Poolboy - Drowning out the Fury - DVD

Movie: Long lost, but now an action gem from 1990 has finally been rediscovered. We're talking, of course, about Poolboy - Drowning out the Fury, the legendary sequel to Poolboy. What, you don't know Poolboy? No wonder, really, since the only existing print was destroyed before its premiere in Cannes. But that didn't stop then-very-young director Saint James St. James from making a sequel, which the studio, however, deemed so bad, racist, brutal, and sexist that the flick disappeared into the poison chamber.

Now Saint James St. James (Ross Patterson) has brought the film out of obscurity and, with the help of his assistant Peters (Edi Patterson), comments on the film and how it came to be. The bloody action flick is about Sal Brando (Kevin Sorbo) who returns home years after the Vietnam War only to find that his wife and son have replaced him as husband and father. He also can't keep the promise he made to his slain partner: continuing to run his pool cleaning business proves nearly impossible, as the entire business is firmly in Mexican hands. But when Sal's wife and son are killed, the ex-soldier finally sees red: he becomes a pool boy and knows only one goal: to take revenge on the Mexican gangster boss Caesar (Danny Trejo)...

Poolboy - Drowning out the Fury is, of course, utter nonsense. In particular, the scenes in which the director and his assistant have their say, recounting the many complications of filming, all of which he admittedly handled masterfully, are often not really funny. The actual film, on the other hand, with its deliberately poorly made style, has some really good laughs to offer: whether it's the wrong cuts, poorly dubbed scenes, the sudden replacement of actors, the appearance of crew members or equipment in the frame, the grotty dialogue and the completely over-the-top violence are occasionally quite amusing. However, this presupposes that one gets involved in this crude slapstick.

The makers do not seem to know the concept of political correctness at all. Here is so shamelessly juggled with stereotypes, clichés and prejudices that it is - since it takes place in a completely exaggerated way - a real pleasure. The actors act deliberately wooden or absolutely exaggerate, which is especially funny with former Hercules Kevin Sorbo. Danny Trejo, on the other hand, did a much better job of this in Machete. Still, it's just fun to watch him in his unfortunately far too small role here as well. And the short appearance of Clerks and Dogma star Jason Mewes is also extremely delicious.

Poolboy - Drowning out the Fury has some entertainment value, at least for those viewers who can laugh at such fake trash and just let their good taste rest for 90 minutes. But that doesn't make this spoof-comedy a really good movie. Because at some point the nice idea wears out. And when the laughs start to wear off, the weak aspects of the film, mainly the one-eyed director's comments, start to get extremely on your nerves. But if you want to get together with your buddies for a steamy video night and collectively indulge in the film, you might well enjoy this uninhibitedly trashy B-action movie homage. But please: just don't take it seriously - here the lousy quality of the whole production is really intentional, whether you find it funny or not!

Picture + Sound: Since the picture is deliberately trimmed to bad in many moments, the picture actually can't be called bad despite all the obvious flaws. Here, flaws are simply a stylistic device that adds a certain amount to the fun factor of the whole thing. The same applies to the sound, which in some moments but then has quite decent surround effects to offer. Only the dialogues in the German version seem a bit too front-heavy, in the English original the whole thing sounds a bit more harmonious. In the end, there is still a for picture and sound: Good!

Extras: Bonusmaterial has the DVD not to offer.

Fazit: Poolboy is incredibly badly acted, amateurishly staged and from the story just unbeatably stupid. But the film wants to be all that, which is why it celebrates its trash factor so over the top that it's fun again. Granted, many gags fizzle out and some aspects of the bloody slapstick are more annoying than funny. But on balance, fans of trashy B-comedy should still have fun with this film - especially in a larger group after a beer or two

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp