The Earlycomer - DVD

Movie: The day starts well: today, of all days, when Rob (John Karna) has an important job interview for Georgetown University, he wakes up from an extremely wet dream, which of course is immediately discovered by his mother, unnerved by the hormonal surges of her teenage son. At school, the chaos continues: first he gets his pants soiled by some bullies, then he has to turn down dream girl Angela (Carlson Young) for the evening, as he already has a date with his best friend Gabrielle (Katie Findlay). And then the college's emissary (Alan Tudyk) has a nervous breakdown during the conversation. Totally frustrated, Rob decides to at least put a bright side to the day. Therefore he cancels Gabrielle and visits Angela, who quickly shows him that she doesn't feel like studying, but rather like groping. And after only a few seconds this causes another warm gush to pour into Rob's pants - and exactly at this moment he wakes up again the same morning and has to relive the whole day. And after each ejaculation, the clock is turned back to the beginning. What has Rob done to deserve this, and how can he break this terrible time-sleep?

The Earlycomer could alternatively be called And Daily Greets the Morning Boner. Because the derb-pubertal time-loop obviously takes its cue from Harold Ramis` wonderful Groundhog movie, spiced up with a hefty helping of American Pie. And other films are quoted here as well. For example, Rob`s wet dream that introduces the story is a clear reminiscence of a very special character from Total Recall. Director Dan Beers tries to spice up all these familiar set pieces with a few ideas of his own. The end result is supposed to be fast-paced, cheeky fun that should entertain teen viewers aged 16 and up.

But that only works to a limited extent. On the plus side, there are some genuinely funny gags and also a likeable lead actor. Also Katie Findlay is cast as best friend Gabrielle very sympathetically and for the viewers it is also quite fast clear that she fits very much better to Rob, than Angela, who may be sexy, but is also very superficial and manipulative. In addition, Alan Tudyk as the emissary of Georgetown University provides a few good laughs with his nervous breakdowns. On the negative side, however, there are a lot of low-brow jokes that primarily revolve around bodily fluids of all kinds. That might still be funny for some viewers. A few other jokes, on the other hand, that are just tasteless (such as the one about an Israeli exchange student) probably won't really be able to make anyone laugh.

When Rob wants to escape an accident he's already experienced twice, which then has unforeseen consequences the third time, it shows that the time-loop theme really does have potential for really good gags. Even when he takes the liberty of doing things to the school hooligans or to his busty teacher that he would never have dared to do otherwise, in the certainty that he will be able to undo the events with his next outpouring, the earlycomer shows his extremely amusing side. Without the tediously overused penis jokes and fecal gags, the comedy could have been really good. So it's still a nice fun with some very successful gags, but also with many tepid or even annoying missteps. No intellectual masterpiece, but as a wacky teenie-comedy at the end of the day still worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: Since the final product was not available for testing, no rating can be given about the final picture and sound quality at this point.

Extras: Bonus material is not announced.

Conclusion: The humour of The Earlycomer may be infantile and extremely crude. The story may be an adolescent rip-off of And Every Day Is a Groundhog's Day. And the comedy may not offer top-notch acting either. And yet, it works quite well for the intended target audience. Because besides some very tired gags, which are all below the belt, there are also some really funny ideas and very good laughs, which guarantee good entertainment overall for the teen audience, for which this movie is made. Not an intellectual masterpiece, but thoroughly recommendable as a wacky teen comedy!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp