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Adventures Of Power (2008)

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Overall Rating 58%
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Ranked #7,400
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Adventures Of Power is an epic comedy about a mine-worker named Power whose love of drums and lack of musical skill has turned him into the ridiculed "air drummer" of his small town. But when Power's union-leader father calls a strike at the mine, Power discovers an underground subculture of air-drummers who just might hold the key to changing the world. Power's journey across America brings him face-to-face with his town's greatest enemy, and allows him to discover the beat within his own heart. --IMDb
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Review by bluemeanie
Added: October 1, 2008
Opening night at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival is always a special occasion, as hundreds of thirsty movie-goers pile into the historic Alabama Theatre and get ready for an evening of cinema, and the kick-off to one of the best film festivals in the nation. However, there always seems to be this stigma attached to the opening night film - this idea that the opening night film is always going to be inferior to the rest of the weekend. Why? Well - the opening night film does need to be a guaranteed crowd pleaser - a film that gets people jazzed about the rest of the festival. Typically, this means the genre is going to be comedy. Last year the opening night film was "The Ten" and the year before that was "The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang". For 2008, Sidewalk picked up a bizarre little indie number entitled "Adventures of Power". The film comes from writer/director/musician Ari Gold, who introduced his film on a green bicycle and seemed as if he likely stepped out of the sci-fi club. Appearance aside, "Adventures of Power" is all gold and boasts his unique brand of humor that is both quirky, cute and a little borrowed. I can't say that a lot of the audience was really blown away with "Adventures of Power", but it did make a lot of people laugh. And, considering this was the best festival yet, I'd say it kicked it off to a pretty good start.

The film takes place in the small mining town of Lode, New Mexico. Power (Ari Gold) spends his days working at the local copper mine and his night honing his air drumming skills. That's right - air drumming. That's what this entire film is about. His father, Harlan (Michael McKean) has just organized a strike at the mine and doesn't like what his son is doing. One day, after getting fired from his job, Power decides to head to Mexico for an air drumming competition, where he is told to go to Newark and get trained for the air drumming finals in New York. The man who wants to train him is Carlos (Steven Williams), who lost both his hands and now leads a band of air drummers with dreams of world domination. He also meets Annie (Shoshannah Stern), the deaf daughter of a religious fanatic who loves that Power can help her 'feel' the music. Meanwhile, throughout all of this, we have a subplot involving a successful musician (Adrian Grenier), who wants to abandon his movie star lifestyle for a return to air drumming, his true love. His father is also the owner of the mine where the strikers are taking their stand. Now, that's a lot of plot lines for a comedy like this, and they do tend to get a little muffled from time to time.

There have been a lot of films that have attempted to duplicate that "Napoleon Dynamite" type of execution, but most have failed miserably. Even the creators of "Napoleon Dynamite" tried and failed miserably. As someone who thought "Napoleon Dynamite" was a waste of time, I really wish people would just let it die. "Adventures of Power" suffers from wanting to be that film and coming a few years too late. It feels like everything in this film has been done before. It feels like the jokes are retreads and the performances are imitations. You can't have a film like this, relying on this kind of quirky comedy, and expect it to carry for ninety minutes. Sure, air drumming is funny the first couple of times you see, but when the film hits the hour mark, you are so sick and tired of listening to the same damned Rush song over and over again. I understand getting the rights to music can be difficult, but could we really get no AC/DC or Quiet Riot or Spinal Tap? I refuse to believe that "Tom Sawyer" would be the greatest air drumming song imaginable.

As for the performances, they are hit and miss. I can't say I enjoyed Ari Gold as Power, which is a shame considering he carries most of the film. His acting skills are not impressive, and though he does possess a certain quirky charm, it becomes annoying before it becomes accessible. Jane Lynch is horribly underused in the film, and when you've got an actress of her talents, you need to use her as much as possible. Michael McKean does nicely with his role, and Adrian Grenier did make me laugh a few times. But, the strongest performance comes from Steven Williams as Carlos, the equivalent of 'Chubbs' from "Happy Gilmore". Williams is having more fun than anyone else in the picture and his character really does seem to be the most developed in the film. I guess my biggest question would be - if they can land Lynch and McKean and Williams - and Grenier, one of the hottest actors on television right now - could they not land someone else for the role of Power? I understand Gold wrote the film and has an attachment to it, but he really was one of the weakest links in the film. You can only play that schtick for so long in a film.

So, this year's Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival kicked off with a slight bang. "Adventures of Power" was not a bad film - it was much better than "The Ten" from last year. I wish it had done more with the premise and I wish it had been better executed in terms of originality, but it did make me laugh on numerous occasions, primarily thanks to a hysterical supporting performance from the always enjoyable Steven Williams and an interesting performance from Michael McKean. I don't see how the film will enjoy much mainstream success. The subject matter is not strong enough to keep a full audience interested for ninety minutes. This would have worked far better as a fifteen or twenty minute short film. "Adventures of Power" is another comedy to try too hard to be another film, and though it succeeds at times, it never really accomplishes its goal. Instead of trying to be like "Napoleon Dynamite", I wish it would have tried to be better. That might have worked.

6/10.
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