Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)It's hard to say bad things about the boys in Canada's beloved pseudo-reality TV series, which ran 7 seasons, not counting the one-off "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys" episode, which preceded this movie chronologically and plot-wise. There was also an Ivan Reitman-produced Trailer Park Boys Movie in 2008 (which didn't quite live up to the madness of the TV episodes).
Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles get out of prison and attempt once again, to stay out of prison. To their dismay, times have changed, and Sunnyvale has pretty much been abandoned. Bubbles's kitties are missing, and Lahey is now really off the bottle, swindling his ex-wife Barb out of property and using that deal to create the Lahey Luxury Estates. Unfortunately, the new property's main sewer runs underneath Julian's old trailer, so Lahey now has to plot to obtain Julian's land to complete his new utopia.
How is this movie different from the other brilliant Trailer Park Boys TV installments? Sarah Byrne, who was responsible for on-the-fly editing style, creating the comic timing of the earlier TV episode returns here. Blain Morris, who composed for the iconic TV theme, scores an understated soundtrack, inserting vintage country and western pieces when necessary, creating some gorgeous vistas alongside Ted McInnes cinematography. Rob Well's Ricky actually shines in some of his more serious - albeit deadpan - moments. The "battery charger advice scene" had me laughing out loud, rolling on the floor in it's sobriety: you can't jump start a dead car battery by hooking it up to your own dead battery! And the "No.1" Car Chase Scene of all time is worth the price of ticket admission alone, as the characters duel it out with a urinary swordfight in a high speed chase through downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I think Countdown to Liquor Day is a Love Letter to all TPB fans. It shows that the boys are symbolically forced to "return" to something that is no longer there anymore. The sense of wonder and enchantment with the real trailers in the backdrop when the camera used to follow Bubbles in his go-cart, has now been replaced by repetitive pre-fab trailers with no distinction from one to another. Mike Smith's own Bubbles seems more like a forced caricature of Bubbles than the fresh, innocent, kitty-loving compassionate, pacific guy who won our hearts over in the film short "The Cart Boy" that started it all, some ten years ago. The other guys - J-Roc, T, Julian, seems growingly impatient with the impending typecast of their roles. The comedy in the earlier versions comes from a certain innocence of the boys thinking they will succeed, even when we know they can't. "Countdown" has a darker, more pessimistic tone: the boys seem to realize they are more apt to fail, and along with that comes a meaner, angrier streak. Where they use to look out for each other in the tight-knit trailer park community, the ethos seems to lean more towards "looking out for No.1." Phrases like "I'm not sure what success is, but I'm pretty sure it's not this," "I'm not feeling it anymore" may be read a number of ways. The boys pleading the film crew to stop filming them in the future is another Easter Egg in plain sight.
Sam "Caveman" Losco, Jacob and the Mustard Tiger, the original TV-Cyrus, and George Green, Barrie Dunn all appear, but only briefly in the backdrop. The comic duo of Trevor and Cory is long gone. Lucy, Sarah, and Trinity appear merely by duty, almost like former popular classmates showing up a for a class reunion. Even the front lawn bee with the spinning wings gets a bow out. Brian Vollmer of Helix and Alex Lifeson of Rush also make guests cameos. And of course, the two Chrysler New Yorkers almost disintegrated as a mile-marker of the evolution of TPB.
The movie is called Countdown to Liquor Day, so naturally the focus is on Jim Lahey and his lover Randy. Though John Dunsworth has pretty much exhausted every possible improvisation of FUBAR drunkenness in all previous episodes and outtakes, he carries the movie when scenes tend - as Clattenburg commented in the first TV season - to walk the tight rope between comedy and drama, and come dangerously close to toppling onto the serious side. Pat Roach is his able male lover, bickering with and nagging Jim in a domestic tale of a same sex couple.
Some of the whackiness of the earlier days are, as always, hidden in the "Deleted Scenes" section; Ricky tricking policemen into arresting innocent hunters during a liquor store holdup is a signature move, Ricky demanding from the film crew just what it is they are filming, Cyrus pulling his gun out during an academic test. There's also IMHO, a superior alternate ending that brings the focus back to Lahey and ends "Countdown" on a positive note, sending a morse code to fans like Seinfeld's final episode. There's a fun, alternate commentary track featuring the three familiar folks at the fansite trailer park boys org: Fishy Neil, Shake, and Tiggy.
The boys and creator Mike Clattenburg is in the process of creating a new show entitled "The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour" scheduled to air later this year. I look forward to new and great things from this troupe. My friend and I drove 1000 miles to Halifax for the premier of this movie, too poor for hotels and as a homage to Ricky...we slept in the car.

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NTSC/Region 1. Subtitled: Countdown To Liquor Day. Ricky, Julian and Bubbles are about to get out of jail, and this time, Julian vows to go straight, even open a legit business. Soon, the boys will all be rich. At least that's what they've told the parole board. But when they arrive back at the park, they find it's not the same old Sunnyvale - and it's not the same old Jim Lahey, Trailer Park Supervisor. Lahey's a new man, hasn't had a drink for two years. And he has plans - BIG PLANS - for Sunnyvale. But unfortunately for Lahey, Julian stands in his way. With his big plans for Sunnyvale going down the toilet, his relationship with Randy broken down, and having the Boys back in the park is all way too much pressure for him to bear. For Jim Lahey, the countdown to liquor day is on. Meanwhile, Julian's having problems of his own and the Boys are forced to resort to doing what they know best - breaking the law. Universal. 2009.

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