I’m just a guy on a bike who is following a homosexual couple that have tied their bikes together!
Year Released: 2017
Director: Jake Szymanski
Cast: James Marsden, Andy Samberg, Orlando Bloom, Freddie Highmore, Daveed Diggs, John Cena, Kevin Bacon and Jeff Goldblum
Another from the Youtube “to watch” playlist that I have, “Tour de Pharmacy” is a rare appearance from a comedy film on this site as it is a genre I don’t particularly enjoy. It takes a lot to make me laugh and that may be in part to not a lot of movies having my type of comedy. I’m very much a dark-comedy type of person, although I did grow up on movies such as “Spaceballs” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”, so maybe that’s my kind of level.
Anyway, I digress. This movie looks like it may fall into a type of comedy I actually like and it interests me because of that. It’s been on that list for well over a year now and I figured that as I am still recovering from my operation, I might as well give it a watch.
So yeah, let’s go.
Plot
In the 1982 Tour De France, there are several unusual people taking part and this wasn’t helped by pretty much every entrant being laced with drugs, including Gustav (Cena), who had piled on muscle in just a year.
The race starts and almost immediately Juju Peppi (Bloom) causes a pile-up after he tries to grope a woman whilst on his bike. This resulted in a huge fight and eventually a bottle being left behind that contained drugs. As well as this and a bribing scandal, only five racers were not disqualified from the Tour De France. The remaining contestants all agree to take it in turns leading so that they can save energy, but as soon as they attempt it, no-one actually wants to be at the front, turning the race into an even bigger farce.
So is it my type of comedy, or just the usual disappointing stuff?
At a very short 40 minutes, which is something I didn’t know going in, I was thoroughly entertained. This satire is quite clearly inspired by films from the 1980s, with the humour being very similar to those made by Mel Brooks and his ilk, and for a slightly more modern (well, contextually) take on things, it isn’t that dissimilar to “Baseketball”. It is a very silly, but also very amusing movie that reminded me a lot of the films I grew up on, and unusually for me it actually made me laugh out loud several times. This was a genuine delight.
This is in no short part to the comedic talents of the cast, especially those that aren’t known for their efforts in the genre. For example, John Cena is obviously most famous for his wrestling career, but his movie outings haven’t exactly been stellar so far, but he is hilarious in this and it suits his style very well.
“Tour De Pharmacy” is definitely not predictable either as the race keeps taking many twists and turns, meaning that you don’t become bored at any point because of how quickly things can change. This is a big change from other sports films where the tension is taken away somewhat because it is obvious who will win, then again there isn’t any tension in here at all because of the comedic nature of everything.
The look of the movie is fantastic, with a lot of the footage looking like it genuinely came from the early 1980s. For example, the screenshot at the end of the plot, and the one below, are from the TV sections of the film and how they’re presented. It’s this type of look that I grew up watching (I was born in 1984 for context) and from memory, as well as what I have seen on TV during my recovery of old re-runs of stuff, is fairly accurate.
Summary
One of the funnier attempts at comedy I’ve seen in recent times and thoroughly enjoyable. At just 40 minutes
long this is almost the perfect length for this type of movie and if like me you are a certain age, this will certainly hit you right in the nostalgia feels.
Clearly inspired by the comedies of the 80s and early 90s, “Tour De Pharmacy” was a delight for the relatively short run time and I had trouble picking a quote to use at the top of the review because there are so many great lines.
If you can find it, I would definitely recommend giving this a watch.
Sorry, never heard of it! 