer, even selling several to the League against Tobacco.Sunday Valentine mostly plays a passive role in Roger's further misadventures. She could have been characterized to provide a much more active part in the comedy. For example, she could have been obsessed with putting mechanical and electrical parts together in novel but mostly ridiculous useless contraptions. Thus, she would perfectly complement Roger's "Obsessive Compulsive Dismanting Fixation", and thus provide some real glue for their relationship. Eventually, she comes up with a really important invention that provides a happy ending for the story. This could be tied to the flying saucer-hub cap aspect of the story, which is left rather undeveloped, despite its repeated appearance from time to time. For example, little green men in a saucer could land, looking for their lost hub cap for their landing gear. They find it as a crucial part of a frictionless perpetual motion dynamo designed by Sunday that is supplying electricity for the egg plant. Engineers can't duplicate this wondrous source of unlimited energy because the hubcap is made of a metal not found on earth, and other metals don't work. The space visitors sample some of the nicotine-laced eggs, making them feel euphoric. They want lots more eggs. Roger offers to trade eggs for more hub caps so they can be used to light the whole city. The aliens agree and fly off with the promise to bring more hub caps for more eggs. Meanwhile the FDA has banned the sale of the plant's nicotine-laced eggs. Thus, the trade of these eggs for alien hub caps also saves the egg company from bankruptcy. Any takers?

I don't know why this movie is so underrated! It was certainly one of the funniest movies I saw all of last year, and when I finally got a chance to come and rate it I see that it has a 3.8! Well, the acting isn't all that great, but the physical comedy is first rate. Lots of irons to the sides of heads and vacuum flamethrowers. And it's about eggs, come on, that gets it a good rating automatically. I bought this at Wal-Mart on the $5.50 rack, and it was the best investment I made that day. This Australian comedy flick is totally awesome, and I would suggest it to all my friends.Aqya's Rating: 10/10 Go see it! Go see it now!

It pains me to say this about an Australian film but Mr. Accident ranks with the worst of the worst films I have ever seen. What's even more tragic is that it doesn't fit into the 'it's so bad it's good' category. What annoys me the most about this film is the fairly large amount of money that has been frittered away on a pointless, unfunny, underdeveloped, inept screenplay. Dumb performances (What are Garry McDonald and Elisabeth Gore aka Elle McFeast doing in this trash?), inadequate direction, no plot and a general sense of meanness totally take away from the interesting production design and leave you with a truly horrible taste in your mouth. Comedy! Ha! Do yourself a favour and stay away!