Main Cast: Tom Green, Rip Torn, Marisa Coughlan, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Harland Williams
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Television star Tom Green makes his directorial debut with this gross-out comedy. Green stars as Gord Brody, a 28-year-old slacker who aspires to be an animator of Hollywood cartoons. After his dreams of working for studio mogul Dave Davidson (Anthony Michael Hall) temporarily wash out, along with his thankless job at a cheese factory, Gord returns home to live with his parents, Jim (Rip Torn) and Julie (Julie Hagerty). Jim wishes that Gord would simply grow up, move out of the basement, and get a real job like his younger brother Freddy (Eddie Kaye Thomas), who works in a responsible position at a bank. When the battle of wills between Gord and Jim heats up, Gord devises various stunt-like schemes to drive his father bonkers, including the bogus charge that their father molested Freddy as a youngster. Marisa Coughlan co-stars as Gord's wheelchair-bound, nymphomaniac, amateur rocket-scientist girlfriend Betty, while comedian and Green's fellow Canada native Harland Williams plays Gord's oddball neighbor Darren. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Freddy Got Fingered is in no way a conventionally good film. Nearly unanimous bad reviews found that it was not conventionally well-directed, written, shot, or acted. While this makes the film off-putting for many, it does feel like the movie Tom Green intended to make. He wants to throw off convention. There are many disturbing images in the film, but they seem to be there for a reason that goes beyond shock value. The conflict between Gord and his father is presented at an extremely Freudian level; metaphorically and literally, Gord must cut the cord that keeps him attached to his parents. The images in the film support this subtext, while simultaneously turning one's stomach. There is a remarkably disturbing scene in which Gord delivers a baby. It is one of the bloodiest births ever put on film. This makes sense thematically, as Gord himself needs to be reborn; removing himself from the remarkably dysfunctional relationship he shares with his father will be as difficult as the birth. While most gross-out films are simply attempting to shock the audience for the sake of shock, Freddy Got Fingered seems to have something bigger on its mind. Even for a gross-out picture, Freddy Got Fingered is unconventional. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Katterina Keith - Art Director, Chris Prynoski - Animator, Derek Harvie - Associate Producer, Nancy Nayor - Casting, Marc S. Fischer - Co-producer, Glenne Campbell - Costume Designer, Kim Winther - First Assistant Director, Tom Green - Director, Jacqueline Cambas - Editor, Marc S. Fischer - Executive Producer, Arnon Milchan - Executive Producer, Mike Simpson - Composer (Music Score), Tony Gardner - Makeup Special Effects, Bob Ziembicki - Production Designer, Mark Irwin - Cinematographer, Larry Brezner - Producer, Lauren Lloyd - Producer, Howard Lapides - Producer, Darren Brisker - Sound/Sound Designer, Tom Green - Screenwriter, Derek Harvie - Screenwriter, Branko Racki - Second Unit Camera, Mark Dumas - Animal Trainer/Wrangler, Joel Whist - Special Effects Coordinator, Craig Berkey - Supervising Sound Editor
Green plays a 28-year old part time slacker/cartoonist named Gordon "Gord" Brody, who is pursuing his ambition to obtain a contract for a TV show.
After being told that his ideas are stupid and make no sense, he decides to move back home and rethink his future, much to his father's dismay. He has a handicapped love interest, (Marisa Coughlan) and a best friend, (Harland Williams) who has left Gord's lifestyle for a mainstream bank job. A major subplot is Gord's feud with his father, and at one point in the movie, Gord accuses his father, (Rip Torn), of molesting his younger brother, Freddy (Eddie Kaye Thomas), despite having no evidence to support it (hence the title of the movie).
Throughout the film, various subplots catalog Gord's daily experiences, such as one subplot involving a local neighborhood boy who finds himself injured as a result of various misfortunes, often involving Gord's entry onto the scene. Tom Green's then-wife Drew Barrymore has a cameo appearance, playing the receptionist at Mr. Dave Davidson's cartoon company.
Production
The theatrically released version of the movie is 89 minutes long and received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America following requested cuts to tone it down from an NC-17, a rating which Tom Green described as "like porn with murder." As an extra on the DVD release, Green also included a version of the movie which he had edited to secure a PG rating. The PG-rated cut of Freddy Got Fingered is a mere three minutes long with a comedic voice over. Some footage was leaked by the Newgrounds website before the movie was released.[1] The original cut of the film was 7.3 hours long, so many scenes were cut out.
Critical response
In a damning review Roger Ebert wrote that the film may more likely be seen one day as a "milestone of neo-surrealism" than funny. In this memorable scene Gord ties sausage to his fingers, plays the piano poorly, and chants "Daddy would you like some sausage?"
The film was universally panned by critics, some of whom gave it zero stars. The Toronto Star created a one-time new rating just for Freddy Got Fingered, giving it "negative one star out of five stars." CNN's Paul Clinton called it "quite simply the worst movie ever released by a major studio in Hollywood history" and listed the running time as "86 awful minutes."[2]
Roger Ebert gave the film a rare zero-stars rating and described the film's humor thus:
This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels...The day may come when Freddy Got Fingered is seen as a milestone of neo-surrealism. The day may never come when it is seen as funny.[3]
Seeing Tom Green reminded me, as how could it not, of his movie Freddy Got Fingered (2001), which was so poorly received by the film critics that it received only one lonely, apologetic positive review on the Tomatometer. I gave it—let's see—zero stars. Bad movie, especially the scene where Green was whirling the newborn infant around his head by its umbilical cord.
But the thing is, I remember Freddy Got Fingered more than a year later. I refer to it sometimes. It is a milestone. And for all its sins, it was at least an ambitious movie, a go-for-broke attempt to accomplish something. It failed, but it has not left me convinced that Tom Green doesn't have good work in him. Anyone with his nerve and total lack of taste is sooner or later going to make a movie worth seeing.[4]
Film critic James Berardinelli also gave the film zero stars and mentioned:
...I have to report that this motion picture is arguably the worst piece of cinematic crap I have ever experienced theatrically. Hyperbole, you wonder? I looked through my list of zero-star movies and couldn't find one entry (except the immortal Zombie! vs. Mardi Gras, which was a straight-to-video release) that ranked as more difficult to endure.
The film had begun to see more positive praise over time. One of the few notable critics who gave it a generally positive review was A. O. Scott of The New York Times, who compared the film to conceptual performance art.[5] Another favorable review in August 2007 by Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club partially fulfilled Ebert's prediction: Rabin called the film a "borderline Dadaist provocation" and rated it a "Secret Success"[6]
Unreality Magazine featured the movie in its list of "10 Hilarious Movies That Received Terrible Reviews", noting that critics' taste in comedies tend not to reflect the general public. [7]
The film won in five categories at the 2001 Golden Raspberry Awards and, in acknowledgment of the critical consensus regarding the film's merits, Green appeared at the ceremony to accept his awards, saying:
I'd just like to say to all the other nominees in the audience: I don't think that I deserve it any more than the rest of you. I'd like to say that; I don't think that it would be true, though.[8]
Green eventually had to be dragged off the stage because he wouldn’t stop playing the harmonica.
Box office
The movie's budget was $15,000,000, and grossed $14,333,252 domestically. It ran for 59 days in North American cinemas.[9] DVD rentals in the US grossed $24,300,000 during its stay on the top 50 weekly chart, allowing the film to become financially successful, despite its criticisms .[10]
