The Making of '...And God Spoke'

AND GOD SPOKE brilliantly portrays what can go wrong on a movie shoot. Its one drawback: You have to be working in films to truly appreciate the dead-on portrayals of clueless workers, egomaniac directors and interfering producers, and the 'compromises' made to get the film done. All these basic realities of real film production are hilariously exaggerated here. It's too close for comfort sometimes.

This is one of the funniest films made in the last decade and it is well worth seeing--particularly if you are in film or are considering it as a career.

This movie came out about the same time that "Ace Ventura" did. I was one of the very few ace-haters. After seeing Ace, I had totally lost hope for finding a good, decent comedy until I saw "and god spoke". Unlike ace, "and god spoke" didn't force the jokes down your throat. It was subtle, quietly clever, had a few things to say about the nature of film-making and hilariously funny. Unfortunately, with no famous faces it was totally overlooked and still seems to be that way. No, it's not quite as good as it's mockumentary predecessor "Spinal Tap", but it's definitely worth anyone's time.

Today I tried watching a mockumentary about a cheesy production of a fake film. However, "Guns of the Clackamas" simply wasn't funny though I was hoping it was an other "...And God Spoke". In fact, in my review, I complained about this--and strongly recommended people see the earlier film, "...And God Spoke". Imagine my surprise, then, when I checked and saw that I had never reviewed this 1993 film! This is surprising, as I loved the film and strongly recommend it to anyone who loves Christopher Guest's mockumentaries. Now "...And God Spoke" is not as sophisticated and hip as the Guest films (especially "Best in Show"), but there is a wonderful cheesiness that is quite endearing.

This film is a fake documentary in which a porno production company wants to make a 'quality film'. So, they naturally picked the most prestigious sort of film--a Biblical epic!! The resulting film is in terrible taste and looks a lot like a porno-Biblical film! But what makes it even funnier are all the behind the scenes bits--such as the appearance of Eve Plumb in the film and her resulting lawsuit as well as seeing Soupy Sales as Moses! It's all real and goofy--and strikes a wonderful balance between looking crappy yet being entertaining and insightful.

By the way, because of the subject matter, this film might offend the easily offended. Think twice about showing this film to young kids or your mother-in-law!

It's a good enough flick to watch, especially if you're into making movies for film class. It's not one of those movies you rush out and see; but one of those movies you pick up when you've lapped the video store twice and say "why the hell not".

While it is absolutely true that God Spoke isn't as superb as This is Spinal Tap (1984), it is still a movie that will get you laughing uncontrollably. If you've seen Tap, this is about the same, except the rock group has been replaced with a director and a producer. See the two mens' previous movie-experiences for the best bits in the film. It is very sad that this movie hasn't had a bigger audience than it has had.