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Waiting for Guffman
1996

One of the funniest movies ever. Five stars out of five.

Review

What happens when the small fictional town of Blaine, Missouri puts on a show to celebrate its 150th anniversary? This film holds the answer, and that answer is absolutely positively hilarious.

When Christopher Guest and co. were making Waiting for Guffman, just about the only thing they actually scripted was the play itself, titled "Red, White and Blaine." The rest was improvised. The result is a wacky adventure that you won't soon forget.

Now for the bad parts: there are none. Yup, there are literally no things I dislike about this movie. At all. Except, I suppose, that it's not longer. Not that it's short -- it's just that I'd always be up for more of this. That's about all I have to say on the matter.

All in all, Waiting for Guffman is one the very funniest movies I've ever seen. EVER. Go rent it -- you're doing yourself a favor. Five stars out of five. Also recommended: Christopher Guest's other movies, including Best in Show and This is Spinal Tap.

Summary

Back during the days of Western Expansion, Blaine Fabin led his caravan of covered wagons towards California. One night, he returned to the camp they had set up and gave some shocking news to his followers: he had smelled the ocean -- they had reached their destination! Of course, they weren't actually in California -- they were in what was to become Blaine, Missouri. It turned out that the followers of Blaine Fabin didn't really care, though, so they just stayed there.

Fast-forward 150 years. Blaine is having an anniversary party, and they get Corky St. Clair to put on a show. Corky, in turn, gets of a cast of seasoned professionals, including a dentist, two travel agents, and one Dairy Queen employee.

Corky, who used to work in the theatre business back in New York, then receives a letter from Mr. Mort Guffman, a Broadway guy who's interested in the show and is going to come out to see it. Everyone, of course, gets all excited about that -- Corky suggests that they might go to Broadway -- but will Mr. Guffman arrive in time to see "Red, White and Blaine"? You'll just have to see the movie to find out!