Movie: Hundreds of Beavers
Production Company: SRH
Director: Mike Cheslik
Producers: Kurt Ravenwood, Matt Sabljak, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Sam Hogerton
Scriptwriters: Mike Cheslik, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
Main Cast: Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Olivia Graves, Wes Tanks, Doug Mancheski, Luis Rico
Release Date: September 29th 2022
Running Time: 108 minutes
Certificate: 12
Introduction
You wood’nt believe half of the things that happen in this film because Hundreds of Beavers often feels like both an homage to classic silent filmmaking and the sketch show insanity of the Eric Andre Show. Rarely has a film left us speechless yet Hundreds of Beavers manages it, whether it’s the many, many extras in beaver costumes that get murdered or the surprisingly good musical numbers there’s a new twist the film deploys to send the audience into riotous bouts of laughter. So, just like the film we’ll leave you wanting gnaw as we get into our review of this instant cult classic!
Synopsis
Hundreds of Beavers follows Jean Kayak (Tews), a formerly drunk cider brewer, who in an attempt to piece together his shattered life (caused by beavers destroying his cider orchards) decides to become a hunter. His decision to become a hunter is in no way influenced by his desire to marry the attractive daughter of The Master Fur Trapper (Tank): The Furrier (Banks). However, The Master Fur Trapper informs Jean there’s only one way he can ever marry his daughter and we’re sure you’ll never guess what he needs. If you guessed Hundreds of Beavers you’d be correct. Thus ensues an enormously silly beaver genocide which makes Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy look like amateur pelt hunters.
Analysis
The Comedy in Hundreds of Beavers
Simply put, there’s no better place to start than with the slapstick humour of Hundreds of Beavers. As mentioned in the introduction it’s an homage to classic silent film stars like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Three Stooges. But arguably the film’s biggest strength when it comes to its humour is how it milks every joke without ever running a joke into the ground. Take for example, the joke about Jean constantly summoning birds whenever he’s successfully cooking food. Despite happening multiple times in the space of a 30 minute stretch, the joke never feels forced and again feels like a beautiful homage to the silent film stars mentioned above.
And yes everyone of these animals is an extra in a very bad animal suit which arguably makes the interactions funnier. Arguably the best interaction in the early parts of the film is how despite his best efforts Jean can never catch a rabbit and even when he does a raccoon ends up taking it. Evidence of this can be seen in the scene where three raccoons in a tree get very fat by eating all of Jean’s captured rabbits. Cue a physical comedy gag…. And also on that topic of raccoons, that seems to be another homage to the Three Stooges as each raccoon gets comedically fat after nicking the rabbit. Honestly, we can;t get gnawnough of the fantastic throwback slapstick humour here.
Ryland Brickson Cole Rew’s Performance in Hundreds of Beavers
Another damn good part of the film is Ryland Brickson Cole Tews’s performance as well as the use of the beavers. Firstly on the performance, it’s a herculean effort as Tews puts himself through every single physical comedy joke there is. Whether it’s the intense screaming because he’s stepped on another pine cone or him getting slingshotted to save himself from wolves, Tews truly has a tour-de-force comedic performance not seen since Eric Andre’s most recent show. But the obvious highlight of Tews’s performance, other than the many, many, many silly slapstick gags, is the obvious interactions with the hundreds of beavers. There’s so many to choose from but our personal favourites are Beavlock Holmes and Boctor Watson (and we’re sure you can’t guess who those beavers are supposed to be parodying) and the giant mecha beaver.
On the former, these are two detectives who are investigating Jean’s ongoing beaver genocide but they aren’t very good at their jobs seeing as how it takes them hundreds of dead beavers before they finally catch Jean. Also, see Watson fainting on Holmes as another great example of their performance. And on the latter point, the ending sees Jean rolling a giant snowball, which is actually just as a massive bag full of dead beavers, as he attempts to escape a giant mecha beaver made up of tons of individual beavers. Even just saying that makes us laugh. Simply put, if you can track this film down it’s a dam good watch.
Summary
To summarise Hundreds of Beavers, this is a mental and hilarious film which will leave your sides dam sore after the viewing in the best possible way. Through sheer force of will, Hundreds of Beavers will break you down and leave you cackling mostly from the sheer stupidity of the slapstick comedy. How this film hasn’t received wider release and praise truly has us stumped but Hundreds of Beavers leaves you wanting gnaw in the best possible way.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10 – Excellent
Target Audience: 12+
Content Warning: Strong Violence and Gore, Mild Frightening and Intense Scenes, Mild Alcohol, Drugs and Smoking
Recommendation: Yes
