neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Teddy Bears' Picnic
	Harry Shearer Michael McKean, Fred Willard, George Wendt, Harry Shearer, John Michael Higgins, Kurtwood Smith, Howard Hesseman, Alan Thicke, John O'Hurley, Kenneth Mars, Bob Einstein, Henry Gibson, Ming-Na, Anabelle Gurwitch 2002		Potential unrealized. The brilliant satirist/actor Harry Shearer ("This Is Spinal Tap," TV's "The Simpsons") wrote and directed. The movie is crammed with a complement of wonderful comic performers, including Shearer, his Spinal Tap cohort Michael McKean, Fred Willard, George Wendt, Howard Hesseman, John O'Hurley, Bob Einstein and Henry Gibson. It purports to show the fictional Zambesi Club — a secret society of international power brokers, with a few "artists" thrown in — at play. In fact, it's a thinly disguised mockery of the Bohemian Club's annual sleepaway, complete with bogus rituals and drag follies, at the organization's woodland retreat in Northern California. It should have been the comedy equivalent of shooting masters-of-industry in a barrel. Oh, woe. It's nowhere near as funny as it should be. One must settle for a parade of small amusements garnered from characters, set pieces and cameos from the likes of Alan Thicke, Morgan Fairchild and Dick Butkis.