Pic lacks the development needed for a full-length feature and, following a hilarious opening sequence, it becomes tiresomely one-note.
Teddy Bears' Picnic (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 19
Fresh: 0
Rotten:19
Average Rating: 2.9/10
Theatrical Release:Mar 29, 2002 Limited
Synopsis:
A comic junket into the exclusive world of corporate retreats, revelry, and powermadplays. The richest, most powerful white men in America gather each summer in Northern California for a super...
A comic junket into the exclusive world of corporate retreats, revelry, and powermadplays. The richest, most powerful white men in America gather each summer in Northern California for a super secret retreat that takes them back to their sophomore year in college. They're there to unwind, but they get really unwound when that secrecy is threatened.
Captains of industry, political royalty, entertainment luminaries, battlefield heroes, renowned intellects and many of their proud male issue, respond year after year to the siren-call of the glenZambesi Glen, that is. For fifty-one weeks a year they run the country; for one week they run amuck.a Teddy Bears' Picnic if ever there was one.
Hidden in the majestic redwoods of northern California, Zambesi Glen is an exclusive, rustic retreat and summer home-away-from-home, for a group of insanely powerful, rich, untouchable, mostly old, always white men, who decide the fate of nations and networks, universities and law firms.
Stripped of the niceties required by the presence of their mistresses, wives and daughters, while adhering to the retreat's motto "Have No Care Who Enter Here," these pillars of society know how to cut loose. They drink heavily, swear profusely, gambol naked in the woods, urinate communally, perform secret rituals, hatch nefarious plots that could cause public harm, sing badly and wear women's clothing.
Unfortunately for the Glen's stalwart denizens, times are changing. Womenfolk are now included in a special one-time-only luncheon and tour (although they must be out before dark), feminists protest noisily at the gate, the media makes sport of them, the ten year waiting list just doesn't seem long enough, and good help is getting harder and harder to find. Just when it appears that things couldn't get worse, Zambesi Glen's iron clad code of secrecy is breached and its very existence imperiled.
Will the traitor be caught? Will he be publicly humiliated in the sacred redwood grove or blown to bits by secret military aircraft? Will News Channel Six's spunky femme reporter expose the growing scandal? Where is the missing case of Sanka? The answers may be found by joining Teddy Bears' Picnic.
-- © Visionbox Pictures, LLC
Starring: John Michael Higgins, Ming-Na, Henry Gibson, David Rasche
Starring: John Michael Higgins, Ming-Na, Henry Gibson, David Rasche, Robert Mandan, Morgan Fairchild, Michael McKean, Alan Thicke, Harry Shearer, Justin Kirk, George Wendt, Kenneth Mars, Bob Einstein, John O'Hurley, Howard Hesseman, Fred Willard, Annabelle Gurwitch, Peter Marshall, Joyce Hyser, Kurtwood Smith
Director: Harry Shearer
Director: Harry Shearer
Screenwriter: Harry Shearer
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
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Reviews for Teddy Bears' Picnic
Doesn't quite work as a comedy but a buried level of satire makes a good target out of the news media.
Most of the film feels conceived and shot on the fly -- like between lunch breaks for Shearer's radio show and his Simpson voice-overs.
When one hears Harry Shearer is going to make his debut as a film director, one would hope for the best
Very much like its title, the movie is too cuddly and frolicking to get a satirical grip on its rich and powerful characters, or their real life targets.
The real shame is that such a talented ensemble cast is so badly wasted in this lame attempt at political discourse.
What could and should have been biting and droll is instead a tepid waste of time and talent.
It is supremely unfunny and unentertaining to watch middle-age and older men drink to excess, piss on trees, b.s. one another and put on a show in drag.
Despite a who's-who cast of comedians, virtually all the characters are uninteresting, unappealing and, worse, unfunny.
There are just too many characters saying too many clever things and getting into too many pointless situations. Where's the movie here?
The film has the thrown-together feel of a summer-camp talent show: hastily written, underrehearsed, arbitrarily plotted and filled with crude humor and vulgar innuendo.
A beyond-lame satire, Teddy Bears' Picnic ranks among the most pitiful directing debuts by an esteemed writer-actor.
Dignified CEO's meet at a rustic retreat and pee against a tree. Can you bear the laughter?
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