What if acclaimed film director Werner Herzog set out to film a documentary about the myth of the Loch Ness monster? Lucky for us, we get to find out because their is a film crew working on a doc about Herzog's life. So he sets out on Loch Ness with an interesting cast of characters to try to make his film. These characters are all played by people ostensibly playing themselves or caricatures of themselves, including Hollywood writer Zak Penn as producer, a famous cinematographer and sound guy, a whacked out mythical creature expert, a captain, and...a Playboy model posing as a sonar reader? It is clear from the moment they aboard their small boat that Herzog and Penn (and his little mechanical Nessie!) have completely different ideas of which direction the movie should go.
While this movie pretty much has a unique premise (a documentary crew filming a documentary crew, both of which aren't real), it seems to borrow (intentionally) from both "The Blair Witch Project" and mockumentaries by Christopher Guest. The first half is loaded with subtle humor that is actually drier than those you'd find in a Guest comedy, if you can believe that. Really the only scenes that had me chuckling are the ones with the crazy mythical creature "doctor." Penn's portrayal of himself as a typical Hollywood jerk is incredibly obnoxious, which means that he did a successful job. I'm not a big Herzog fan, and frankly I found him (or his character) to be rather unlikeable. The movie takes a twist in the middle and it drowns in darker and more horrific territory while still trying to retain its dry humor. I'm not sure if it is successful, but it will definitely hold your interest.
But the biggest oddity about this is its basic premise. Why would Werner Herzog make a serious documentary about the Loch Ness monster?! Maybe that is the punchline. Herzog purports to be more interested in the mythology behind the monster, not in actually encountering the monster. Then why go on a boat into the lake at all? Why not focus on interviewing people in the area and real experts on mythology? Obviously there would be no movie without this, and because the movie seems to blur the line between fact and fiction, I suppose it is unconventionally appropriate. On a sidenote, this DVD contains more special features than anyone could possibly ever care about!
While this movie pretty much has a unique premise (a documentary crew filming a documentary crew, both of which aren't real), it seems to borrow (intentionally) from both "The Blair Witch Project" and mockumentaries by Christopher Guest. The first half is loaded with subtle humor that is actually drier than those you'd find in a Guest comedy, if you can believe that. Really the only scenes that had me chuckling are the ones with the crazy mythical creature "doctor." Penn's portrayal of himself as a typical Hollywood jerk is incredibly obnoxious, which means that he did a successful job. I'm not a big Herzog fan, and frankly I found him (or his character) to be rather unlikeable. The movie takes a twist in the middle and it drowns in darker and more horrific territory while still trying to retain its dry humor. I'm not sure if it is successful, but it will definitely hold your interest.
But the biggest oddity about this is its basic premise. Why would Werner Herzog make a serious documentary about the Loch Ness monster?! Maybe that is the punchline. Herzog purports to be more interested in the mythology behind the monster, not in actually encountering the monster. Then why go on a boat into the lake at all? Why not focus on interviewing people in the area and real experts on mythology? Obviously there would be no movie without this, and because the movie seems to blur the line between fact and fiction, I suppose it is unconventionally appropriate. On a sidenote, this DVD contains more special features than anyone could possibly ever care about!