MovieChat Forums > The Big Kahuna (2000) Discussion > Nice community theater piece... not a mo...

Nice community theater piece... not a movie, though

posted 19 years ago by joecatsito
8 replies | jump to latest

A small, hemmed in, cramped film in almost all respects 'The Big Kahuna' is based on the play 'Hospitality Suite' and its small town theater feel shows through. Set almost entirely in a hospitality suite at an industrial lubricants convention, 'Kahuna' feels unintentionally claustrophobic and the stilted dialogue that comes out of every character's mouth doesn't help things either. The film wavers between dull and cliche and no amount of overacting from a tedious Spacey is going to save us.

When the examination of the human condition through the lens of "sales" has already been done before (and better) in works like 'Death of a Salesman' and 'Glengarry, Glen Ross', what does 'Kahuna' offer us? Lots of talking and talking. Two or three people in a room, one having a deeply personal crisis, another a deeply religious one and all three of them revealing themselves in a stream-of-consciousness yielding such lines as, "Don't you quote scripture to me, Bob!" and "Larry, do you love me?" Spacey spends the first hour of the film overacting with the same kind of callousness he brings to Larry's character that he brought to 'Swimming with Sharks'. Then, suddenly, as the long night drags on, Larry softens up a bit extending himself emotionally to a recently divorced Phil (DeVito). DeVito spends a lot of time saying, "We'll be all right," and staring pensively off into space or letting his eyes get all dewy with emotion (about what? His divorce? His desire to get out of the sales business? Who cares?)

Then we have Bob, the clean-cut devout Christian who cannot seem to talk to anyone without bringing God into the conversation. All fine and good, but it becomes clear very quickly that Bob has chosen the wrong profession when he speaks to the elusive Kahuna of the title on two separate occaisions and bends the guy's ear about Jesus both times when he's really there to land a lubricant contract. "But I think that's important!" Bob shouts at Larry. I kept thinking, 'Um, yeah sure it is. Follow your heart. Go be an evangelist. Knock yourself out kid. Just get out of this movie because I don't see the point of your being here.' Plus, I know enough devout Christians who are capable of separating their work and their God. Bob, on the other hand, strikes me as a useless simpleton. Maybe the director was trying to say something about religion or morality or purpose in life, but all I got out of it was the equivalent of cienematic tofu.

These guys got stiffed with a lousy script.

[–] breadwithbutterandsugar 19 years ago

joe, you said that Bob strikes you as a useless simpleton. i think that was what the director was hoping you would feel about Bob. around the beginning of the movie, bob wonders if he would know if he had character. danny de vito, later repsponds telling bob that he doesn't have any character because he hasn't done anything that he regrets. this was after bob had met with the big kahuna, and talked about God instead of lubricants. in the pagan perspective, bob was being selfish, even though he might not have been consciously aware of it. he was selfish because he ignored the needs of his fellow co-workers, and was working at his own agenda. this was what kevin spacey was trying to get at when he was asking bob how the conversation came around to a religious topic, and how bob was a dislocated arm entity.

i haven't thought about evangelism in this way, and thought it was an interesting perspective

[–] rzajac 18 years ago

Yes yes yes.

I think the screenwriter must have gone through an extensive exercise in working out all the qualifiers and provisos because it goes further than to address evangelism as a disconnected activity. The last question is, "What if Bob *was* fully ready, willing, and able to fulfill his company function, but the circumstances genuinely (as he saw it) called for him to meet The Big Kahuna's genuine spiritual needs?" I think this is addressed in ths "Do you love me" interlude during the all-night vigil between Phil and Larry. Phil quotes the Bible verse about "Greater love hath no man...." Neither Phil nor Larry, for the life of them, could conjure up a tangible scenario where such a transaction might take place. But is this precisely what was going on when Bob met the Kahuna? Does Phil have a silent understanding that some life was being sacrificed for a greater good? *Was* it a greater good? I don't think Phil is convinced, but he's going through changes, questioning his life, wondering if somehow he let a dream slide; he's going to be naturally more poised to sniff out the possiblity of something glorious hidden in an act of professional suicide.

I'd like to address a couple of issues raised by the guy/gal to whom breadwithbutterandsugar replies.

As for the accusation that Kahuna is a mere theatre piece; I have never had a problem with that, as long as the product is good. It's an interesting cinematic niche; "community" theatre writ large through awesome casting and the benefit of rarified set and props work, and of course shot and editing work. No complaints here.

Did Spacey overact? Hmm. I'll think on that one. I guess it's a matter of personal taste. Spacey does emit an odor of his stage roots, but I prefer to see it as a sweet savour. I've always been a fairly strong patron of live theatre, so I have an attraction to that. Some say the mark of the best artist is that you can't see the craft. There's something about Spacey where you can sort of see the craft, and can objectify and assess it, and you assess it as good, if not stellar. Is that wrong? Maybe it is. The important point is this: I found myself being and keeping focused on the psychological play. I guess that's the best and ultimate issue for a production like this; does the viewer lose the multiple threads of a complex logistical and emotional tapestry? I didn't.

OK?

[–] MrMcOrange 18 years ago

I originally saw The Big Kahuna on the movie network several years ago. I was playing computer games while it was on in the background, and I never really noticed it at first. After a little while I started to watch it and become completely drawn in to it. It played again several times over the next few days and I watch it from the beginning. It has since become one of my favorite movies, mainly because of the mere simplicity of it. There are no computer graphics or special effects, there is just smart dialogue that seems genuine and real. I thought after the movie and realized that there were only really 3 people in the entire film...I doubt many other films with a cast this small could have produced such a film this good.

It makes you think about a lot of things and examine some of it's important messages, such as the difference between pitching a sale (wether for goods or Gods) and being genuine.

[–] philihp-1 18 years ago

Yeah... good movies are like that. A good thing that clues me in that a movie is great is noting that every line in the piece has purpose.

[–] Sitcom_Sally 14 years ago

Phil didn't say that Bob didn't have character because he had not done anything he regrets. He said that he had done regretful things, but just had not yet recognized them as such. When he does he'll have character.

"Norma...please...paint something cool today." - Mrs. Bronson

[–] gamenhordez 18 years ago

I think you need to be 40 have a few things you sold out on for the sake of this that or the other and a few things you regret and would like to do again to truely appreciate this movie. Either that or be an enlightened youth who thinks and maybe is blessed with a lesser chance of having to endure the things that solidify some as human and the rest as fodder in the great cog known as life.

[–] ageleven11 14 years ago

This was Kevin Spacey's directorial debut. Most directors that make their first movie use one location for practice making a film.

[–] Hythlodaeus 14 years ago

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing - I enjoyed it but it reminded me of what I would have seen at our local Playwright's Project.

What hump?