Well, if you are tired of reality shows on television you can now head out to the theater for a taste considering that is really all Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show is, with a bit of stand up mixed in. This is not to say it is a bad film, it is actually not all that bad, but it really does just feel like a reality television show rather than anything worth turning into a feature film.
The premise involves Vince Vaughn picking a group of four relatively unknown comics (I had never heard of any of them) and going on a 30-day, 30-city tour across America. It involves a few guest appearances by the likes of Justin Long, Jon Favreau and Keir O’Connell (the weird brother from Wedding Crashers), which adds a little bit of humor, but for the most part this is nothing more than a road trip caught on camera all while trying to convince America these four comics (Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco) are funny.
The movie starts off very slow and you begin to wonder if it really is going to be an absolute mess. You know, one of those stand up performances where you see folks in the audience laughing, but you are left sitting there wondering if they really think what they are hearing is funny. Luckily things get much funnier as the film moves on, but it isn’t all laughs.
As the tour moves from state to state you begin visiting and learning about the comics on tour in four separate segments. You will meet the families and learn how they got to where they are, where they are now in their careers and where they want to go. Some of it is touching, but it really isn’t all that interesting, at least not for a feature film.
Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show is really nothing more than a glorified reality program. Of course the language is a bit more course and better than the majority of the trash that is on television, but I would have hoped for a little bit more.
