Even before they turned up on “Saturday Night Live,” taking over the Digital Shorts duty from the Lonely Island trio—which is still the best element of ‘SNL’ these days—the comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy (Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy) were seemingly destined for greatness. Their viral videos about the COVID-19 pandemic that blew up on Twitter and TikTok were hysterical, and when they landed that coveted ‘SNL’ gig in short order, it felt like a well-deserved no-brainer. Let’s be real; they seemed like the funniest guys on the planet. Their comedy is infectious and hilarious. You just want this young trio to succeed. Sadly, their feature-length effort, “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain,” while having its share of laugh-out-loud moments and trademark bizarre humor, is primarily a lifeless mess, just not really connecting in any meaningful way and often just too silly to function in a movie form.
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“Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” is vaguely reminiscent of the “Mr. Show” spinoff movie from David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, and the comedy sketch series’ director Troy Miller. “Mr. Show” was brilliant, Cross and Odenkirk were genius, and “Ron Ronnie Run” centered around one of the sketch series most beloved characters. And yet, when it got to the screen, the film was just a random bag of absurdist jokes that, while funny on their own, perhaps in a YouTube clip here and there, did not at all work on its own as a feature film (to his credit Cross recognized this and hoped the comedy never saw the light of day).
Directed by Paul Briganti, produced by Judd Apatow, a great comedy mentor, featuring an excellent comedy supporting cast, and written by the trio themselves, there’s a lot of talent on screen, but ‘Treasure Of Foggy Mountain’ just doesn’t come together at all. The plot of ‘Foggy Mountain,’ such as there is one that matters, centers on the trio of man-boys, and John Goodman narrates their story to give it some sense of deranged gravitas. Marshall, Higgins, and Herlihy play exaggerated, imaginary versions of themselves if they were unsuccessful man-children with little drive or options in their lives. Deadbeat slackers who work at Ben’s father’s sporting goods store, Farley, Ben’s frustrated dad (Conan O’Brien, who can’t help salvage things), spends most of his time lambasting his son and his friends for being total irresponsible goofballs.
And this is where the Apatow formula, which usually factors into this film, seems to go amiss and or lets the boys do what they want. Even the most insane stories need a little bit of heart to ground them, but the boys and their hijinks are just so irrational and wacky that none of them are ever grounded in anything that remotely emotionally anchors or compels the viewer.
From this interesting set-up, which could feature an engaging father/son dynamic or similar notions, “Please Don’t Destroy” really goes off-piste to the “Treasure of Foggy Mountain.” The plot veers into randomness; the boys hear about a priceless, undiscovered treasure far off in the faraway but nearby mountains and then set out to find it. Along the way, they must utilize gliding wing suits and broken duck call whistles, fight off creepy hairless bears, avoid a massive, stalker-ish CGI eagle, combat desperate park rangers (Meg Stalter and X Mayo), and defend themselves from a cult that lives in the mountains led by a manipulative and hypocritical cult leader (Bowen Yang) on their way to discover the treasure.
And if that litany of challenges sounds like a pretty indiscriminate grab-bag of obstacles picked erratically out of a hat, that’s because they most certainly are. Nothing connects purposefully, and even when some of the comedic bits circle back to close the loop on the joke, none of it tracks in any engaging or chuckle-worthy form.
At times, “The Treasure Of Foggy Mountain” seems as if it might be riffing on “The Goonies,” “Stand By Me,” and “Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom” as broad touchstones, but never does it ever really conjure much of the spirit of each.
Now, all comedies shouldn’t be compelled to feature an emotionally grounding element or something serious to say. But lord, ‘Foggy Mountain’ desperately needs something, anything that isn’t riotously peculiar, batshit, and bananas jokes and gags. ‘Foggy Mountain’ has spades of ludicrous witticisms, preposterous scenarios, and amusingly outlandish scenes. Hell, there’s even a musical break. And occasionally, they’re mildly laughable on their own—the bit with Meg Statler trying to bed John Higgins while trying to double-cross him for the treasure is consistently funny, as is their awkward, tentative romance—but that’s probably the one thread in ‘Foggy Mountain’ that works (not so coincidentally, it’s at least marginally rooted in something tangible and real to the audience; affection and adoration).
Otherwise, ‘Foggy Mountain’ is mostly nonsensical, with silly jokes and callbacks whipping by so fast that they tend to lose their power and meaning. It’s weird to want to rein in the sensibilities of any comedian, especially when their proclivities lean towards the farcical and ridiculous; there is a palpable joy that emanates from their collective weirdness. Sadly, little of it translates into a laugh beyond a guffaw and most of it is empty. If anything, one wishes Apatow used that comedy wisdom to help the boys shape something just as wild, but if not more resonant, poignant, and consequential, then hell, just a little bit more coherent and intelligible. [C-]
“Please Don’t Destroy: The Legend of Foggy Mountain” debuts on Peacock on November 17.