The Machine

Nope, this just wasn't for me. We start off watching a pretty unfunny stand up routine from "Bert" (Bert Kreischer) that pretty quickly has an old Russian gent shooting at his telly! So far, I'm in accord with him. Turns out, though, that he's not just annoyed at the act, but that 20-odd years ago this comic robbed him on a train of a family artefact. Bent on retrieving this, he despatches daughter "Irina" (Iva Babic) to track him down and either reclaim his property or bring him to Russia for an unique sort of revenge. Meantime, "Bert" is going through the usual family crises, that have his therapist reaching for the shotgun, when his estranged father "Albert" (Mark Hamill) shows up for his granddaughter's sixteenth birthday. Lots of teena...

Happy surprises that come out of left field are sometimes the best, especially when it comes to low-concept comedies. I went in to the awful looking The Machine with below-zero expectations, but came out absolutely charmed by just about everything in the movie. Nothing about this film shouldve worked and it definitely shouldnt have ended up being as entertaining as it actually is, but here is one of those rare success stories where a little movie plays to its strengths and comes out on top.

Stand-up comedian Bert Kreischer rose to fame by recounting his drunken college exploits as The Machine, a nickname he was given as a result of his (supposedly true) experience with Russian mobsters in the early 1990s. Director Peter Atencio decided t...