Can two adversaries overcome their differences for a big pay day? That’s the plot of Mad Buddies, a 2012 Touchstone Pictures import from South Africa.
Logline
Boetie de Wett has a problem. When a chance encounter with Beast leads to Boetie having his toe severed, the man can’t catch a break. Thinking he had his last encounter with Beast, Boetie is shocked to see his old enemy at the wedding for Minister Nda’s daughter several years later.
The hatred they have for one another bubbles over and Boetie and Beast are locked in a predicament they can’t escape. Thrown together in a madcap adventure journey from Durban to Johannesburg, Boetie and Beast are the unwitting contestants of a reality show. As the two men fight against each other in their journey, they soon learn that everything they do has been broadcast to the nation, and soon the enemies turn coconspirators.
Beast and Boetie are tired of being pawns in someone else’s game and hatch a plan for their own success.
High Praise
The movie is slapstick in the best ways, and if you have ever laughed at a Three Stooges bit, then you will find plenty to laugh at throughout Mad Buddies. The plot of the film is simple, and has been done many times over, but Schuster and Nkosi make the movie work because of how well they play off each other.
What Were They Thinking
The movie is silly. There is not a lot of thought in the script, it relies on pratfalls, and comedic violence to sell most of the jokes, and the story has been done a thousand times before in better films.
Backlot Knowledge
- Trevor Noah has a small role in the film.
Critical Response
{Snub-Skip this Film, Overexposed-Desperate for Something to Watch, Clapper-A Perfect Film For Any Device, Magic Hour– You Must Watch This Film on a Big Screen, Award Worthy– This Film is Cinema.}
I had never heard of Mad Buddies until I noticed it at the end of my list of Touchstone films. I had no memory of the film when it was released twelve years ago, and I doubt I will ever watch it again. Mad Buddies is not a great film, but I laughed consistently.
The film may make you giggle, but Mad Buddies is the reality of what happened to a once loved label from Disney. The Walt Disney Company has a reputation for ruining trusted brands that they fail to maintain. (On the Disney Parks side, look what happened to FastPass.)
Touchstone Pictures ending is tragic. While it does finish its life as a distribution arm for DreamWorks, bringing films like Lincoln and Bridge of Spies to the screen, Touchstone Pictures also acquired films like Mad Buddies and released it.
What was once heralded as the adult distribution label for Disney with the likes of Scorsese and Spielberg bringing a new type of storytelling to the Disney lot, this label which revolutionized Disney ended it’s time as a scavenger looking for leftover morsels.
Mad Buddies is funny, and gets the Clapper Award, but I just wish there was a better ending for Touchstone Pictures.
Best Quotable Line
“A reality show with these two idiots! I love it!
Call Sheet
- Leon Schuster as Boetie de Wett
- Kenneth Nkosi as Beast
- Tanit Phoenix as Kelsey
- Alfred Ntombela as Minister Nda
Productions Team:
Directed by Gray Hofmeyr
Produced by Keynote Films / Released by Touchstone Pictures
Written by Gray Hofmeyr, Leon Schuster,
Release Date: June 22, 2012 (South Africa)
Budget: $20 million South African Rand
Domestic Box Office Gross: $3,156,343
Coming Attractions
Next week, a look back at the family drama When a Man Loves a Woman.