Film review: Cabin Boy (1994)

 

Another of those "how did this get made?" movies.  Chris Elliott, who first came to the public's notice as a recurring character on the David Letterman show, and who also managed to score a bizarro sitcom in the early 90s called "Get a Life" (which featured writing by people like Charlie "Being John Malkovich" Kaufman and Bob Odenkirk), stars as the titular Cabin Boy.  Think Pee Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton was a producer on this movie) crossed with one of those Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films, only not as good as that awesome-sounding crossover would be.  It's hard to know the audience: it's somehow less adult than PeeWee (there's no winking adult references, it's played straight) but also more (there's a scene where our character "gets his pipes cleaned" by Calli, 

who is the blue six-armed mythical creature seen in robot form in Thief of Bagdhad) that would be hard to explain to a watching child.  At no point did I LOL, except perhaps at the thought of the executives at Touchstone pictures watching the finished movie and realizing what they'd sunk all their money into.  Perhaps a more contemporary equivalent would be something by Noel Fielding (perhaps this?) that you might call "aggressive whimsy".  There's a touch of the Michel Gondry too, in the very handmade-looking special effects.  I would say it's not for me, but I'm not sure whom it is for, except those who genuinely want something different.  I did like the bit at the beginning where Chris Elliott's Nathaniel Mayweather is still an obnoxious rich brat, happily leaving behind his school for "fancy lads" and setting out to travel by luxury liner to Hawaii, where his wealthy father owns a hotel.  (After being thrown out of a limo for being too obnoxious, he has to walk to the port and takes the wrong turn to a fishing village because a cow is in front of the arrow pointing the way.)  He somehow manages to confuse fishing boat The Filthy Whore for the fancy liner.  Here he is, still wearing his fancy lad wig, about to be brutally disabused of his mistake.

Cameos by David Letterman 

and (a rather affecting) Andy Richter and a very game Russ "West Side Story" Tamblyn (as a rather simple shark/man hybrid) 

briefly enliven affairs.  It makes me less inclined to pursue the currently-unavailable-anywhere Get a Life, despite its legendary status in alternative comedy circles.  (Ooh, just thought of another reference: a less-funny, less adventurous Jabberwocky/Baron Munchausen.  Now I think about it, Terry Gilliam is an obvious reference.)