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Michael Angarano, Jennifer Coolidge, Jemaine Clement, Mike White, Sam Rockwell ... see more see more... , Hector Jimenez , Halley Feiffer , Josh Pais , Edgar Oliver , Clive Revill , John Pleshette , Rod Decker , Johnny Hoops , Suzanne May , John Baker , Jeanette Puhich , Jon Shere , Daniel "Doc" Love , Brian Unger , Isaac Demke , Steve Berg , Kristie Conway , Robin Ballard , Kristin Brewer , Edward Osborn , Jizelle Jade Jurquina , Isaac Russell , Benji Hughes

Aspiring sci-fi author and awkward home-school student Benjamin is over the moon when he attends a writing camp where he gets to meet his hero, writer Ronald Chevalier. Unfortunately, the pompous hero... read more read more... to the geeks is fresh out of ideas, and instead of reading Benjamin's manuscript - a high-adventure tale called Yeast Lords - and giving the student some notes, Chevalier steals the story and uses it for his next book. Now if he ever wants to help his mom jumpstart her business as a modest lingerie designer, or impress the bewitching Lonnie, Benjamin has to prove that the author pilfered his ideas. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi

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38% liked it

19,826 ratings

Critics

18% liked it

79 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 30 min.

Directed by: Jared Hess

Release Date: October 30, 2009

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DVD Release Date: March 2, 2010

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Flixster Reviews (984)

  • fb100000145236770
    July 8, 2011
    fb100000145236770
    This is by the creator of "Napoleon Dynamite", and if you love that movie, then you will love this movie. Much of the same quiet, off-beat dry humor. It's about a kid who writes a sci-fi story, and a famous author steals his story. Pretty simple, but very weird and a lot of it... read more makes no sense. The sci-fi scenes that are taking place in his story are some of the weirdest scenes I have ever seen, some are funny, but most are just way too out there. Jermain Clement plays the author, and he is great! I've loved everything he's done since "Flight of the Concords"(LOOK IT UP!). Not as good, or classic as "Dynamite"(do the chickens have large tallens?), but it's still worth a view if your into that humor. If your not, then just skip it and quit being a jerk.
  • 366weirdmovies
    December 13, 2010
    366weirdmovies
    A successful pulp author who's run out of ideas steals a teen author's sci-fi novella. The beyond-offbeat tone, which might be characterized as "nerd grotesque," is uneven and takes some serious getting used to, but the movie is never boring; Jemaine Clement's often hilarious pe... read morerformance as the pompous Dr. Chevalier and the bizarre dramatizations of the epic "Yeast Masters" (which feature cyclopses, flying stags and stolen gonads) makes it worth the price of admission. Not for everyone, but not nearly the disaster it's been made out to be.
  • mjgildea
    May 2, 2010
    mjgildea
    Gentlemen Broncos is a valiant effort from the writer/director of random oddball treats Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, but it falls short. The premise of a budding teenage sci-fi writer whose work is stolen by a fading icon of the genre is fun enough, especially when said wor... read morek is portrayed onscreen in hilarious fashion by the great Sam Rockwell. Unfortunately the movie just relied too heavily on the same evaporating quirk that justified viewings of the previous two movies. Don't get me wrong, there were some genuinely entertaining and demented parts, just not enough of them. There's really no reason to go out of your way to see Gentlemen Broncos. I bought a used copy at a flea market for five bucks and got what I paid for. I'll leave it at that...
  • Chiefilms
    March 25, 2010
    Chiefilms
    Flat out stupid, watched 5 minutes, only because Jemaine is in it, had to find something else after that. Typically Jemaine is hilarious , staying true to his Flight of the Conchords nature picking abstract, off-the-wall comedies. Unfortunately his movies have been worse than d... read moreingo rape.
  • neverteaseaweasel
    March 18, 2010
    neverteaseaweasel
    This movie is absolutely terrible, but in the most strange and fasinating ways. Granted, I'm easily baffled, but I cannot see why a movie like this or Post Grad are so terrible, while movies like The Proposal and The Hangover are allegedly so inventive and wonderful. This is ever... read more so much more enjoyable, and it actually clever and funny in parts. I would not say that it is a good movie, but it is much better than a lot of what's out there. It at least tries to be creative. I liked the satirical humor quite a lot, but a lot of the humor is just crude. I'm not saying that's good, bad, or otherwise, it just is not something I appreciate. The sci-fi scenes reminded me of Terry Pratchett's work. They are just so tacky and hokey, that it actually comes out as being rather hilarious. So, in conclusion, I'm not even going to pretend that Gentleman Broncos is a noteworthy film, because it's not. At the same time, it is a huge step for Jared Hess considering it's the first thing he has made that is actually worthy watching, and despite everything, it really is entertaining.
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    March 16, 2010
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "Your ovaries will destroy me"

    A teenager attends a fantasy writers' convention where he discovers his idea has been stolen by an established novelist.

    REVIEW

    Expand your mind and ignite the pl... read moreasma-fires of your four dimensional imaginations, my juvescent readers. It is time to reflect, to ponder, to review the woefully neglected film entitled "Gentlemen Broncos." The latest endeavour from visionary director Jared Hess is a bold exploration into the limitless expanses of outer space, and the infinite potential for awkward comedy in human interaction.

    To summarize the narrative, Benjamin is a young man who writes a sci-fi novel called "Yeast Lords." When he goes to a teen writer's camp the story is stolen by his favorite author, the inimitable (although you will try) Ronald Chevalier. Before the book is published he is sweet talked into selling the story to a manipulative girl who attempts to make an amateur movie out of the book.

    Through the magic technology of special effects (yes, there were special effects) we see the novel unfold on screen. We meet Bronco, the rough-around-the-edges "Yeast Lord" protagonist who is not a Centaur, and does not shapeshift into equine form. Ever. If you thought Avatar was an epic of fantastic adventure, then you have never seen armies of Cyclops and "Surveillance Does" firing massive laser turrets at flying "Battle Stags." Epic.

    Bronco, portrayed by Sam Rockwell, delivers some truly hilarious lines of dialog with a completely straight face. If you laughed when Napoleon asked "Do the chickens have large talons?" then you will appreciate Bronco's statement that "I can smell a cache of yeast cakes forty miles off!" The pinnacle of this cinematic saga is Mr. Ronald Chevalier, the pretentious deep voiced author of novels like "Brutus & Balzac," "The Cyborg Harpy Trilogy," and "Moon Fetus." Jemaine Clement (the taller half of the Flight of the Conchords duo) improvises some of the funniest lines. There is a scene where he argues with a twelve year old girl about what to name the Troll in her story. It reminded me of Jack Black in School of Rock, filled with righteous indignation because the students at his private school hadn't heard of Motorhead. While School of Rock had rock music as an easily accessible theme, Gentlemen Broncos plays on the pomposity of science fiction books, something less familiar to many people. If you have read or even browsed science fiction books and marveled at the strangeness of them, you will probably "get" this movie.
  • romy861
    March 5, 2010
    romy861
    Kind of funny. Put it like this, after seeing the preview with all the "fantasy" bits in it, thought I was going to totally hate it. Liked Napoleon Dynamite, hated Nacho Libre, was expecting this to be even worse than that one, so I was surprised when it wasn't actually that ba... read mored. I still hate all the fantasy bits (soooo stupid, and gross as well), but there was enough decent characters in the main story, and funny quirky little bits like the mum with her disgusting outfits (got to love Jennifer Coolidge), that I would have to say it was worth a watch. Oh, and the worst music soundtrack ever!
  • robotbling
    April 24, 2010
    robotbling
    Director Jared Hess' Gentlemen Broncos is an absurd coming of age comedy that manages to be even stranger than his more well-known breakout hit, Napolean Dynamite. This film takes its inspiration from bad fantasy and sci-fi novels which seemed so abundant in the '70s and '80s. ... read moreImagine innumerable paperbacks about burly men in tights, buxom space women in distress, and awesomely bad alien monsters, all of them covered in cookie-cutter artwork inspired by the legendary Frank Frazetta. The film focuses on Benjamin, played with earnest by Michael Angarano, a teenager who dreams of seeing his own stories share that shelf space.

    Ben attends a writer's workshop where his idol, the eccentric Dr. Ronald Chevalier, gives a hilarious lecture about sci-fi naming conventions. Chevalier's leather get-up and Star Trek-inspired ear-thing are only the icing on the cake of a performance by Jemaine Clement. Ben decides to enter his story, Yeast Lords: The Bronco Years, into Chevalier's contest in the hopes of winning a coveted original cover artwork. With his publishing deal holding on by a thread, Chevalier privately decides to steal Ben's idea, although he adapts it to his own style. This is where the movie gets its more ridiculous scenes. The embarrassingly bad story of Yeast Lords is told in snippets through outtakes from the inevitable big budget movie adaptations -- both from Ben's original story and Chevalier's tweaked rewrite -- starring Sam Rockwell in the lead role.

    Meanwhile Ben gets encouragement from Tabatha, a budding romance novelist and film maker he meets at the workshop, to film a low budget home movie version of his story. Once again we see clips of Yeast Lords as told through Tabatha's scriptment. The supporting cast, including Ben's mother, are all a little freaky but vaguely familiar. Eventually Chevalier finally publishes the plagiarized story, and the crap hits the fan when Ben realizes what's up.

    Like Napolean Dynamite, I'm not convinced Gentlemen Broncos will hold up to repeat viewings, but these oddball Americana slice-of-life movies are possibly worth checking out at least once if you're willing to go there. One can't help but feel that the story would have been better served if Ben had been an aspiring comic book artist or film maker. I liked it ok but the film was a total commercial and critical failure, making it hard to recommend regardless of what I personally thought of it. You have to be in the mood to watch a movie with several scenes that are deliberately bad for comedic effect.
  • fb100002343630392
    July 24, 2011
    fb100002343630392
    20% of the film is kooky and funny, 80% o the whole film is very kooky, strange, unclever, dumb brained, and unpleasent. and that's what makes gentlemen broncos, an indie comedy that we don't know when to laugh at the moment it want's us to. C-
  • fb1025970122
    March 6, 2010
    fb1025970122
    Oh 'Gentleman Broncos' how happy I am that I didn't spend money to see you in theaters. I was on the 'Napoleon Dynamite' train and really enjoyed 'Nacho Libre' despite it getting panned by critics. I also have seen enough 'Flight of the Conchords' to appreciate Jemaine Clement an... read mored am an avid fan of Mr. Rockwell. I guess what I am trying to say, to ask really, is with all of this on my side, why was this movie so bad? It has that same sense of dry, weirdo humor. Michael Angarano is a likeable lead and the story has great potential to be pretty darn hilarious. Rockwell is the only one getting any laughs here though. It is nice to see the story Benjamin writes "come to life" how he sees it as well as Chevalier's version of it. The sets, costumes, props are all low-key on purpose-Hess likes to mess with these small things and make everything just a little out of whack. It is a little off-putting and in this case it just is a distraction. The story isn't told in a strong enough way to stand on its own, all these extra things are used to make up for what is lacking as well as serving as excuses to just be a little weird. You can't be weird for the sake of being weird, it needs to have a reason, a purpose behind it and 'Gentlemen Broncos' has no apparant reasons for anything. Go back, write a few revisions and really create something here-its in there somewhere. Hess needs to know its not all about the quirkiness.

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Critic Reviews

Randy Cordova
November 25, 2009
Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic

At one level, it is pretty bad. Then, on the other level, it is downright horrible. Unless you're an entertainment masochist, neither is very much fun. Full Review

Tom Long
November 13, 2009
Tom Long, Detroit News

Don't pay money to see it, don't waste your time if it comes on cable; you might not even want to bother reading the rest of this review. Full Review

Colin Covert
November 12, 2009
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

A tedious and unfocused concoction involving science fiction, plagiarism and the nightgown industry. Full Review

Steven Rea
November 12, 2009
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Where do you go after rocket-propelled deer statuary, cyclops warriors in golf carts, and Mike White with a dubbed Irish accent? Full Review

Roger Ebert
November 12, 2009
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Jared Hess, who made Napoleon Dynamite, a film I admit I didn't get, has made a film I don't even begin to get. Full Review

Liam Lacey
November 6, 2009
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

There's a lesson behind Gentlemen Broncos, the new film from director Jared Hess: Don't try to mock above your talent level. Full Review

John Anderson
November 6, 2009
John Anderson, Washington Post

What Michael Bay did for the Hollywood blockbuster with his second Transformers movie, Jared Hess has now done for the low-budget indie with Gentlemen Broncos -- namely, stain an entire genre with a s... Full Review

Peter Howell
November 6, 2009
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

The sci-fi themed Gentlemen Broncos doesn't just visit Planet Quirk, it crash lands upon it. Full Review

Mick LaSalle
November 5, 2009
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

The comic performance of Jemaine Clement, as the writer, is the one thing to salvage from this experience. Full Review

Michael Phillips
November 2, 2009
Michael Phillips, At the Movies

Everything that basically worked in Napoloeon Dynamite -- the behind-the-beat timing, the arch eccentricity -- it's all misjudged here. Full Review

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Facts

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    • Bronco/Brutus: You sole my nads Denis!
    • Ronald Chevalier: And finally we have a young-ling trying to penetrate the secrets of the human mind. You won't do it like that young-ling...
    • Dusty: Don't worry Vania, your brother loves you.
    • Lonnie Donaho: He was the chosen one! He was born with flesh pockets.
    • Bronco/Brutus: It's a friendship stone. Let's blow on it.
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