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Dork of the Rings (2006)

Dork of the Rings

If I had to sum up Dork of the Rings with one word, that word would be "Silly."  Fortunately, I have all the space I want and I'm not limited to just one word for this review.  Although the movie is very silly, the thing that strikes me most about Dork of the Rings is not its silliness, but rather the unbelievable amount of work that went into this project.  Because I review low-budget and no-budget films, I often see directors of these films do almost everything but the acting by themselves.  I do believe that director / writer / producer Timothy Alan Richardson did a lot of the work on this film, however he also had an unbelievably huge crew for a film of this kind.  The crew may have been a silly, American version of the Monty Python crew, but they were a crew nonetheless.   Anyone who saw LORD of the Rings knows it was a first rate big-budget film that cost a fortune to create.  For someone to even attempt a parody on the in scale of DORK of the Rings without a huge budget is impressive, but to actually pull it off is downright incredible!  

The story is about a Throbbit named Frudo Buggins who possesses the "ring of circular credit" and his journey to stop the spread of the evil DorkMart corporation.  In his journey, he is aided by his somewhat trusty friends Ham the Throbbit and the wizard Randolf, Arogant the wrangler, Legoblocks the Elfis, Gimpi the Dweeb, Boredandqueer the stereotypical homosexual and Princess Femowen.  Because of the complexity of the story, it would be tough to give a complete rundown of everything that happens.  The movie basically parodies each scene from LORD of the Rings step by step using special effects ranging in quality from amazing green screen sound-stages the size of a barn to costumes made out of paper plates and trash bags.  The funniest of the special effect / costume gags were the Nosedrools: giant nose creatures that sniffed out Frudo's trail (I guess you'd have to see it.  It was a lot funnier than it sounds).  The dialog was all overdubbed with varying success throughout the film.  Some of the actors were great and some...well, not so much.  Fortunately (since they have the most screen time) Bryce Cone did a great job playing the sarcastic and frustrated lead - Frudo Buggins and Jim Hall practically stole the show as Arogant.  Other great performances were given by David Kiefer, James Flannery, Victoria Floro, Shayne Golden, Sean McCormick and Circus-Szalewski.  If I listed that many names in most of my reviews, I would have listed the entire cast, the cameraman and a caterer, but for Dork of the Rings this really is a small percentage.  

As with the special effects, the audio and the acting; the quality of the story was also uneven.  There were scenes that literally made me laugh out loud while other scenes felt like they were only there to mirror something from LORD of the Rings.  One of my favorite running jokes throughout the movie was that the Elf race from LORD of the Rings was the Elfis race; a race of Elvis Presley-like creatures who fight with guitars and microphone stands as weapons.  Another great joke was that the Dwarves were instead Dweebs; overweight, bearded computer nerds living in the deep, dark recesses of their parents' basements.  On the other hand, one of the evil enemy races were a bunch of guys wearing paper plates cut to look like sporks - not so funny.  I think considering the scale of the film and the limited budget, it's amazing that so much of the story, special effects, audio and acting ended up being so good.

In addition to the film itself, this DVD package included a second disc that was absolutely packed with special features: behind the scenes, cast and crew at various conventions, music videos, "Dorkers" featurette and even Dork of the Rings fan films.  If you didn't catch all the sarcastic humor while watching the film itself, you're sure to get a feel for the personalities of the filmmakers while watching the bonus features.  Some of the extra footage drags on a little too long, but have you ever tried to watch the commentary on Edward Scissorhands?  Even the best, biggest budget movies can have some yawn-inducing moments in the bonus features.  Overall, Disc 2 of Dork of the Rings is actually pretty entertaining.

If you are a Lord of the Rings fan with a self-deprecating sense of humor and a penchant for parody, you've got to check out Dork of the Rings!

Gore-o-meter rating: 0.5 out of 5 (There's some fighting, but this is pretty much a family film)

Skin-o-meter: 0 out of 5 (no skin...unless you count the Gollum parody "Scrottum")