Looking at the poster for “FUBAR: Balls To The Wall,” it instantly reminds us all of “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Anvil,” and lord only knows how many other mockumentaries or legitimate documentaries that people know best. Going into this movie, I knew I would not be seeing anything particularly original. I guess the best I could hope for was a fun time and some laughs. Despite it being hit and miss for the most part, “FUBAR: Balls To The Wall” is fun to watch with friends whether your drunk or not, and it’s a lot more poignant than you might expect.

It turns out that this mockumentary is actually a sequel to the 2002 mockumentary “FUBAR,” and both films were co-written and directed by Michael Dowse. Now I haven’t seen the original (nor was I aware of it when I found out about this one), but if this one is fun, then its predecessor has got to be a cult hit for a very good reason! As this one starts, we are catching up with Canadian friends Terry (David Lawrence) and Dean (Paul Spence) as they are evicted from their shack of an apartment and move forth into an area of life they have rarely if ever explored before: working for a living. We watch as they head out into the unforgivingly snowy landscape of Fort McMurray to jobs that pay far more money than they ever seen before in their lives.

Setting them up with jobs is their pal Troy (Andrew Sparacino) who is commonly referred to by his nickname of Tron (proving that movie’s influence is still widespread). We of course watch as they stumble their way through the job and being responsible for themselves; something they are not particularly successful at. But into the mix comes a waitress at a local strip bar, Trish (Terra Hazelton), who ends up getting into a serious relationship with Terry. This of course threatens the friendship between him and Troy, and you kind of get the idea of where this movie goes from there. Or do you?

From the start, these two guys are not even close to being the role models many countries would love to exploit for the benefit of their citizens. They are a pair of messed up dudes, and the movie’s title perfectly describes them both (Dean even more so). You can’t help but marvel at the fact that either of them has a pulse considering their current condition of being homeless and living out of Terry’s car, whose trunk is loaded with an obscene amount of Canadian beer. But you do find yourself caring about these fools despite their stupid ways, and this leads to some more heartfelt moments that never feel contrived.

You have to give David Lawrence and Paul Spence a lot of credit here as their performances came out from a lot of improvisation. I’m sure there was a script they went off when filming started, but it looks like a lot of it came together from what they came up with on the spot. Both are completely committed to their characters to where you never really catch them acting. There is something to be said for that because what they do takes a lot of balls (ironic when you consider one of the character’s medical conditions), and there’s never any guarantee of success in what they do. They don’t fully enter Sasha Baron Cohen territory, but they come awfully close.

Credit also goes out to Andrew Sparacino who steals a couple of scenes as their man friend Troy, who appears to be headed faster into a downward spiral than either Terry or Dean. Andrew never hesitates in making Troy a less than likable character whose toughness masks a serious self-loathing that is getting the best of him.

But one actor in particular who stands out here is Terra Hazelton who plays the waitress Trish. To say that she’s a force of nature here would not be putting it mildly. She’s more like a vicious tornado that’s out to destroy anything in its path, or at least anything that comes between her and Terry. Terra’s great at giving us one of the most selfishly manipulative girlfriends we would live to avoid, but she somehow kind of grows on you by the film’s end.

Rather than be a douche bag reviewer and give away all of the film’s funniest moments, I’ll instead tell you they involve household appliances and a way you can get paid without working (something we all dream of). Then there is the twisted philosophy of Dean which makes a little sense even though it really should not. You come to like these both these guys even though they are hopelessly naïve about the world around them.

“FUBAR: Balls To The Wall” is nothing new and doesn’t break any new ground in the realm of mockumentaries, but it is fun and engaging and does have its moments. You also have to admire the performances and how the actors all throw caution to the wind. Comedy acting still never gets the same respect as dramatic acting, but this film does act as proof that it’s a lot trickier to pull off. It does want to make me want to check out the first “FUBAR” movie which I understand has become quite the cult hit. I will be adding it to my Netflix rental queue shortly. I also got to get around to watching the one I rented. It’s been sitting on top of my printer gathering dust for far too long…

*** out of ****

In an interview with the New York Times, Casey Affleck confirmed that his documentary on Joaquin Phoenix was all “performance.” Many were wondering about that after they saw “I’m Still Here” which opened recently in Los Angeles, and the general consensus was that they couldn’t figure out if it was the real thing or if it was all a hoax. But the past two years of Joaquin growing a beard and gaining a lot of weight seemed to capture everyone’s attention, and many of us couldn’t stop thinking of him after he was on Letterman. So how does Casey himself see all us?

“It’s a terrific performance; it’s the performance of his (Joaquin Phoenix) career.”

“I never intended to trick anybody. The idea of a quote, hoax, unquote, never entered my mind.”

So what was “I’m Still Here” really all about? The way Casey explains it; he wanted audiences to experience the film’s narrative which was about the “disintegration of celebrity” and to view it without “the clutter of preconceived notions.” Casey and Joaquin both wanted this whole project to feel like it was really happening. For many people (including myself), they succeeded in making us believe it was the real deal.

I imagine there are a lot of people who are now rather pissed off about this being a mockumentary instead of a documentary. All the same, I bet those who say they knew it was a fake along are more likely covering their embarrassment, not wanting to reveal that they were so easily deceived by this charade that ended up lasting a couple of years. Then there was that article in Entertainment Weekly where Joaquin was quoted as saying that his whole breakdown and entrance in becoming a hip-hop artist was a put on and that Casey was going to film it all. But for those who saw “I’m Still Here,” that same columnist from the weekly magazine was interviewed by Casey, and he tried to convince her that none of this was a hoax. When asked to reveal her sources, she refused to do so.

Now I just saw this not actually real documentary the other week. Do I feel deceived? Well, I was along with many others (that includes those who won’t admit it) that were completely deceived, but I actually don’t feel all that angry about it. In fact, upon finding out the truth behind this feature being made clear to the world, I was really very much relieved. I so didn’t want any of what I saw in “I’m Still Here” to be true! After remembering how shocked I was to hear about his brother River’s death outside the Viper Room, it was disheartening to think that Joaquin is going down that same road, and you’d think he would know better than to do that to himself.

You know something? I find myself really admiring both Casey Affleck and especially Joaquin Phoenix for even attempting to go through with this. This is performance art of a whole other kind, and it proves once again that Joaquin is indeed one of the best actors today. Over the years, he has more than set himself apart from his famous brother and has never had to stay in his shadow thanks to great performances in “Parenthood” and “Walk The Line” among other movies. But even before all this happened, Joaquin always seemed like an odd person who never seemed comfortable being a celebrity let alone an actor. So now he is said to be returning to acting which I actually look forward to as it would be a shame to let his talent go to waste. But since this has been proven to have been a performance, I guess it’s safe to say that he never gave up acting in the first place.

As for Casey Affleck, he will return to acting as well, but the revealing truth behind “I’m Still Here” will probably change people’s perception of his work as a director. Upon its release, many reviewers slammed the movie as being technically inferior compared to others, but that was part of the plan. That whole opening sequence of a young Joaquin in Panama with his dad and on a ledge hesitantly waiting to jump into the water while his father watched? It was said to be a home movie, but Casey said the whole thing in Hawaii and cast actors unrelated to either him and that “crazy” actor, and he later put that same footage over a videocassette recording of “Paris, Texas” where he played it back and forth to degrade the image.

This whole act goes back to that William Shakespeare quote from “As You Like It” which I used to open my review of “I’m Still Here;” how all the world is a stage and all the men and women are merely players. People are going to be looking at this “documentary” differently now, and comparisons are being made between this and Sacha Baron Cohen’s work on “Borat” and “Bruno.” But the big difference there is although we all went into it knowing it really wasn’t really, and that made them easier to sit through (for some of us anyway). You never got that with Casey’s documentary because the line between what’s real and what is not becomes completely blurred, and it was like everyone involved didn’t care if you were uncomfortable. What truly mattered is that you experienced the movie more than anything else.

C’mon and admit it, you couldn’t figure out if this was staged the way “Borat” was. If you did, you either knew more than we all did or you’re just lying to yourself as well as to the rest of us.

To hell with it I say! My hat is off to both Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix for having the balls for taking it as far as they did. You may despise them for making everyone worry so much about poor Joaquin, but then again, there are so many other things we should be worrying about anyway like our economy, hanging onto our jobs, Karl Rove still having the power he has as a Republican strategist, etc. Perhaps that’s why the two of them went through with this; to show the world that being a celebrity is an isolating experience where you are focused on only you 24/7, and that there are a lot of things you really don’t need to see and probably shouldn’t. Let’s face it; we’re all a nation of voyeurs who no longer know when to step back from the scene of a crime. Everyone deserves their privacy, and if we don’t like we see, it won’t change the fact that we’re all part of the problem.

Honestly, I think Andy Kaufman would be proud of these two. I’m just glad that Joaquin’s act is all over, and that he is in fact NOT the reincarnation of lounge singer Tony Clifton. He’s going to be on David Letterman again soon, but as himself and not the bearded Unabomber wannabe he looked like before. Looks like this act is not over yet…

reported by Ben Kenber