Making of ...And God
Spoke, The
(Air Date: Week Of 10/19/94)
By Monica Sullivan
Soupy Sales as Moses, Eve Plumb as Mrs. Noah, Lou Ferrigno
as Cain, yeh, those are the 1st actors you think about when casting a Biblical
epic, right? "...And God Spoke" is a mockumentary on the making
of the nonexistent movie of the same name. It focuses on the trials and
tribulations of two independent producers (Clive Walton and Marvin Handleman,
played by Michael Riley and Stephen Rappaport) as they attempt to film
the best-selling book of all time. The team, best known for Alpha Deatha
De Kappa", "Dial S For Sex", and "Nude Ninjas",
now go after a target audience of four billion Bible readers.
Clearly, Clive and Marvin are not among that group: they're
unsure whether there were eight or ten disciples and their vision of the
loaves and fishes sequence (later scrapped for budgetary reasons) includes
Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers standing in for the fishes. Later, when
they get into deeper financial scrapes, Marvin agrees that Moses will include
a product placement pitch, delivering 20th century soft drinks as well
as commandments to the stock footage multitude from the 19th century. And
of course, despite scathing reviews, "...And God Spoke" is a
huge $42 million hit, attracting long lines of devoted groupies who wear
Biblical gear to repeat screenings.
As good-natured satire, "...And God Spoke" falls
somewhere in between "The Making Of Bikini School III" and "This
Is Spinal tap". The performances are energetic and clever, it's fun
to see Soupy, Jan Brady and the Incredible Hulk again and all in the same
movie, and it's blessedly short. If the entire movie had been in the same
vein as the auditions for casting agent Charlie Rose or the power clash
between Marvin and the A. D. in a staff meeting, "...And God Spoke"
would have been a non-stop side-splitter. As it, it's still a painless
way to spend 82 minutes at Landmark Theatres across the country.
Copyright 1994 Monica Sullivan
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