2012 musical comedy
Rating: 14/20
Plot: The planet Hondo is experiencing a little catastrophic asteroid problem, so they send General Trius to earth with a poison that will destroy life on the planet and open it up for Hondonians to live on. You know, sort of like what was going on in that last Superman movie only with a lot less special effects and a budget that would fit inside the pockets of my parachute pants. Trius hears music, something they don’t have on Hondo, and reconsiders. In fact, he settles down, gets himself a job, marries, and has a daughter, all while learning to play the banjo and performing nights at a bar. And he searches for a way to save Hondo from that asteroid. Hondo loses its patience and sends a pair of assassins to earth after Trius. Kevin, the first, is introduced to music and teams up with Trius. The other might present more problems for the pair as they try to make music together and find a solution to Hondo’s problems.
Cute little indie sci-fi comedy with, seriously, zero special effects. Just check out their costumes which may or may not include a bucket with a box cut out for the face. The cheapness makes it more endearing somehow. It’s sort of an origin story, I guess, for the titular self-described alien bluegrass band, and the duo are fine musicians with good voices if you don’t mind your folksy music with lyrics about imaginary planets and space worms. The song about space worms is the first they play together, after Kevin has apparently learned to play the guitar in about 12 hours, and that song put a huge smile on my face for a variety of reasons. There are more than a couple of missteps in this storytelling–the silliness with Trius’s earth wife, Kevin’s love interest or a visit to her house to play her a song or the crashing of her tango lessons–but it’s creative enough with just the right amount of low-key humor to keep it all charming. Oh, I’ll take my “zero special effects” comment back because this does have a space assassin. He looks ridiculous though, a little less than what the people who make the Power Rangers shows would consider acceptable. My favorite part of this might be an appearance by Dee Snider who owns the “Trash Bar” (that’s the name of it) with a back room that smells like piss because he “sometimes pisses back there.” This isn’t perfect, but it’s fun enough and I enjoyed listening to Nils d’Aulaire’s banjo, especially during the scene where he plays music for Jay Klaitz’s Kevin for the first time. I did almost want to dock it a point every time the characters said “Hondo!” though. That reminded me of something, but I can’t remember what.
I was pleased to see a stuffed carrot from Ikea in this. Carrot Man is an important member of our family here in my house.