Kidding Around
Get The Goat is ridiculous. It’s a movie that takes an absurd premise and mixes it in with all the usual buddy cop tropes you’d expect. On paper, it’s a recipe for disaster. And yet, the film isn’t. In fact, Get The Goat’s tone is so absurdist and ridiculous that the jokes that are here flow organically right to the very end. If you’re looking to switch your brain off for an hour and a half to have a good laugh – this Brazilian picture is certainly worth checking out. The story is a simple one and revolves around two hapless cops that are forced to work together. First up is Bruceuilis, a man who (along with a handful of siblings) is named after the famous action star, Bruce Willis. A catastrophe out in the field, Bruceuilis is instead tasked with looking after the famous goat in town, Celestina. Only, that too goes wrong when he loses her. As he heads out and searches Sao Paolo for the kid, he runs into another cop called Trindade, whose cowardice sees him demoted and kicked out a top secret operation called Thunderbolt. This mission revolves around tracking down a criminal organization and a shadowy man named Ping Li. Predictably, Trindade and Bruceuilis team up as their search for the goat and the gang in question collide in disastrous fashion. Along the way all the usual tropes are here, including the fall-out, misunderstanding gags and the colourful archetypal supporting characters. There really are no surprises, although the resolution to all this is pretty funny and bows things out on a high. As one would expect, the movie’s plot feels like a checkbox of tropes but it’s ultimately the comedy that stands out front and center here. Slow burn jokes around the “kid” are played out for maximum laughs, along with the two officers themselves thrown into a variety of awkward situations. When these two are forced to improvise or make the best of their terrible misfortune is where the movie really comes into its own. Now, given this is a comedy and humour is subjective, some people may see this as a bit too silly. Despite some similarities to Hot Fuzz, Get The Goat doesn’t touch that film’s level of wit. Likewise, the supporting characters never really stand out next to the comedy duo at the center of this. Despite its shortcomings, this Brazilian comedy is tonally consistent with what it offers, so if you’re not sold in the first 30 minutes or so, Get The Goat is unlikely to win you over. For those who are taken by the humour though, Get The Goat has some solid laughs packed into its 100 minute run-time. The story is full of tropes too but it moves at a brisk enough pace to make it easy to look past these. It’s not perfect but Get The Goat has enough gas in the tank to make it worth the ride.
