the audience applauded

So much average

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Biblical archaeologist Don Verdean (Sam Rockwell) uses scant evidence to back up his claims of relic discoveries from the Holy Lands. For years, he struggles to sell his books and videos with his long-suffering assistant Carol Jensen (Amy Ryan). Pastor Tony Lazarus (Danny McBride) eagerly backs their search for more relics to energize his failing congregation. Verdean has just the right piece. Local contact Boaz (Jemaine Clement) had discovered a pillar of salt that Verdean claims to be Lot's wife. Denis Fontaine (Will Forte) is a rival pastor. After the pillar, Verdean and Jensen set off to find Goliath's skull.Filmmaking couple Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess uses their odd sensibilities to satire the American religious industry. This film has plenty of their deadpan wackiness. There is a bit of fun laying out this weird world. Clement and Rockwell have some fun. After awhile, the fun fades. It rambles around. It's hard to care about anybody in this movie. Amy Ryan comes closest to being the rooting interest. The comedy wears out and interest fades.

Whatever Don Verdean is, it certainly doesn't feel like a comedy, despite what the premise, cast and trailer may make you think.What Don Verdean certainly is, is another big old flop from Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess who here, much like his previous film Masterminds, squanders a vast array of comedic talents on material that is well suited to the bargain basement bin, not oddball comedy.Going for strange over outright belly laughs, Don Verdean never seems willing to make the most of its potentially humorous examination of its religiously tinged world and its abundance of oddball characters and when the likes of lead Sam Rockwell and the normally scene stealing Danny McBride can't get the laughs rolling along at a steady pace, you know your films material just isn't happening the way in which it should be.On somewhat of a career lull since his tremendous turn in low budget sci-fi Moon, Rockwell in particular seems both dull and bored in his turn as religious archaeologist Don Verdean. Imbuing Don with nothing but a luscious lathering of facial hair and a bad wardrobe, Rockwell can't get going and while the likes of McBride, Amy Ryan and Will Forte get little moments within the film, their roles are to slight to improve the overall success of Hess's misguided journey.Nothing that happens within Don Verdean, whether it's overseas digs, awkward press conferences or uninteresting love plots, the film feels forced, no better exemplified by Flight of the Concords star Jermaine Clements Borat-lite turn as Israeli conman Boaz, which ends up being a performance that has to be one of the most grating in recent memory. Had Hess been in tune with his film, a performance such as this would've never seen the cold light of day.Don Verdean might well have been a funny film had it been done differently but as it stands this almost laugh free experience is weird for the sake of being weird and when you've forgotten to bring the funnies to the weird party you're hosting, blame must lay at the feet of Hess, a director that once showed so much odd-ball promise, only to now be wasting the time of us and his cast members in dire ways such as this.1 large human skull out of 5

One of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. A complete waste of time. Do yourself a favour and avoid this bomb at all costs. The acting was pathetic, the dialogue was witless and the plot, if you could call it that, just ended without an ending. You could pack this loser in dry ice and it would still stink. Just having Danny McBride and Sam Rockwell in the movie should guarantee some laughs, so one can only imagine the Herculean task of eliminating any trace of humour from this movie. Another link in the chain of horrible movies by Jared Hess. Max Verdean was easily the worst effort yet by Hess and that is no mean feat. It was nothing more than 90 minutes of my life that I'll never get back.

Leaving the theater, the general feeling was "meh". Possibly based on Yiddish origin, it's a general shrug of the shoulders meaning neither good nor bad. The best way to describe this movie is to say it's not funny enough for a comedy, but not serious enough for a drama. Rather than combining words and calling it a dramedy, I'd suggest keeping the same words but flipping the order, calling it a coma. The movie just never seem to get going. If intended as a light- hearted story, the laughs were just too few and far between, even though the premise itself was humorous. Meanwhile, the basic story of a Biblical archaeologist down on his luck was just a bit too silly for a drama. I'm a big fan of Sam Rockwell, Jemaine Clement, and Danny McBride, but this wasn't a great vehicle for any of them. It's a shame, because some aspects of the movie were very well done. The cinematography was fantastic, for example. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't a bad movie. It just didn't do much for me. Your mileage may vary.