Brilliant and touching

Absolutely the worst movie.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Dave is a loser who hasn't held any job for very long, though he claims to have helped build houses after Hurricane Katrina. He moves from place to place, and his sensible brother Jim has finally found him in a wigwam on an Indian reservation in South Dakota. Jim had to find Dave because their father ("The Colonel") died. So they go back to Kansas City for the funeral.Dinner with the family is awkward and unpleasant. What the brothers did should never happen on such a solemn occasion. But once they finish with the funeral, the brothers have to claim their inheritance, which includes a cabin on the lake near Branson, Missouri.Can you say road trip? The brothers don't get along all that well. Jim went to college and has a job and a family, and Dave doesn't seem to care about much other than having a good time. And when they finally arrive at the cabin, it's a dump. Should they just tear it down, sell the property and split the money? Although there is a lot of great memorabilia, and a huge sports card collection. Dave's main interest is his Alonzo Mourning rookie card.Before they decide to do anything, the brothers have to meet with The Colonel's business partner Jon Charbineau, who is quite a character and looks like a relic from a 70s action TV series. Well, at least he's not wearing a polyester leisure suit. His clothes actually look normal. It's just his face, hair, and sunglasses. There is money, and there are coupons for Branson attractions. The brothers ... well, Dave ... takes full advantage of the chance to enjoy this tacky tourist mecca. The cabin is too much of a dump so they rent a motel room from another guy who is quite a character. No, I don't know his name. But he pranks the brothers good. It might have worked except no one else is in sight.Dave has a great scene when he tries--in a bathrobe--to eat from a fancy hotel's buffet when he's not even a guest. He manages to break the law enough times that the brothers meet Sheriff Wegman and Deputy Bruce, who play "good cop, bad cop". Both cops play both parts, but Bruce is funnier. And dumber.As the brothers decide to fix up the cabin, they have a number of adventures and meet interesting people. Lauren is a nice normal girl who used to date Jim. Petra is a beautiful and friendly immigrant waitress who might be a hooker. I think Ivan is the man Jim decided to hire to fix up the cabin when the brothers realized they were The Three Stooges ("That's coming out of my half" "That's coming out of your half."). Also, I recognized the voice of Yakov Smirnoff but didn't realize that was really him until the credits.Overall, the brothers show us a good time, sometimes silly, sometimes serious and often funny. They get along better in some scenes than they do in others, and sometimes they want to kill each other. And I was very grateful this was on broadcast TV, because the sound went out so often (along with the speaker's mouth being blurred) it was sometimes hard to follow what was going on, but I really don't think I would want to hear what I missed. I mean I really didn't.You have to stay around for the closing credits. Not just because of all the funny stuff in the credits themselves (I have never seen some of the wacky stuff that was done), but also the great musical performance on the left side of the screen. I hesitate to call it bluegrass not only because I'm not sure you can have drums in bluegrass, but also because Dr. Ralph Stanley once said what he does is old time, not bluegrass. It's actually a nice polished but heavily traditional sound with fiddles and banjo.It's not a bad movie if you can see it cleaned up.

I grabbed this as an iTunes 99 cent rental based on the trailer.Aside from Swingers, this was quite possibly the worst production value I've seen in a film with this kind of distribution. The audio quality was terrible, the lighting was amateur, the editing was simple, and overall, it was just really low budget.But I watched the entire film and laughed the entire time. The acting was great, the script was fantastic, and the characters were perfect. The location could not have been better for the story, and the use of music (i.e. Dr. Dog) was spot on.Which all goes to show, when you have a good story and good actors, you could shoot it on VHS and be successful. Film is about storytelling, not resolution or film grain or VFX or all-star casts.This film succeeded in telling a compelling story with flying colors, and made me laugh (hard) for 90 minutes. A+++

Very funny movie especially if you have a dumba** little brother. It started out the second scene with Dave eating a Deep Fried Breaded Pork Loin Sandwich if you are from Middle America you probably know what I am talking about. It's one of the few things I miss about the Midwest and it looked wonderful. I thought the relationship between the brothers was a lot of fun and yes the fighting was predictable and over the top but I was thoroughly entertained by the ridiculous behavior. There are some very funny and kinda dirty shout outs to the "Wild Things" movie. Christopher Meloni is great as the squirrel loving not so legitimate business partner of Dave and Jim's dearly departed father. Toss in Branson Russian Mafia, prostitutes, a lot of alcohol and a bunch of other silly stuff. Don't take it (or yourself) too seriously and you will have a good time.

Sometimes a story played out on film serves as a motivator or is inspiring or just plain entertaining, however in the case of the independent film Awful Nice, I am still attempting to categorize it. The story begins with Jim (James Pumphrey) retrieving his younger brother Dave (Alex Rennie) to return home and attend the memorial services for their recently deceased father. The condition and location in which Jim finds Dave was the first indication that somebody has issues. This film did something that has never happened to me before, I laughed uproariously at some very funny sequences, but once the film was over I was left feeling unfulfilled. Usually if it is a good comedy, the emotion elicited is upbeat and cheery but not with this film. The characters Dave and Jim both reminded me of how competitive brothers can be having grown up in a household with three brothers myself, but the incessant arguing and fighting was just too much. I continuously asked myself if Jim is the smart one why does he keep following advice from Dave. And then you realize that after a while some of the lunacy starts to make some sense. I do wonder what inspired writer Alex Rennie to create this outlandish road trip, brothers bonding story, and whether the character Dave was based in part on Alex's own life. The reason that I ask this question is because Mr. Rennie was so convincing with his particular kind of crazy as Dave. He was quick witted, rationalized everything from a spoiled brat point of view and took no responsibility for anything in his life all while guilting Jim into mindless submission. Mr. Rennie is either a really good actor or he really is Dave. I've never been to Branson, but there was a huge inference that it is overrun with Russian Mafia and prostitution, which is the world that Jim and Dave's father's business partner seemed to be very much a part of. Since I watch a lot of Law and Order reruns it was easy to spot Christopher Meloni (Jon Charbineau) in spite of the mustache, the horrible accent, and the worse wig ever. He did a great job of portraying a sleazy businessman not that he did anything that was sleazy, he just really looked the part. I still do not know what the title related to, I suppose they used Awful Nice because My Idiot Brother was already taken.