The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch (2003)

Please don't spend money on this.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I recently acquired the full Rutles set (albums and all) on the basis that it is my dad's favourite movie (and thus by osmosis one of mine along with everything Python related). I decided to watch the first one knowing full well that it probably hadn't aged as well compared to the memory of my teenage watching of it.Having just come home from watching the Python Live (One Down, Five to Go Show) I was on a Python high. My dream of finally watching the Python's live had come true and I (as well as my wife who didn't have a Python loving family and thus is reluctantly late to the Python game) was on a Python high.So, having exhausted pretty much every other Python related venue (except for Jabberwocky), Rutles seemed to be a good choice. And surprisingly it was. I even did a rare spit take, showering my wife's laptop with wine at how Barry was included in the band.And then we (or really, I) made the decision to watch the sequel. With casual dread naturally. This being a 2002 project it was contemporary to the painful "new material" of the re-re-re-release of the Holy Grail DVD. So my expectations were set suitably low.My relief at how actually funny the second round was a surprise like no other. Maybe it was my expectation. Maybe it was the fact that a rethread of the same subject was suitably fitting considering how every Beatles documentary ever is the same (meta-commentary?). Maybe it was the fact that Eric Idle is naturally funny. Maybe that the celebrity cameos have increased their status in the later years (Unexpected Jimmy Fallon?). Maybe how the re- thread was in the style of VH1's Behind the Music - a genre unto its own? Or maybe just how obvious it was that Idle had dragged his coat around to his many holidays and filmed short sequences with a shitty hand-held DV camera for so many scenes.Whatever it was, it was worth the effort. I will gladly show this to my dad. My dad, who performs covers of the Beatles and will drop in a verse of Get Up And Go Back Home into every rendition of Get Back even if the audience has no idea what's going on.

This movie isn't as funny as the first one, mainly because it contains not that much footage. The only "new" thing is the music. The play some songs from "archaeology".But not in a good way. For example. When the rutles are playing "easy listening" They use the video from "living in Hope".The interviews are very funny, and the video/audio quality is great. When you enjoyed the first rutles film, I think you should see this one. And It's possible to see only this one, and maybe later the first one. Because it is not about the story, It's about the jokes. And the story is pretty much the same as the Beatles's but with jokes.

This complete waste of time seems to be rather badly patched together out of out-takes from the first film, new footage of Eric Idle and a bunch of talking head celebrity interviews.The new Eric Idle footage scores the best and has the most laughs. However, jokes about tight trousers being the reason for the group's success get old and tiresome rather quickly.Much of the celebrity interviews are inexplicable. Jewel fares the worst, seeming like she's not sure if she understands the joke, or if there even is one. Even if the Rutles were a real band I don't see how they could have possibly inspired people like Gary Shandling and Steve Martin. The problem here is that the musicians interviewed aren't funny and the comedians interviewed are out of place. Tom Hanks and Conan O' Brian fare best in gamely trying to play along, but the result is awkward, forced and quite often unfunny.Like another person here mentioned I would like to have seen an update of the Rutles today, but with the Lennon assassination, it would be in poor taste to parody the Beatles post-breakup years. Much of this film feels like it's unfinished, and I wonder if Eric Idle was considering filming new footage and then scaling down the celebrity interviews. In it's current state, it's a sorry mess and it's not hard to see why it sat on the shelf for a couple of years.Stick to the original, and forget this exists.

Most outings from Python alumni are good for at least one good, hard belly laugh. Unfortunately, that is most definitely NOT the case with "Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch". I'm not kidding. Not ONCE did I laugh. If I'd actually been able to find & purchase this sold-out-at-all-stores-I-went-to travesty instead of borrowing it from a friend, I honestly would've taken it back for a refund or an exchange for something good.Creator Eric Idle had carped about WB leaving this sequel to languish in the vaults "until I should pass away". Trust me, they should have. It's the one time I think "studio wisdom" actually should've been applied. And what REALLY steams me is that I was one of the most vocal lobbyists to get WB to finally release it on DVD. I was mildly worried when one of the two previews on the DVD's official website featured former SNLer Jimmy Fallon.It was nothing compared to the disappointment that was to follow.Instead of treating rabid fans of "The Prefab Four" to new footage of those wacky Liverpudlians & what anarchic mischief they've been up to since The Rutles' demise in 1970, we are fed unused footage from the 1978 -- & highly superior -- "The Rutles: All You Need is Cash", & even most of that was seen in the special features of that DVD. NO new appearances from Neil Innes (Ron Nasty), John Halsey (Barry Wom), or Rikki Fataar (Stig O'Hara) were presented to go along with this inferior rehash of a brilliant mockumentary, which obviously inspired the likes of "This Is Spinal Tap", "Bad News", & "Dill Scallion", all funny & all definitely owing a debt of gratitude to Idle's vision.Shortly after "The Beatles Anthology" was released, Neil Innes & Co. returned to the studio to record "The Rutles Archaeology". Innes contacted Idle to invite him to reprise his role as Dirk McQuickly for the video of "Shangri-La", but Idle turned him down, saying that it'd been done before & he had no time to retread old ground. He should either have stuck to that statement or taken Innes up on the offer. The second Rutles' album was MUCH truer to the original (in some instances, even funnier!) than Idle's movie. Had Idle reprised his role, maybe he would've remembered what made it so funny to begin with.The new interviews (featuring the likes of Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Bonnie Raitt, Salman Rushdie[?!]) again feature nothing new or humorous. And the whole "trousers" thing? It was (is) funny for the brief mentions in the original, but it feels like it's being beaten to death in the sequel.I wish I'd been that fortunate, either before or after sitting through this. Having survived "Rutles 2", I'll never complain about having to go to the dentist's office again.