Review: Capers (2008)

[Steve Rhodes]

CAPERS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

CAPERS is a wonderfully wacky film, filled with one over-the-top moment 
after another.  The zany characters that inhabit its narrative are 
caricatures of caricatures.

Visually the movie is a hilarious shock to our senses.  Shot in three 
distinct styles, which are interspersed throughout the movie, the look of 
the picture is that of an old 1970s movie, complete with the random vertical 
lines of a bad print, a black-and-white drama from the 1950s and a hip-hop 
rock video from today, complete with garish colors and bad rap songs.

In one of many overlapping story lines, would-be gangster blacks, called 
"moolies," find themselves with an eight-year-old white girl they can't 
sell, so they enlist her in their gang.  She sweet talks and thereby 
distracts any police officer that comes by when a crime is in progress.

Another group called the "Sputniks" are Russian mobsters who are actually, 
so they claim, "Arab Slavs." They are busy trying to buy uranium or other 
nuclear material from hardware stores in New York, where all of the stories 
are are set.

The third group of crooks is led by a would-be criminal mastermind named 
Fitz (Danny Masterson, "That 70s Show.")  When we first meet Fitz, he and 
his wiener dog are masquerading as a cop and his police dog.  As Fitz is 
having trouble cracking the safe at Saks and Company -- it seems that the 
safe has buttons rather than dials -- one of the store's security guards 
tries to arrest him.  Fitz convinces the security guard that he is from 
Homeland Security and that his dog is busy sniffing for nuclear material.

CAPERS is obsessed with one joke line.  Probably a hundred times in the 
script, a joke starts with the words "since 9/11." The writers clearly think 
that the country's change in security since 9/11 is the funniest thing 
going.  Can you imagine a film that prefaced every joke with "since the 
Holocaust?"

At any rate, CAPERS is a film that is consistently visually cute.  Its 
problem is that a little of craziness goes a long way.  After twenties 
minutes, I got it -- subsequent repetition did not enhance my viewing 
pleasure.  Less of CAPERS would have more enjoyable.  As a short, I'd love 
it, but, as a full-length motion picture, it just simply overstays its 
welcome.

CAPERS runs 1:26.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival 
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 25-March 8, 2009.

Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes at InternetReviews.com

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