Review: Fubar II

If you haven’t seen the 2002 Canadian classic, Fubar, don’t despair. It’s really not necessary that you know the back-story in order to appreciate Michael Dowse’s brilliant follow-up. In fact, I’ll catch you up in three short sentences: Dean and Terry are slacker headbanger pals. They drink a lot of beer. They give’r. That’s all you need to know.

It’s been a while since we first met the two loveable hosers, and nearly a decade later, their lives haven’t changed a whole lot. We first encounter them at a blow-out party celebrating Dean’s fifth anniversary of being “nut-cancer” free. The boys are also getting evicted, so the party turns into a free-for-all of destruction, spearheaded by their buddy Tron, a bearded, hip-hop-lovin’ maniac who’s living large with a well paid job in Fort MacMurray.

The responsibilities of adulthood are starting to encroach on their freewheeling lifestyle, so Dean and Terry decide to follow Tron to “the Mac” to seek their fortunes on the pipeline. Of course, things don’t go entirely according to plan, and soon the boys find themselves drifting apart as Terry strikes up a romance with local waitress Trish and descends into domesticity while Dean tries to stay true to his rocker roots and make it with his new band.

Will life in the Mac tear the lifelong pals apart or will they find their way back to each other in spite of the obstacles their new life has thrown their way? Fubar II provides the answers to these burning questions in an uproariously funny and often surprisingly tender way. Michael Dowse treats his characters with love and compassion, never allowing them to become one-note gags and always ensuring that while we’re laughing at their antics, we’re not really laughing at them.

Fubar II starts raucous and crazy, but cleverly and subtly turns into one of the feel good films of the year, providing a warm & fuzzy lesson on friendship and family without ever compromising on the laughs. For fans of Fubar, this heartwarming followup treats the the original with much respect. For newcomers to the Fubar phenomenon, the film will serve as a touching and  genuinely hilarious introduction to two of the funniest Canadians to ever grace the silver screen.

Dean and Terry, with their long hair and heavy metal attitudes, are relics of a bygone era – a strange hybrid between Bob & Doug McKenzie and Wayne & Garth. Luckily, hosers never go out of style. Now turn up the good, turn down the suck, and pass me a beer.

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