Rating: - This tribe is a little too predictable...
Sure, `Krippendorf's Tribe' is fun, to an extent, but it's not really as funny as it could be and in the end it is not really as enjoyable as it could be. I found some pleasure in it, but it was limited and for the most part it relied on a more slapstick approach to its humor to get laughs, and I prefer a more intellectual approach (I know, this is not an intellectual movie but still, it could have been a little smarter).

The film tells the story of anthropologist Professor James Krippendorf who had received a grant, along with his wife, to find an unknown tribe out in New Guinea. When his wife died unexpectedly James crashed emotionally and exhausted the money from the grant doing absolutely nothing productive and so, in fear that he'll be sent to prison for abusing the terms of the grant he creates a fictitious tribe. His one little (or not so little) lie spirals out of control and creates a worldwide phenomenon (especially since the tribe is unlike anything anyone has ever heard of) and he finds himself documenting footage of this tribe with his children in his very backyard. An overzealous Professor, Veronica, causes more complications in James keeping his lie a secret, and his eldest daughter's disgust for what her father has been reduced to also starts to weight heavy on James' decisions.

The problem with `Krippendorf's Tribe' lies in a few areas. First, the concept, while promising, is not executed as well as it could have been. It's not believable. Sure, it's an outlandish comedy that doesn't have to be probable, but it still should be believable. The fact that no one recognized that the tribe's people were being played by Krippendorf and his children is ridiculous since the makeup didn't hide anything really. The fact that Veronica recognized herself on the video but the rest of the known world did not is also ridiculous. I know that it seems like a little thing to pick at, but it really reduces the entire films legitimacy. You want to be able to believe that someone could pull this off, but instead all it proves is that the people around Krippendorf were really, really stupid.

The film also makes it a point to go as far as they can (within the boundaries of its rating) to keep the jokes off-color, which is a shame since it shows the films lack of depth. It's not smart enough to come up with anything but the expected toilet humor.

The acting is decent. Richard Dreyfuss pulls his comedy off better than in `What About Bob?' but there is no Bill Murray to elevate the films mediocrity. Jenna Elfman is not a good actress and she kind of just floats here, playing a ditzy admirer as best she can. Really, the only highlight to the film is Lily Tomlin who is always funny, even when her material is not. She kept me entertained, and she was really the only reason I watched the entire film. The film can thank Tomlin for aiding it to a two star (high D) and not a one star rating.

Krippendorf's Tribe