Sidekicks
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Sidekicks |
| Original title | Sidekicks |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1992 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Aaron Norris |
| script |
Galen Thompson Lou Illar |
| production | Don Carmody |
| music | Alan Silvestri |
| camera | João Fernandes |
| cut |
Bernard Weiser David Rawlins |
| occupation | |
| |
Sidekicks is an American sports film from the year 1992 with Chuck Norris and Jonathan Brandis in the lead roles. The film had its world premiere in Germany on December 17, 1992.
action
Barry Gabrewski, suffering from asthma, is a daydreamer. While he is at school, he dreams of experiencing adventures with Chuck Norris as his sidekick . After such a dream, in which he and Norris fought as a disguised white ninja against several black ninja in order to free Ms. Noreen Chan, his teacher, he is laughed at by the whole class because he was talking out loud to himself what he just experienced in a dream. Ms. Chan then invites Barry's father, Jerry Gabrewski, to a parenting interview , where he tells her that it is not easy for him as a single father and that Barry is a big fan of Chuck Norris. So he decides to enroll his son in Kelly Stone's karate school. Barry initially likes this idea before realizing that Stone is less interested in the philosophy of karate than in fighting itself and doesn't think much of Chuck Norris at all. With that, Barry rejects a membership and immediately has an ideal villain whom he can defeat in his daydreams together with Chuck Norris.
Unexpectedly, however, Mr. Lee, Chan's uncle, who works as a cook in the family restaurant, signs up as a possible martial arts instructor who would be only too happy to teach Barry something. However, after giving Barry the battle name “Mr. Knödelmann “and the first lesson was that life is confusing, he is not at all convinced of it. Barry is only convinced when Mr. Lee kills a rampaging rocker gang in his restaurant. And he can use that too, because Randy teases and beats him again and again at school. Physical education with Mr. Horn is tough and Lauren doesn't seem to like him but just pity him. As a result, he throws away his asthma spray in disappointment, has a seizure and is hospitalized. Mr. Lee takes care of him so well that Barry can now be trained. He is making such good progress that he dares to take part in Horn's physical education classes. After this small success Barry receives from Mr. Lee nunchakus , with whom he should practice. Since his training is always successful, he builds so much self-confidence that he defends himself against Randy for the first time. He strikes back and the little scuffle has to be interrupted by Mr. Horn. He congratulates Barry because he has finally built up self-confidence. The other students are happy with him, and Lauren makes an appointment with him. From then on, Barry no longer dreams of saving Mrs. Chan, but Lauren.
But Randy doesn’t let this shame sit on him for long and challenges Barry to a karate competition. Barry accepts and wants to compete with Mrs. Chan and Mr. Lee. Unfortunately, only teams of four are allowed. However, since Chuck Norris attends the competition, he agrees to Chan's request to join her team. In the first round, Mrs. Chan shows her choreography, in the second Mr. Lee smashes stacked stones with his bare hand, and in the third round, Barry presents an elaborate battle choreography with his nunchucks. The fourth round consists of a hand-to-hand fight in which Stone takes on Chuck Norris. Stone lets his hatred of Norris run wild and lands bad hits with some unfair attacks. But Chuck Norris does not let himself be disturbed and wins the fight. As a result, Stone is defeated, but still not won the competition, because in terms of points, Barry's team, Frying Dragon , and Kelly Stone's team, Stone Karate , each have 36 points, which is why a decisive competition is needed. Randy and Barry are chosen to take the stone crushing victory. Both can be placed six stones and both knock them through. In the second round, Randy has nine stones placed, of which he only smashes seven. Barry hits the stage, concentrates, and smashes all nine stones, Frying Dragon wins. At the end, Chuck says goodbye by saying that dreams come true if you only firmly believe in them.
criticism
James Berardinelli wrote that the film must be credited with saying that it was not too good to laugh at itself. However, he also criticized that the film "offers no likeable character, credible script or strong portrayal". The biggest problem lies in the fact that he is “not subtle” and over-stylizes the good as well as the bad characters.
For Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly , the film was “a strange mixture of the Karate Kid and The Double Life of Mr. Mitty .” The film begins for him with a promise, which is that “Jonathan Brandis is more charismatic than Chuck Norris” and “the Fantasies parody the clichés of action films. ”But unfortunately this does not translate into the real world, in which the film is a“ shambles ”and spreads its pseudo-Zen nonsense with“ hypocritical messages ”.
Richard Harrington of the Washington Post also saw in the film a “Mr. Mitty of the 90s who would dream of being the karate kid.” In this “unconventional family film”, Brandis is “convincing” and Chuck Norris is “friendly and lovely because he's parodying himself and otherwise just being himself. ”The production was“ solid, ”although he found“ Alan Silvestri's overloaded music ”to be“ annoying ”, but“ maybe this was just part of the parody. ”
Even Roger Ebert saw a rather unoriginal, but at least "comical, though vorausschaubaren" movie. He also said that "the movie's biggest surprise is that Chuck Norris is playing himself in the movie," adding that he was "believable in his role, not because he's playing himself, it's because." he's the kind of nice person who would actually do something like that. ”In addition,“ Mako is believable ”because his“ mixture of chaos and comedy is strangely lovely ”.
In the New York Times , Stephen Holden praised Brandis for "honest representation" and criticized the film for being "burdened by the script". He also said that the “extravagantly costumed parodies of different genres, from westerns to war films, are meant to be funny. But they are so broad, unfocused and senselessly overloaded that they collapse under their own weight. "
The lexicon of the international film said: "Despite known set pieces and foreseeable plot an entertaining film through ironic breaks, especially for karate friends."
background
The film's funding was preceded by the story that Norris was promoting a charitable foundation in Houston that looked after drug-addicted children. Entrepreneur's wife Jim McIngvale donated $ 50,000 to his cause. When Norris casually mentioned the problems he was having with funding his new film, Mrs. McIngvale wrote a check for $ 250,000 and invested in Norris' project. Her husband heard about it and later became the film's sole investor. He raised a manufacturing budget of $ 9 million and paid another $ 7 million into the marketing campaign, investing 40% of his assets. In an interview he said that the film would have to bring in at least 20 million US dollars and have a strong video rental company in order for it to have earned what it paid for.
Filming took place in Texas from November 1991 to January 1992 .
The film opened in the United States on April 9, 1993 and grossed 3.9 million US dollars on the first weekend, which put it in second place on the box office after An Immoral Offer . In total, Sidekicks brought in $ 17.1 million at the box office in the United States alone.
The dream sequences are based on films with Chuck Norris. These are McQuade, the Wolf , Octagon , Missing in Action and The Hitman .
Web links
- Sidekicks in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Sidekicks in the online film database
- Side kicks at rotten tomatoes (English)
- 'Sidekicks' Wakes Them Up to Some Truths About Achieving Dreams , Los Angeles Times
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Berardinelli : Sidekicks. In: reelviews.net , April 30, 1993, accessed April 24, 2012.
- ^ Ty Burr: Sidekicks (1993). In: Entertainment Weekly In: May 21, 1993, accessed April 24, 2012.
- ↑ Richard Harrington: Sidekicks' (PG) In: The Washington Post , April 30, 1993, accessed April 24, 2012.
- ↑ Roger Ebert : Sidekicks. In: Chicago Sun-Times , April 30, 2012, accessed April 24, 2012.
- ↑ Stephen Holden : Sidekicks (1993) In: The New York Times , May 1, 1993, accessed April 24, 2012.
- ^ Sidekicks in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed April 23, 2012.
- ↑ James Bates: Strange Bedfellows: Texas Mattress Mogul Kicks In King-Size Bucks to Fund Chuck Norris Movie. In: Los Angeles Times , April 16, 1993, accessed April 24, 2012.
- ↑ John Evan Frook: Texas steps up film ties biy self-marketing film. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Variety , April 5, 1993, accessed April 24, 2012.
- ↑ Tobias Hohmann: Norris, Hille 2013, pp. 284f.
- ↑ Robert W. Welkos: A look inside Hollywood and the movies: 'SIDE KICKS' SAGA 'Mattress Mack' Markets a Winner. In: Los Angeles Times , May 7, 1993, accessed April 24, 2012.
- ↑ Sidekicks. In: boxofficemojo.com , accessed April 24, 2012.
