Cabin Boy
Tagline(s): He's Setting Sail On The High Seas... Without A Rudder, A Compass, Or A Clue!Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Directed by Adam Resnick
Stars: Chris Elliott, Ritch Brinkley, Brian Doyle-Murray, James Gammon, Brion James, Melora Walters and Jim Cummings
Rotten Tomatoes: 46%
Metacritic: 21%
Budget: $10 million
Box Office: $3.7 million
Synopsis
Chris Elliott plays Nathaniel Mayweather, a foppish, unlikable, unpleasant, nitwit. Graduating from finishing school and on course to becoming a "fancy lad", he is scheduled to take the luxury liner Queen Catherine to Hawaii to meet up with his father however misfortune and misdirection strike and he ends up aboard a fishing scow named "The Filthy Whore" with a crew befitting its salty name, and of course misadventure follows.
Recollections
None
Review
If you know Chris Elliott it's likely as the unpleasant camera man in Groundhog Day and from the start of the movie you wonder if he's really the actor to be leading a movie like this. The cast is full of actors likely better known for more minor parts in bigger movies. It seems that Tim Burton was originally attached to direct this and he probably saved his career by turning his attentions to Ed Wood (more of which later as it's another 1994 film), Adam Resnick was shoehorned into the job late in the day and the experience of making this film ultimately led to him not directing again.
The movie is a parody of the types of fantasy adventure movies very prominent in the eighties and nineties and this movie likely failed at the time for being a little ahead of the curve. Similar parody movies did exist but this film would have found a bigger audience in the 2000s.
It's a strange little film, don't get me wrong, and the plot is a little meandering. But you can also feel the genesis of a new kind of comedy here and it deserves some credit for trying something new, even if they did not fully succeed at it. This is a cult film without its cult to follow it.
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