LAND HO! – The Review

What land does the title refer to, you may ask? Why, it’s Iceland, of course. Now, that’s a trip and a half! This film continues the comedy traditions of a couple of “fish out of water” foreigners having a wacky adventure on foreign or unfamiliar soil. That set-up may have been best exploited by comic Bob Hope and crooner Bing Crosby when they crisscrossed the globe from 1940 to 1960 in the seven films often referred to as the “Road” pictures. Most recently British comedy stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon hit the road for the hilarious TV show and film THE TRIP (looking forward to THE TRIP TO ITALY in a few short weeks). The new film LAND HO! gives that idea a fresh twist by using documentary techniques and by making the two travelers a bit…well quite a bit, older. While most men of their age are settling in for retirement, these duffers are ready to explore! Cinema ho…!

The heroes of this flick couldn’t be more different, a true “odd couple”. What brought them together? They married sisters. The loud, burly, gravelly voiced, Kentucky-born Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson) is a retired doctor who divorced his wife several years ago. Soft-spoken Aussie Colin (Paul Eenhoorn), former musician and bank manager, is a widower from his first marriage (to Mitch’s ex-sister-in-law), and has just gone through a nasty divorce from wife #2. When Colin pays a visit to Mitch’s backwoods estate, the old pal surprises him. Mitch has arranged a trip to Iceland for just the two of them, and he’s picking up the tab. Colin protests, the forceful Mitch persists, and soon they’re on the distant island. Over the course of the next few days the explore nightlife in Reykjavik when Mitch’s college-age once-removed cousin and her girlfriend have a flight layover, and then the two men rent a hulking SVU and drive to exotic locals, cold mountains,  hot springs, and encounter the colorful locals and other tourists.

And that’s really it. A senior vacation actually. But the film makers did have me going for a bit. For a good while I thought a documentary crew was following these fellas around. That is until the situations became a tad contrived. Many scenes seemed improvised in a “lets’ put the boys here and see if something finny happens” way. I couldn’t buy them tromping through a local art gallery, stopping to comment on every piece. And other bits such as the guys getting “glo-stix’ from a woozy club kid or Mitch trapping two newlyweds in a lobby never really pay off and are stiff and stilted. The same could be said for the “cuz” and her pal, particularly when she tells a ghost story that seems to go on and on and…Perhaps this may be due to the main characters. A little of Mitch goes a long, looong way! At times Nelson plays him as a stereotypical “ugly American’ who just cares about getting drunk and scoring weed and ladies. He’s so loud and aggressive we begin to feel sorry for Eenhoorn’s Colin who’s often trapped by the big guy, usually just rolling his eyes silently. After a time we get frustrated with him wishing he’d stand up and speak out, perhaps even paying a penalty to get an earlier flight out of there and away from him. The scenery is lovely, but eventually we get the feeling that this is a glorified travelogue (a popular short subject format from the 30’s and 40’s) or, dare I say it, a thinly disguised infomercial! Nothing really terrible happens to the men because of the locals, plus there seemed to be lots of tourism folks in the end credits. So if you’re into the “far away places with strange-sounding names” you might enjoy LAND HO! But don’t be surprised if you reach for your imaginary remote to fast forward past the clunky comedy and awkward exchanges in order to see those gorgeous mountains.

2 Out of 5

LAND HO! screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas