Gone Fishin' (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	90
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Christopher Cain
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Joe Pesci Danny Glover Rosanna Arquette Lynn Whitfield Willie Nelson Nick Brimble Gary Grubbs Carol Kane Edythe Davis Jenna Bari Samantha Brown Jeff DiLucca Jamil Akim O'Quinn
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Randy Edelman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish French Dutch Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish Portuguese Spanish Titling French Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

Possibly the most god-awful film I've ever seen, and certainly one of the worst "comedies" ever made, Gone Fishin' is a startling travesty of immense, astonishing proportions. The tale of two accident-prone numbskulls, Joe (Joe Pesci) and Gus (Danny Glover), crossing America for an annual fishing trip and getting wrapped up in murders, con artists, arson and robbery, this film is utterly incomprehensible: I have no idea what the filmmakers were intending to do or what they possibly could have been thinking. Absolutely its own punishment, Gone Fishin' is one of those films that you simply cannot imagine how it made it from idea to script to celluloid. Films cost millions of dollars - did not a single one of the thousand people working on this travesty not stop for a moment and say "Hey, wha' happened?!"

Case in point: a bizarre scene in which a sleepwalking Gus (whose sleepwalking habit was never mentioned prior and is never mentioned again) turns on all the gas taps in a hotel room, yells something inaudible into a phone, messes up a bathroom, then inadvertently blows up part of the hotel, likely killing dozens. It's not funny as much as it is surreal, completely ignoring the common conventions of comedy, or film, or narrative, or logic. With the exception of scenes in which Gus and Joe are almost eviscerated, there's not a single laugh to be had in the entirety of the running time, and the late conclusion promising that they're to be mauled by an alligator does little to make up for the entire traumatic hour and a half that preceded it. There's no secret as to why we've never heard of master filmmaker Christopher Cain, likewise there's also no secret as to why the characters have such short names; they're much easier to remember if you're not too bright.

Just how bad is this film? Well, it should be no surprise that the aforementioned director never really worked again (though I was astonished to find out that he wasn’t executed), but the one person who did go on to be a success changed his name so that he wouldn’t be associated with this dreck. None other than J. J. Abrams, that same complete idiot whose love for Scotsman-in-hatches and illogical two-year gaps in time screwed the pooch on all three of his once-great now-abysmal cancelled/soon-to-be cancelled TV series, who also created the most recent filmic tarnish on the Mission: Impossible franchise, scribed this garbage as “Jeffrey Abrams.” Make no mistake that it would take all the effort in the world to make me hit the brake pedal if I found him crossing the road before me. That’s how bad Gone Fishin’ is. A solid zero star effort, and truly one for the ages, or perhaps Guantanamo Bay.

Video

   The video is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

   The transfer quality is very average, with occasional scratches and other film artefacts, including a particularly nasty hair at 49:34 and a reel-change dot that should have been removed from 16:06. The colours are extremely dull and non-vibrant which are consistent with dull black levels and varying shadow detail.

There are, fortunately, no problems with interlacing, and the picture remains sharp across the film, though a lot of the scenes are plagued with grain.

   There are subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, and Portuguese. From the sample I viewed, the subtitles were well synced and accurate, which means even the deaf can suffer this crap.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

   This DVD contains three audio options: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s), French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s).

   The English 5.1 track is passable, presenting no ADR problems while giving a clear stereo experience of the sound. There's almost no usage of the rear speakers and the subwoofer is kept to a bare minimum.

   The soundtrack itself is pretty representative of the film, and by that I mean it's awful. The same cues and motifs are repeated over and over just as the lack of humour is repeated over and over. A very clichéd family comedy movie score, this was clearly done on a budget and was likely rushed. Perhaps the deaf are better off after all. (If you think I'm being hard on Gone Fishin', then you really haven't seen Gone Fishin'.)

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

 The DVD works not only with your DVD player, but also goes straight into the microwave!

   The Region 1 release of this film is the same except for NTSC/PAL differences. Please don't buy this DVD in any region.

    Gone Fishin' is, for me, one of the worst experiences of 2007.

   The video transfer is average, as is the audio quality.

   There are no extras, and possibly no God.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall