Starring: Rick Parfitt, Francis Rossi, Laura Aikman
British rockers Status Quo (Andrew Bown, Leon Cave, John
'Rhino' Edwards, Parfitt, Rossi) do a set of dates in Fiji, which go down well
with the Fijians, even when guitarist Rick Parfitt is falsely reported dead at
some point. On a walk after their last show in Fiji, Parfitt and band ate
Francis Rossi come across a game of Russian Roulette and witness a murder. Can
Quo bring a gangster (Jon Lovitz) to justice?
Although Bula Quo has received a theatrical release, it
was originally intended as a straight to DVD feature and this pretty obvious.
The entire film is lightweight and throwaway in the extreme. A rather silly
comedy, Bula Quo achieves a strange feat of taking a rather heavy and adult
concept (rock band on tour, murder, gangsters, Russian Roulette and even organ
harvesting) and makes something soft out of it. Granted, Status Quo are rather
cuddly as rock bands go and the film plays this to the hilt, but potential
violence and grit is the only thing that's hacked off. The usage of Fiji is nice,
but it seems petty clear that it's just there for set dressing (although Quo's
popularity in Fiji may be genuine) however, the use of locals in the film
(which borders on the outright offensive at times) does sour things. Obviously
Parfitt and Rossi don't make their bread as actors, bu generally the
performances are pretty flawed, even the
usually brilliant Jon Lovitz cruises this. Bula Quo will never be seen
as a masterpiece, in fact it's more of an embarrassment. However, it has charm
(if only within irony) and it's clear that good or bad that at the core of this
are a group of musicians in their autumn years having the time of their lives.
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