Salon Arts & Entertainment,
Slumdog comedian in Bollywood Hero
on IFC, August 6, 7, and 8.
Chek out your local cable listings.
"SNL" alum Chris Kattan exports his desperation in IFC's sweet summer miniseries "Bollywood Hero"
By Heather Havrilesky
Aug. 4, 2009 | "Didn't you play the half-monkey man that ate the peanuts?"
Chris Kattan grimaces at this remark by a stranger at a Hollywood party, but that grimace only reminds us of Mr. Peepers -- or Mango or Gollum or the other manic characters he played in his stint on "Saturday Night Live." As Kattan watches Keanu Reeves attract a circle of hot girls at the party while he only attracts curiosity, he finds himself wanting more.
"When I was a kid I wanted to be Indiana Jones," Kattan tells us in the opening moments of "Bollywood Hero," IFC's three-part miniseries that airs this week (10 p.m. Aug. 6, 7 and 8 on IFC). "This year I told my agent I wouldn't take any more acting jobs until he actually found me something different, a part where I'm the leading man or I’m the hero, the role I always dreamed of playing." Kattan says he wants to "fight the bad guys" and "sleep with attractive women." Understandable, sure, but ... can Mr. Peepers really be serious?
Presumably Kattan plays a desperate, pathetic version of himself in this odd little three-hour romp that's exactly as charming and uneven and hokey as so many indie comedies. Whether Kattan is being humiliated or acting like a jackass or getting dance lessons from the elderly Indian grandmother, he embodies that strange subgenre of toothless indie comedy that makes fun of itself but has no edge whatsoever.
Think "The Full Monty." Think "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Funny, yes, but in a way that's almost embarrassing, a way that has you and your mom and your grandmother cackling in unison.
Read more: http://www.salon.com:80/ent/tv/review/2009/08/04/bollywood_hero/index.html?source=newsletter
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