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     Bunny Chow is a film from South Africa about three stand-up comedians and their buddy who go on a road trip to the Oppi Koppi music festival.  Buddies-on-a-road trip comedies are nothing new.  Remember Road Trip?  That was one…but rarely are they this smart and compelling.  There is nothing terribly ambitious about Bunny Chow (named after a sandwich crammed with curry sold in South Africa).  It doesn’t re-write the book on comedy, on road trips, on sex-crazed young men or on humorous dialogue.  But it works, and it works well.  This movie is very funny, thanks almost entirely to the three comedians, David Kibuuka, Kagiso Lediga and Joey Rasdien.

     Bunny Chow comes out May 19th from First Run Features, and it is charming, funny and vivid.  I say vivid, even though it is filmed in black and white, because the movie crackles with a youthful energy as these guys meet girls, get girls, lose girls and bond with one another over the course of 95 minutes.  The dialogue is sharp and witty, and on occasion absolutely hilarious in a 40 Year Old Virgin sort of way.  Most of the dialogue is in English, although there is a little bit of Afrikaans and Tsotsi Taal that comes with English subtitles.  Although the characters have thick accents and occasionally need subtitles even when they speak English, most of their profanity-laced banter requires no translation.

     The characters do all the things comedians on road trips are supposed to do – have sex with women, get chased by husbands and hot chicks with guns, do drugs and argue about sex.  But most of that stuff is incidental and doesn’t form the entire plot of the movie, like so many of Bunny Chow‘s American and Candian counterparts.  Instead, the movie rests on the charm of the actors, the bond between the characters, and some funny and insightful dialogue.  And on those strengths, without breaking any new ground, this movie works and works well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 11:26 am and is filed under 2006, Comedy, Foreign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.