Underground Comedy Movie

Infobox Film
name = Underground Comedy Movie


image_size =
caption =
director = Vince Offer
producer = Maria Levin
Jeff Jaeger
Mark Shlomi
writer = Vince Offer
Dante
narrator =
starring = Vince Offer
Slash
music = NOFX
Guttermouth
cinematography = Michael Hofstein
editing = Vince Offer
Luis Ruiz
distributor =
released = 14 May 1999
runtime = 88 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget = $170,000
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.ucmovie.com
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0201290

"The Underground Comedy Movie" was a film directed by Vince Offer and released in 1999, starring the director himself in many of the primary roles. It features music by NOFX and Guttermouth, among others.

The film itself mainly consists of crude lowbrow skits (such as Gena Lee Nolin loudly using the restroom and a superhero named "Dickman", who dresses in a giant penis costume and defeats his enemies by squirting them with semen), created by the director, based on sketches Offer originally performed on a cable access show he had hosted. The film went direct to video and consistently rates in IMDB's bottom 100 movies. Lawrence Van Gelder in "The New York Times" wrote a scathing review, saying the movie "stands as a monument to ineptitude and self-delusion." [Lawrence Van Gelder. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805EFDF1F31F93BA15756C0A96F958260&scp=1&sq=underground+comedy+movie&st=nyt "15 Minutes (Count 'Em) of Infamy"] , "The New York Times", May 28, 1999.]

Although the film was released and screened in 1999, Offer was ruined financially by 2002 and home video distribution plans were shelved. Offer (who had previously been a successful vegetable chopper salesman and businessman), resumed selling vegetable choppers at swap meets in order to support himself and raise money to complete his film project. [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,294037,00.html LOW-RENT RIOT | The Underground Comedy Movie | Movie News | Movies | Entertainment Weekly ] ] Within a few months, he had earned enough to resume production, and the movie was finally completed, released, and marketed entirely on late-night infomercials which Offer funded with his earnings from the swap meet vegetable chopper sales. The film has sold in excess of 100,000 copies and Offer has used the proceeds from sales to file a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology.

Cast

*Vince Offer
*Slash
*Gena Lee Nolin
*Karen Black
*Angelyne
*Joey Buttafuoco
*Mongo Brownlee
*Rebecca Chaney
*Barbara Snellenburg
*Lightfield Lewis
*Michael Clarke Duncan

Litigation History

On Sept. 23, 1998, Vince Offer filed a suit against 20th Century Fox and the co-directors of There's Something About Mary, Bobby and Peter Farrelly. Offer claimed that 14 scenes in Mary were lifted from his film. The Farrellys released this statement: "We've never heard of him, we've never heard of his movie, and it's all a bunch of baloney." [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,285287,00.html Monitor | Pop Culture News | News + Notes | Entertainment Weekly ] ]

In 2000, Offer sued Anna Nicole Smith for $4 million. Offer claimed that Smith had agreed to be in his movie, but backed out in 1996 over fears that appearing in the movie would be detrimental to her career. [http://imdb.com/news/wenn/2000-10-23#celeb7 Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - WENN - 23 October 2000 ] ]

In 2004, Offer sent out a press release through prnews.com announcing his intention to sue the Church of Scientology. Previously, in 1997, while production was ongoing, the Church of Scientology allegedly began a large-scale smear campaign against Offer and his film (Offer was a Scientologist at the time). [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/05-11-2004/0002171569&EDATE= Filmmaker Sues Church of Scientology ] ] The director claimed the Scientologists' "Celebrity Center" in Hollywood labeled him a "criminal" (based on the rules of Scientology) and threatened his Scientology friends in the movie business with "condemnation" punishment that could be lethal to their careers if they did not write malicious reports against Offer.

External links

*imdb title|id=0201290|title=The Underground Comedy Movie
* [http://www.ucmovie.com/ Official website]

References