Krippendorf's Tribe | | Cast : | Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elfman | | Director : | Todd Holland | | Studio : | Walt Disney Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | February 27, 1998 | | DVD Released Date : | October 14, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON | Customer Reviews
| Rating |      | | Date | June 03, 2005 | | Summary | It was hilarious | Content
 | I laughed a lot. It was a unique movie; I have never seen anything like it before. If you like off-beat comedies like "Captain Ron" and "Carbon Copy", you'll enjoy this. If you take things too seriously like a New York theater-goer, then this is not your film. |
| Rating |    | | Date | June 25, 2004 | | Summary | The Case Of The Scandelous Shelmikedmu Scam! | Content
 | Pity poor Professor Krippendorf! His wife has died, he is doing only a so-so job of raising three dysfunctional children, and, as if he does not have enough problems already, he has sqandered money from his college that was supposed to be used to find a mysterious missing New Guinea tribe, which he has not done. His solution? Fake it. He announces the discovery of a make-believe tribe, the "Shelmikedmu" (the name derived from his childrens' names). One thing leads to another, and before you know it there is a national Shelmikedmu craze. Ah, but what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Not all believe him and it is only a matter of time before the truth may be discovered. Will Krippendorf succeed or will he be caught? To give this movie credit, it has its funny moments. Dreyfuss is good as Krippendorf, up and coming actor Gregory Smith also holds his own as Krippendorf's son. Unfortunately, there is a major problem with this movie - Krippendorf is is the wrong! This guy has stolen college funds, lied, corrupted the morals of his children, and we are to believe he is the good guy. If the move has a moral, it seems to be "it's okay to do something you shouldn't, as long as you don't get caught". That is a no-no. |
| Rating |     | | Date | June 10, 2004 | | Summary | Krippendorf's Funny! | Content
 | Professor Krippendorf got so caught up in being a parent after his wife passed away that he spent his anthropology grant money with nothing to show for it. In essence, he embezzled it. Having broken the law and ruined his career (if he gets found out), he decides that there's really no difference between a small fraud and a big one and so he goes ahead to invent a giant hoax. The popularity of the bizarre tribe he invents is so immense that he can't escape its vortex and takes shameless advantage of everyone including his family and his amorous and greedy grad student to perpetuate his humbug. What makes this flick funny is the over-the-top, go-for-broke way in which the characters abandon every moral fibre. And then there's the surprise ending! |
| Rating |     | | Date | August 23, 2003 | | Summary | Actually, 3.5 stars | Content
 | "Krippendorf's Tribe" isn't Richard Dreyfuss's best movie to date, especially having released the stunning "Mr. Holland's Opus" two years previous. Some of his lines were overreacted. Besides this, there are good elements in the movie. Some funny scenes will catch the audience's eyes. However, the borderline between fantasy and reality needed to be recognized by the producers. Despite, faking eyecatching "Shelmikedmu" rituals to gain national recognition is clever. Such scenes lead the audience to a surprising conclusion. Lily Tomlin plays the funny role that viewers either love or hate. Some of Jenna Elfman's lines were underreacted, but when she shines, she shines bright. Notice rising star Gregory Smith, the middle child. He's performed better, but his role was still underrated. Fans of certain actors in this movie should rent "Krippendorf's Tribe" once. Some mixed opinions about the outcome will arise, but everyone will be entertained. |
| Rating |  | | Date | August 06, 2003 | | Summary | Rudiments of Psychology, Finally Put to Practical Use! | Content
 | Okay, basically, Americans to the greatest degree out of the world's peoples have got this experiential dualism going on here. The World as it is, which has its few fans, admittedly; and the World As Spectacle. The World As Spectacle involves the all the output of the major media outlets. The slapdash, synthesized world of the major media pulls off its massive Act by plugging us in to the ole Jungian collective unconscious (bear with me, if you please: this is more important than watching 'Frasier' and feeling like you're a part of his quasi-intellectual milieu). So, the media plugs us in to the collective unconscious, where Archetypes rule the day. The images of Evil Man and Good Man are constantly being massaged by the media in times of war. For example, take the Reagan Good/ Soviet Empire Evil concept. Yeah, I don't really want to get into all the daggone examples, but suffice it to say that if you watch enough movies, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Jung may not have described Aggressive Hero as a possible archetype, but you're gonna find an unrefined Aggressive Hero stamp in the god-awful media typecasting of guys like David Carradine, Charles Bronson, Sly Stallone, and who could forget Seagal and van Damme? Mr. Dreyfuss too, in a slew of films ranging from Close Encounters to Opus to this cinematic mess, Krippendorf's Tribe, has consistently played the Wise or Intelligent Man. Krippendorf's Tribe is interesting to watch because it's folly. You've got the media issuing from your TV set, and your eyeballs form an image of this man, Dreyfuss, just playing a professor, and it's the same role he's always played, pretty much. Folly. Familiarity paired with appeal to the collective unconscious was supposed to produce some money-making movie. Ugh. This mass of words I've just written amounts to this: one of the lamest flicks ever made. Peace. |
|