THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACKYARD
creators' Web site
Web site for downloading @ TheForce.Net

Read an interview with co-writer/director/actor Darren Scales

review written 2/23/2003

Parodies don't get much more ambitious than this. Sets. Costumes. CGI. I've seen "serious" fan films do worse jobs on their production values than this. But the Backyard Productions team knows how to do things the right way.

TESBY's (you know a flick is good when everyone uses the "standard" abbreviation for it) ambition is also its downfall. It's simply too damn long, and gets caught up in telling a story when it should be just moving on to the next joke. The opening scene with Palpatine (played ably by co-writer/director/actor in about eighty other roles Darren Scales) and the bounty hunters (all in neat costumes) isn't badly executed, but the material simply isn't there, and the movie drags.

When TESBY does work, it works well. The Jedi Council scenes are hilarious; extra kudos for taking Yoda's "fear leads to anger" speech, funny in this context, and editing it into something completely different in the trailer! And the nonverbal communication—we all see TPM, we know what shots are being mocked here.

The acting is good all around, and the fact that some actors play multiple roles adds to the fun. Perhaps the fact that this group is British is making me say this, but it all has a very Monty Python feel to it. Unfortunately, it's more Meaning of Life than Holy Grail.

Thirty-five minutes into the film we get something so unexpected, so surreal and so gleefully perfect that it makes you realize that this film belongs on your hard drive forever. Oddly enough, the lesson we take from it is much the way I feel about TESBY. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. And TESBY finishes better than most films achieve anywhere in their running time.

The "Making of" segment at the end not only saves the credits from being intolerably long and repetitive, but proves that the Backyarders can handle all sorts of comedy; unhampered by a structure or a real plot, this part shines, and not just 'cause of the bloopers. There's wit here. Improvisational fun, even.

TESBY is worth watching to find those diamonds in the rough. Believe the hype. And don't you dare skip to the end before you've seen the whole thing.