Powerful

Please don't spend money on this.

Fresh and Exciting

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Great performances by Dreyfuss and Elfman make this movie work wonderfully and make you laugh so hard you think your going to cry. This film is put together in a way it's sure to make you laugh. Professor James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfess) is a Professor of anthropology and also a widower. Down in depression he ends up using the universities grant money for his own personal use. Faced with either confessing and going to jail, or going on with his fairy tale tribe. He chooses to go on with his made up tribe the Shelmikedmu. Using his own 3 kids and back yard for filming. He comes up with the most unique tribe ever seen before. Also with the help of his over anxious colleague Veronica Macelli (Jenna Elfman) who wont leave him alone. He ends up going deeper and deeper into his fairytale tribe, and trying to keep up with his lie. They end up taking the tribe national.Dreyfus handles the comedy with aplomb as he has done before, with the help of a supportive cast. It was nice to see Phil Leeds one last time in a couple of very brief appearances in a crowd scene. He was one of those talented character actors who always added that bit of spice to a production. This movie is very well put together, and just so ridiculous you got to laugh. In the end you will wish you were Shelmikedmu too. It's definitely worth seeing.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Krippendorf's Tribe (1998): Dir: Todd Holland / Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elfman, Gregory Smith, Natasha Lyonne, Lily Tomlin: The tribe speculated upon regards a family to its hero in a recycled idea that worked well in Tootsie. Richard Dreyfuss stars as a single parent who has until evening to complete a speech regarding his tribal research. He convinces the board with a phony video of his family playing a tribe in their backyard. Jenna Elfman wishes to broadcast his success so he gets her drunk and involves her in a mating ritual that she will eventually see on the news. Meanwhile there are those whom do not buy the act and set out to prove him a fraud. Recycled concept fully formula with a conceited ending. Director Todd Holland does well with the film's amateur appeal. Dreyfuss and Elfman have fine comic chemistry that translates the only decent comic payoff in the entire charade. Gregory Smith and Natasha Lyonne have the misfortune of playing the reluctant children but their roles are typical and far from elevated. The biggest waste is the usually funny Lily Tomlin playing someone attempting to expose Krippendorf as a fraud by searching for the real tribe. With only its leads pulling through it is a wonder that it couldn't muster up a single original idea. Familiar premise leaves viewers with little other than to wonder what the Krippendorf yard sale would look like. Score: 3 / 10

Dreyfuss at his manic best. This is literally one of a very few comedy films I've watched where I absolutely fell off of the sofa laughing. The funniest part of the movie is the filming of the fake tribe by Dreyfuss' character using a love interest who, being rendered involuntarily drunk, has no idea what is going on. Lily Tomlin adds greatly to the mix playing an uptight, administrative bore. The rest of the supporting cast, who are currently not especially well known actors, blends beautifully with Dreyfuss and Tomlin. The movie has great timing. The plot and characters are plausible enough to create an additional humorous dimension. I would rank this as one of the best movies Richard Dreyfuss has made to date. I would marry, on the spot, any woman who finds this movie as entertaining and funny as I do. As long as she is rich and beautiful, of course.

Richard Dreyfus. An anthropologist creates a fake New Guinea tribe to further his career.This sounded like it would be painful to watch, and in some places, it is just that. but overall, this bears an endearing tone, and a genuine humor, which consistently colors the work, throughout.Dreyfus's character, Krippendorf, is a frantic/manic anthropologist who tries to seem as though he is calm and collected, on the surface of the deception he has laid. Dreyfus is a phenomenal actor, who needs another Jaws/Close Encounters to revitalize his career. I wonder if Spielberg is listening? His performances come off as direct projections from the heart, no matter how low the budget they allow him, or what horrendous costars they saddle him with.This work features a quirky story line with quirky subplots, and quirky characters, but none as enigmatic as Krippendorf himself.This is a great way to spend a couple of hours, but as a Disney movie? Disney rewrites known history to suit its ends, and usually does so with great panache, but the return to ethnocentrism is potentially damaging to the field of anthropology. However, if you can suspend belief, which you must do to enjoy any Disney movie, then you may find the enjoyment from it that I did, but as usual, I'm in the minority.It rates a 7.1/10 from...the Fiend :.