Review: Pizza Shop: The Movie (2013)

Pizza Shop tries too hard to be funny.

Directed by George O'Barts
Produced by George O'Barts
Written by George O'Barts
Starring Robert Bielfelt, Cian Patrick O'Dowd and Brett Buzek

*

Pizza Shop: The Movie is a new independent comedy of lowbrow humor. It follows the antics of the pizza delivery drivers at the titular shop, which features some of the worst customer service ever. While the guys try to survive in their dead-end jobs, they play pranks and make jokes at the expense of each other. The Pizza Shop is one big family of raucous, immature behavior, yet the guys do have other battles to fight, like a tip contest, overly-friendly customers and a potential restaurant investigation. Chaos reigns, which offers some fun, if uneven, moments in this film.

O'Barts' debut feature doesn't quite come together, but it's not without merit. The film has no shortage of jokes and comedic situations, and the premise of following these pizza guys is promising. However, the humor can be too disgusting or too forced at times. While some gross-out comedies work, this one overreaches for wit and one-liners, and the toilet humor is way over-the-top. Most of the actors appear to be nonprofessionals, and it shows. Granted, that goes with the territory in indie cinema, but the raunchy material doesn't really have the bite it needs, since the actors perform a lot of the dialogue awkwardly. The script and the actors just don't reach a balance here. Still, O'Barts' film does what it can with what it has, and a shoestring budget for a first-time director doesn't always produce the best work. Disappointing on the whole, it's hard not to root for this movie to succeed, even when it fails.

Learn more about this film at pizzashopthemovie.com.