Down Under the Big Top (1996) Review
November 18th 2010 04:39
Heya folks! Sorry about the long lag between posts, the Samurai has been a bit pre-occupied with the real world, but now that I've shaken that off, who wants to hear about some more obscure flicks?
Bands sometimes get weird merchandising, to be sure. Journey had an arcade game, KISS Has a comic book, and popular Australian Christian Rock bank “The Newsboys” Had a movie. Since I started writing the blog I've longed to find a movie so obscure you can't even find it on IMDB and with “Down under the Big Top” it seems I've finally succeed. Rotten Tomatos has no site for it, Wikipedia and Allmovie never touched it, and there are a scant few clips even on Youtube. Still, “Down under the big Top” isn't all that bad, albeit an extremely rare film.
I was a teenager in the 90's, and growing up in a Christian family I didn't
have a lot of interest in most secular music, but the dilemma was “parents approved” Christian music was usually in the league of Keith Green and the Imperials, pretty boring stuff. Then, along came the Christian rock craze of the 90's and with it came the Australian God-rock band The Newsboys. They dressed like a rock band, sounded like a rock band and unlike many Christian bands, they were willing to speak out against corruption and complacency in the Christian church. They were no Slayer, but for a pumped up Christian teenager who was a bit of a rebel, they were a godsend (no pun intended)..
At the height of their popularity, (around the time they released “Take me to Your Leader” possibly the best Christian rock album ever released) the Newsboys then-producer Steve Taylor, who had directed dozens of music videos at that point, decided he wanted to make a movie. From this came “Down Under the Big Top” an utterly bizarre hour long VHS movie with a storyline based solely on the Newsboys song “Reality”. It tells the story of Phil (played by Newsboys bass player Phil Joel) who runs away and joins the failing Luigi's circus. The rest of the Newsboys (playing themselves) are drawn into helping the failing circus by lead singer Jon James' dieing uncle who owns the circus, and has piled up a number of creditors before his death. The movie is reminiscent of old Marx Brothers film, and while the cast is unknowns Steve Taylor's direction and writing is spot on funny.
Unfortunately, as actors the Newsboys are terrific musicians. They seem to be honestly trying, they deliver lines like cardboard standup and their heavy Australian accents (Paul Hogan would have a rough time understanding these guys) sometimes make it hard to understand them. In spite of this (or possibly because of this) the comedy routines are roll on the floor funny. One memorable scene is the Aussie Posse leaning how to be clowns. The band's hulking drummer Peter Furler, takes a pie to the face all the while looking like he's going to tear the clown's arms off at any second, only to be scalded that he licked the cream off his face to soon and then is repeatedly hit with the same pie again and again until he got it right, let's see Neal Pert do that.
The rest of the cast are all virtual unknowns, aside from a smattering of cameos by christian personalities (Gospel Singer and Comedian Mark Lowery has a hilarious scene). Some of the rolls are filled by some of The Newsboys road crew, ex members of the band and some of the Band's wives and kids. Others were filled by people who Owed director Steve Taylor a favor. While the movie was made on a shoestring budget, produced by a
record company and directed by a washed up Christian rocker from the 70's I think this movie manages to stand out among the music world's self promotion movies. The Newsboys don't mind poking fun at themselves, even making jokes about they're virtual inability to keep bass players (“At least he gave proper notice, Mike quit in the middle of his own solo”) and even they're eccentric pop-rock image.
Perhaps my love for this movie is still rooted in the fact that The Newsboys were the soundtrack to my childhood, but honestly I think anyone who needs a laugh can enjoy this odd bit of music history for film oddity value alone.
Bands sometimes get weird merchandising, to be sure. Journey had an arcade game, KISS Has a comic book, and popular Australian Christian Rock bank “The Newsboys” Had a movie. Since I started writing the blog I've longed to find a movie so obscure you can't even find it on IMDB and with “Down under the Big Top” it seems I've finally succeed. Rotten Tomatos has no site for it, Wikipedia and Allmovie never touched it, and there are a scant few clips even on Youtube. Still, “Down under the big Top” isn't all that bad, albeit an extremely rare film.
Drummer Peter Furler Becomes, "Pietro, the Juggler of Death"
Unfortunately, as actors the Newsboys are terrific musicians. They seem to be honestly trying, they deliver lines like cardboard standup and their heavy Australian accents (Paul Hogan would have a rough time understanding these guys) sometimes make it hard to understand them. In spite of this (or possibly because of this) the comedy routines are roll on the floor funny. One memorable scene is the Aussie Posse leaning how to be clowns. The band's hulking drummer Peter Furler, takes a pie to the face all the while looking like he's going to tear the clown's arms off at any second, only to be scalded that he licked the cream off his face to soon and then is repeatedly hit with the same pie again and again until he got it right, let's see Neal Pert do that.
The rest of the cast are all virtual unknowns, aside from a smattering of cameos by christian personalities (Gospel Singer and Comedian Mark Lowery has a hilarious scene). Some of the rolls are filled by some of The Newsboys road crew, ex members of the band and some of the Band's wives and kids. Others were filled by people who Owed director Steve Taylor a favor. While the movie was made on a shoestring budget, produced by a
Their Keyboard player's name is Jeff Frankenstein, I can think of few keyboard players with cooler names
Perhaps my love for this movie is still rooted in the fact that The Newsboys were the soundtrack to my childhood, but honestly I think anyone who needs a laugh can enjoy this odd bit of music history for film oddity value alone.
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