DVD REVIEW: TRAILER PARK BOYS: COUNTDOWN TO LIQUOR DAY

No one at MTV could have imagined Jimmy the Cab Driver would fall on such hard times.

The Lowdown
As someone that’s spent a great deal of time rocked off his ass, it’s hard for me to find people pretending to be drunk funny. Luckily while Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day would lead you to believe it’s comedy lies in the exploits of drunk Canadian trailer trash, the writing (and more importantly it’s cast) aspire to so much more and thankfully deliver. Simply put: It’s pretty damn good.

Following Ricky (Robb Wells), Julian (John Paul Tremblay), and Bubbles (Mike Smith) after their release from prison, the boys return home to find their trailer park lives shattered. Ricky spent his time on the inside attempting to better himself, and has come up with a 4 year business plan to turn his trailer into a body shop. The evil (and gay) trailer park superintendent Leahy (John Dunsworth) has alternate plans for Julian’s little slice of heaven, and immediately sets out swindle the boys out of their land. That’s where the film starts out, but where it ends up is somewhere altogether different. The storyline has an overall arc here, but the plot never lingers too long in one place. After seven seasons the writers know the these characters are at their best when thrusting them into new situations and then allowing them to fuck things up accordingly. The film works when the characters are simply allowed to interact with one another, as the chemistry here is beyond awesome. Even some of the smaller side characters (J-Roc and T especially) float in and out of the story with expert ease, creating an environment where you truly believe all these characters live and exist within the same trailer court.

SPOILER ALERT: These two dudes shake hands.

The story is told from the faux documentary style that is so overused these days it’s easy to dismiss. Trailer Park Boys definitely breaths fresh air into it and milks the convention for all it’s worth, almost taking the style into new directions by actively involving the film crew more than we’re used to seeing. Members are the documentary crew are constantly interacted with and being berated, with several of the members actually injured during the film’s climax. I totally found that level of interaction is refreshing. On paper there are a lot of things here you don’t think are going to work. The subject matter, the shooting style, you almost have to wonder if some of the Trailer Park Boys charm doesn’t stem from the fact they’re Canadian. It seems America can no longer white trash as our national export. And “aboot” never gets old. Never. Especially when it’s coming from people of color.

Two of the film’s standout performances come from Ricky and J-Roc. Robb Wells doesn’t just chew scenery, he mouth fucks it. His character Ricky is able to walk that super fine line of hilarious and annoying. Vince Vaughn on the airplane in Made turned down half a notch to brilliance. And while there’s nothing exactly funny and exciting with the “white guy turned gangsta rapper” role by itself, Jonathan Torrens does a superb job taking a character you think you’re going want to castrate and sells that shit, so much so in fact that he’s given the final bit of screen time over the credits. (I might have to also attribute that to Canadian charm as well). It’s also worth a mention that there’s nary an unattractive female in this movie, although that could have more to do with my predilection for trailer park woman.

Why piss on old men for free when you can get paid CASH MONEY to do it just by using the internet?

To be honest, I’d never even heard of the Trailer Park Boys before this DVD showed up in my mailbox. Countdown to Liquor Day definitely made a Trailer Park Boys fan out of me. This film is a fitting send off to what I’m sure was a great series. I can only imagine true fans of the series find it an all too bittersweet reminder what a great time hanging with the Boys must have been.

The Package
The film comes in both French and English 5.1 Dolby Digital. I assume this is because half the people up there speak French. The commentary track features three of the Trailer Park Boys fan site moderators, which is kind of a cool move. The alternate ending and deleted scenes are mostly weak sauce. Most interesting of all the featurettes is ‘Randy Gets a New Look’ which details the process of applying Randy’s painted on hair while Gavin Rossdale’s solo album plays in the background.

Remember that shit.