Hey folks, Harry here with SMILIN JACK RUBY writing away like you wouldn't believe about a film called SPROCKETS. Ol Moriarty wrote a review about this script about 600 stories ago and even had a mention in a recent Rumblings... but, we haven't heard all that much about the project other than it's funny as hell, and how the mainstream press ruined one of the key surprises of the film. Sigh. Anyways... there are spoilers, but they are labeled. Read on about the next flick from that sexy baby named Michael Myers....

With the news that Hasselhoff has signed on to do "Sprockets," the time seemed about right to file a script review as many, I'm sure, are wondering if this is going to be another "Austin Powers" like all the studios are praying nightly for it to be.

Guess what? It's not. Is this a bad thing? Hell, no.

Is it funny like "Austin Powers?" In many instances, definitely. I was laughing my head off throughout the whole thing and handing it off to whoever was nearby so that they could see what was so funny. Yep, they all found it funny, too. Big, big laughs in this one. However, "Austin Powers" is satirizing a lot of things in American popular culture - everybody knows James Bond, everyone knows the Beatles, and for those who didn't know "Our Man Flint" or "Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs," it was something of an education.

"Sprockets" satirizes that special time in German cinematic history when greats like Herzog and Fassbinder were knocking 'em dead (or at least for a loop) every year at the Berlin International Film Festival and moves on to the happy days of Wim Wenders. When I got to the cameo by Bruno Ganz, I laughed my head off. Yes, a spoof of "Wings of Desire" could be funny as hell, but wasn't "City of Angels" enough?

If you haven't picked up on the plot, basically it's that Dieter, the leading television personality in Germany is in a bit of a jealous fight against Klaus, his uber-popular co-host. When Klaus is kidnapped and brought to America, Dieter must rush to Hollywood to save his friend. Perfect right? You get time in Germany to satirize the Dieter-ized German culture, but then you come to Hollywood and allow Dieter to go crazy and satirize everything American (and on top of that, everything horrifyingly Hollywood) especially as he is staying with his distant American relatives.

So why the reservations? Do you remember Sprockets? It was funny, it was a sketch, it was a talk-show with a bizarre host and the bits that made it up, gags about Dieter's bizarrely expressionistic dreams and East German home videos, that was funny in sketch format. I am worried that there are times in "Sprockets" that it feels more like one of those typical SNL movies like "Stuart Saves His Family" or "It's Pat" that focuses on a single character and never makes it past that little world. "Austin Powers" was a damn epic in its scope compared to "It's Pat." Is that harsh? Probably. Once it's on the screen, I'll probably be eating my words, but from reading the script, I don't think the audiences that ate up Austin will give the exact same treatement to Dieter. Austin was a swinging, sex machine who was put in a time where he couldn't score and had to learn to adjust. He was sympathetic. Dieter is a prick asshole who gets his comeuppance. The box office take just isn't the same. Again, this isn't a bad thing, but it does mean that people going in expecting one thing rather than another might be surprised.

But why concentrate on the box office?

One really good thing about "Sprockets" is the Hollywood satire. Some of it seems as if Myers really, really wanted to do a movie making fun of all the odd peculiarities that make L.A. such a big joke a lot of the time (yes, I live here). The innumerable jokes never really fall flat and move the plot right along.

Now, for those that think Hasselhoff is some kind of cameo, that's not the case. He's in this just as much as Dr. Evil in the "Powers" movies and is more than just a running joke. There are many, many Hasselhoff jokes, but I don't think this is in the neighborhood of "Spy Hard" where Andy Griffith played a villian in an instance of outright stunt casting. Yes, it will be very weird to watch Myers and Hasselhoff do "Sprockets," surreal in fact with some of the things Myers has prescribed for this pic. There is another ongoing cameo by a formerly popular television personality that apparently had a relationship with Dieter previously, but that just adds to the incredibly surreal plot.

*END SPOILERS*

Is there something that will be fixed before it comes to the big screen? Well, there's nothing really to fix. It's a rather hilarious script that will more than likely make a hilarious movie and people will return to saying Dieter-isms like "You are a silly bitch" and "You are as agonizing as life itself." The opening fifteen minutes or so that set up Dieter's world in Germany is incredibly funny and absurd and I can't wait to see the film.

Does this review make sense? Probably not. Should it? Not if my patricide/matricide later today means anything to anybody. What did the rooster say at dawn? Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance!

-Smilin' Jack Ruby