David Frederick
Journal Contributor
What do bootleg DVDs, marijuana, Power Ranger figures, and two young men all have in common? Well, in Mission Impotable (2010, Mazless Productions),a student film directed by Christian Roberts, ’12, and written by and starring Alec Lawless, ’12, and Erik Mazurick; they all collide in a very funny and random way. Mission Impotable chronicles the journey of two lazy friends, Luke (Lawless) and Erik (Mazurick), who manage to get beaten and ridiculed by resident troublemaker Adam (Jeff McHugh). Luke also manages to get himself into trouble with Hicks, (Chris Hicks) the local bootlegger and drug dealer.
Through means which I won’t spoil, the not-so dynamic duo end up traveling back to the fabled land of 1993. Stuck, they think of a great plan to stop their current problems: beat the ever-loving hell out of Adam’s younger self, so he is not able to torment them later on. Mission Impotable is full of references to the 90s and while it may be a stoner/student-made effort, it is a great effort at that.
While I did love Erik Mazurick’ s awesome one-liners , I think that it was Chris Hicks who was hilarious as himself. The writing is nowhere near getting an Oscar, and the sound may be a bit off in some areas, but the one thing that Mission Impotable does have going for it is its B-movie feel.
The movie starts off with an atmosphere of a suburban version of Friday (1995, New Line Cinema) and then turns into a brutal mashup of Back to the Future (1985,Universal Studios) and Half Baked (1998, Universal Studios).
Lawless and Mazurick have good chemistry on screen, proving not to be just Harold and Kumar rip-offs. When you and your friends just want to relax and have a nice, cheap laugh, this would be the movie to watch.
At points the film drags, though it must be noted that this is because it is still a student film. There are real areas of the movie that I got drawn into and I laughed gleefully at, such as all of the 90s references scattered throughout the film. Every time there was a Power Ranger reference, or the questioning of why the show Friends (1994, Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions ) had massive popularity, I was brought back to the 90s.
Now, there is questionable material in Mission Impotable that may not suffice to your own liking, but at the end of the day, Mission Impotable is just a fun movie and a good effort from Roberts, Lawless, and Mazurick.
