Claysaba
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Gurlyndrobb
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Sameer Callahan
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
ninjaalexs
Krippendorf's Tribe came out at a time when Hollywood had an obsession with jungles and tribe's people. Look at some of the films of the 90s: Jumanji, The Jungle book (live action), Jungle 2 Jungle, The Wild Thornberrys.Krippendorf's Tribe is a fairly silly knockabout comedy. To be honest it's pretty much done by numbers and predictable. Unfortunately, it suffers from the same fate a lot of comedies suffer from too much sexual humour to make it suitable for anyone younger than a teenage audience and it lacks the depth that adults want from films.Dreyfuss puts in a great performance as always and is convincing as the professor out of his depth. After Mr Holland's Opus you can see why many critics thought this film beneath him. Jenna Elfman is great alongside Dreyfuss and the two have chemistry. Much like Cameron Diaz in The Mask, she can do sexy as well as handle some of the more goofy farcical comedy.In recent years this film has been accused of being racist. While it is hard to deny that this film does stereotype tribes from Papua New Guinea, I don't think the film was intended to cause offence. The film is dated for a film from 1998 it feels like it could have been made 10 years earlier.While no masterpiece I found this film funny in places and entertaining throughout. With a less capable cast this film would have been an absolute stinker though. Look out for an early appearance from Mila Kunis as well.Worth a watch.
Predrag
Great performances by Dreyfuss and Elfman make this movie work wonderfully and make you laugh so hard you think your going to cry. This film is put together in a way it's sure to make you laugh. Professor James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfess) is a Professor of anthropology and also a widower. Down in depression he ends up using the universities grant money for his own personal use. Faced with either confessing and going to jail, or going on with his fairy tale tribe. He chooses to go on with his made up tribe the Shelmikedmu. Using his own 3 kids and back yard for filming. He comes up with the most unique tribe ever seen before. Also with the help of his over anxious colleague Veronica Macelli (Jenna Elfman) who wont leave him alone. He ends up going deeper and deeper into his fairytale tribe, and trying to keep up with his lie. They end up taking the tribe national.Dreyfus handles the comedy with aplomb as he has done before, with the help of a supportive cast. It was nice to see Phil Leeds one last time in a couple of very brief appearances in a crowd scene. He was one of those talented character actors who always added that bit of spice to a production. This movie is very well put together, and just so ridiculous you got to laugh. In the end you will wish you were Shelmikedmu too. It's definitely worth seeing.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
tootsielover68
The plot of "Krippendorf's Tribe" is not entirely terrible. I would not mind seeing a movie about a college anthropology teacher who needs to find an African tribe but has blown all his money and then is forced to use the family as the tribe. The idea is funny and the movie itself had moments that were very entertaining and the movie is not boring at all. But there is a problem with this movie. The script is mildly funny, but the cast is totally in wrong parts that do not fit their talents. Dreyfuss in particular is good in serious roles which is where he succeeds best. "Jaws", "Always", and "Mr. Holland's Opus" are perfect examples of this theory. Now granted Dreyfuss has been good in a couple silly roles such as his parts in "American Graffiti" and "What About Bob?" But those films were written for a part that Dreyfuss can play. In both those films Dreyfuss is a comic figure but his mildly comic mostly serious personality works. All in all this silly role is wrong for him and I think this part would have been better possibly for either Bill Murray, Steve Martin or Chevy Chase. Those guys could play a part like this due to their silly personalities. As far as the rest of the film I found Jenna Elfman and Lily Tomlin to also be miscast. Elfman was very endearing on TV's "Darma and Greg", and Tomlin had wonderful supporting roles in "Nine to Five" and "All of Me". But how did Dreyfuss,Elfman and Tomlin think their talents would work in a script like this? It is not written poorly and its not the worst movie ever like some have claimed. As far as the writing and direction goes it is mediocre. But the casting is where this film fails because the actors that are cast are do too many sophisticated dramatic and comedic roles that they cannot afford to do something laid-back and silly like this. Its easy to see why the cast of this film (particularly Dreyfuss) have not had much activity in recent years. Might be worth the price of a Saturday night movie rental but you know the cast have been in better roles that fit them.
kenburke0627
This movie is supposed to be a comedy, but it comes across as being funny for the wrong reasons. The professor (Richard Dreyfuss) is supposed to be the "good guy", but what is he doing? He (a) misappropriates college funds, (b) tells a bold faced lie to cover up his misdeeds, (c) involves his children in the scam, (d) gets a woman drunk to have sex with her (that's rape as in sexual assault, in case you have forgotten) and winds up televising it to the public, (d) tries to get more money from the college via the same scam, and (e), once the truth is out in the open, is saved via a lie from his daughter. Those that are after the truth are portrayed as arrogant, unfair, and snobbish who "deserve" to be fooled. The fact that the professor is in the wrong seems to get lost in the shuffle, and if there's a moral to the movie it's "don't get caught".I do not recommend this movie, for the above reasons, for children.
