Herbest8
The true star of "Star Wars" gets his own film in the form of a cute and surprisingly well made mockumentary. The loose story focuses on the rise and fall of Reginald Dillingham (the apparent real name of R2-D2) and also goes into the honors and friends that he gathered on the journey.The cast is made up mostly of "Star Wars" veterans and has the unique distinction of bringing together most of the cast members from both trilogies. In addition, celebrities like Richard Dreyfuss and Francis Ford Copolla make appearances and show their comedic chops quite well.It's hard to pinpoint the best performance. Samuel L. Jackson is pretty good, coming off as being the kind of loyal friend you'd like by your side and Dreyfuss is very convincing as the bitter ex-friend of the droid. Even Christopher Lee scores points in a cameo role. If I had to choose, I would say Ben Burtt is certainly the most watchable. But perhaps the greatest asset is that this cute film has no slow spots at all and works well in its 20 minute run-time.Bottom-line? This ranks higher than the prequels and that's no joke!
iffershortt
Anyone who is a fan of Star Wars (and especially someone whose favorite character is R-2) should love this three-part film. Its loving, if stern, treatment of the tempestuous robot gives "the trashcan on wheels" great dimension. There are biographical surprises, such as his family history, that must endear the little guy to anyone but his enemies. This well-written paean to one of filmdom's unique and fascinating characters deserves to be seen as a feature on the big screen, or at least as a television special. I wish there were more installments. Everything from the performances on camera to the narration is professional. Hats off to the creators, to Don Bies, in particular, for his inspiration. Beneath the Dome is witty, funny, absurd, and--amazingly--quite touching. In fact, it is as clever a mockumentary as I've seen.
DoobieKeebler
"R2-D2: Beneath the Dome" sounds like it could be really funny. Think of a blend of E! True Hollywood Story with A & E's Biography, and throw in the fact that it's a robotic character from "Star Wars" being profiled. Sounds interesting, right? Well, it must have been a lot more amusing on paper, because the final product didn't get one laugh at me. Not a single laugh. And I laugh at well-done comedy, whether the critics agree ("Ghostbusters", "Big") or not ("Houseguest", "Men at Work", Adam Sandler films).But this little mockumentary, unfortunately, doesn't work. It's as if everyone is trying to be funny, and unfortunately, in comedy intentionally trying to be funny rarely works outside of a stand-up comedy routine. Samuel L. Jackson talking about "Homeboy is probably from Detroit." Harty-har.Photoshopping R2 into posters for movies, parodied like "Greased" and "The Good, The Bad, and The Oily" is funny if you're in second grade. Watching this, I wanted to like it and I wanted to laugh, but the only ones I can imagine laughing at this are "Star Wars" nerds. That's an oversimplification and not a bash at anyone who enjoyed this little thing, but I'm a big "Star Wars" fan and, blah, this wasn't funny. Comedy is subjective, I know, my opinions are just that: opinions.Now, I don't mean to bash this as much as I am. It's just a little mockumentary on the web (although, for the record, editing the "Who's on First?" comedy routine with Jar-Jar and Yoda was a just little Web thing and that was hilarious). It's even good for a few smiles, when the people being interviewed aren't trying to be funny, and seem like they're telling serious anecdotes. The few smiles tend to come from Spielberg and Coppola, who are surely veterans of serious interviews about filmmakers, and their deadpan takes are amusing...not quite funny, but amusing. In general, though, the clips of R2 with his girlfriend or on the beach alone aren't particularly funny. It's a one-joke premise that would have worked had it just been a one-minute fake ad, but as a 15-minute or whatever documentary, it falls completely flat mostly because the parties involved are conscious they're trying to get you to laugh. Worth watching, sure. It's perfect in showing you that comedy is more difficult than it looks; I'm sure on paper, this sounded really funny.
