Cathardincu
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
Iseerphia
All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.
Tayloriona
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
FlashCallahan
Chris Elliott plays a spoilt little rich kid who after finishing Fancy Boy school, will go on to run his fathers business.After being thrown out by his Limo driver, Elliott takes a wrong turn and ends up on a boat with a bunch of sea dogs who cannot stand rich people.And things go pretty crazy, and almost too Tim Burton....Its a random movie, full of plot holes, quite a bad script, a bad performance from Elliott, but never ever boring, Cabin Boy wreaked of Burton, and he may as well had directed it, because despite being involved in the production, the director doesn't seem to have an original idea in his head.The sets are fantastic, cheap looking, but so bonkers that they just seem to fit in, and the crew of the boat are great too.But that's where all the good stuff ends. Despite it being totally bonkers, its fairly predictable stuff, and you can see how its going to end from a mile off.But its never boring, and its worth watching the once, even to remind you of the disastrous year Letterman hosted the Oscars, and featuring his scene from this movie in it heavily...
MBunge
Imagine one of those weird little skits you used to see on Late Night with either David Letterman or Conan O'Brian. You know, one of those where some surreal character comes out and does some silly stuff for a minute or so and then goes away. Now imagine one of those skits without a host there to play straight man, no studio audience to draw energy from and it goes on for almost an hour and a half. Congratulations! You've now seen Cabin Boy.Nathanial Mayweather (Chris Elliott) is a prissy, fussy, arrogant, dimwitted son of a rich man. After graduating from finishing school is all his bewigged glory, Nathanial gets misdirected and instead of winding up on a luxury cruiser taking him home to Hawaii, he winds up a cabin boy on a fishing boat named The Filthy Whore. After a whole bunch of lame inanity with 4 grubby and overacting fishermen, Nathanial falls in love at first sight with a girl swimming around the world and must prove his manhood to her by having sex with the slutty 2nd cousin of the Hindu goddess Shiva. And that's not as funny as it may sound. After teaming up with a shark man to battle a giant appliance salesman (that's a giant salesman who sells appliances, not a regular size salesman who sells giant appliances), Nathanial realizes he no longer wants a life of aimless wealth and rides his new girlfriend out to sea. Again, not as funny as it may sound.This film is like a primer on why Letterman has gotten his ass kicked in the ratings by Jay Leno for years, why Conan bombed at The Tonight Show and hasn't set the world on fire at TBS and why there are so many comics beloved of other comics who never manage to achieve much mainstream success. There's a certain breed of comedian who are mainly focused on entertaining themselves. They're usually very bright and clever, oftentimes dark or subversive or edgy, but their humor is disconnected from or perpendicular to what other people find funny. They just make themselves laugh and if it amuses anyone else, that's a bonus. Such inwardly directed, almost defiant comedy can be hilarious to the general public in small bursts. It's essentially impossible to sustain it for a long period of time, something Cabin Boy makes agonizingly clear.I suppose disaffected, supercilious hipsters might find some laughs in this movie, or at least convince themselves to laugh at what they think only they are "with it" enough to appreciate. Normal folk will only stare at the screen in slackjawed amazement at how pitiful it all is. There's no narrative standard by which anything in this motion picture works. The attempts at humor are so fractured and esoteric that even stoned slackers would be hard pressed to summon up a giggle in response.Let me give you an example. Even back in 1994, goofy looking Chris Elliott was too balding and too bearded to play a kid fresh out of finishing school. We first see Nathanial when he's singing in a choir with his schoolmates. Now, a traditional attempt at comedy would fill the choir with fresh-faced teens and leave Elliott sticking out like a sore thumb. Cabin Boy fills the choir with guys who, just like Elliott, are far too old and too hirsute to pass for a student body. You see, you're supposed to anticipate the joke that would normally be told and instead appreciate them doing the complete opposite. This isn't smart humor. It's humor that wants to be applauded for being smart, which isn't the same at all.I quite enjoyed seeing Chris Elliott show up on the old Letterman show, not that I'm dating myself or anything. I didn't laugh or smile even once at this film. That pretty much says it all.
dangercracker
Yes, this is an excellent filmic achievement full of 'life truths' for the morally, mentally and socially compromised. (But please go out and buy the book this movie was not based upon: "The Shroud of the Thwacker" by one Sir Christopher Elliot. You will be amazed and enlightened.) When I recommend a film, I prefer to have actually seen the critter in the local cinema hall. I like to sit well back somewhere in the loges. If there are no loges, I will stand somewhere until told to take a seat. But enough of my personal peccadilloes. I did indeed attend a public screening of this delightful celluloid romp and was tickled by its wit and informed by its wisdom for many a moon thereafter. This 'flick'--if I may be so bold-- will one day be considered a classic in the genre as soon as the genre is identified. As a somewhat knowledgeable cineaste I encourage everyone to rent this stunning opus. It will heal your inner Ebert.
the-jerk
"Cabin Boy" is one of those movies that makes you glad to be alive. Chris Elliot shines in the role of Nathaniel Mayweather, a wealthy young man fresh out of finishing school, forced into a life at sea on a fishing boat with men not of his stature. Fine performances abound in this grand seafaring epic, including Brian Doyle-Murray as Skunk, Andy Richter as Kenny, Melora Walters as Trina, the swimmer who catches Nathaniel's heart, and Ann Magnuson as Calli, who cleans his pipes. Best of all is Ricki Lake with an astoundingly nuanced performance as The Filthy Whore's head. With rich cinematography, amazing special effects, and masterful direction by Adam Resnick (who also co-wrote the suspenseful and heartwarming screenplay with Elliot), this is one movie that you shouldn't miss if you're a fan of great seagoing adventure stories like "The Odyssey" and "Captain's Courageous". It's easily one of the greatest movies of this or any other generation; if I could rate higher than 10/10, I would do so with this one. The ending would make even the most hardened death row convict cry.
