Bert’s drunken past catches up with him 20 years down the road when he and his father are kidnapped by those Bert wronged 20 years ago while drunk on a college semester abroad in Russia.
When I first saw the trailer for “The Machine,” it intrigued me as it utilized a lot of old-school humor that today’s generation either doesn’t get or finds offensive. Thankfully, it is offensive and made me laugh out loud in many places.
The film is based on a real-life incident that comedian Bert Kreischer said happened to him when he was a student at Florida State University in the mid-’90s. He claimed that he went on a class trip to Russia and was forced by the Russian Mafia to rob a passenger train on which he and his classmates were traveling. It sounds like something a Hollywood screenwriter would conjure up, but it actually happened and serves as the basis for “The Machine.”
To turn the above incident into a feature-length movie, it is declared that Bert robbed an antique pocket watch from one of the passengers, a family heirloom, which resulted in the man forming his own organized crime syndicate. Bert’s daughter Sasha (Jess Gabor) is celebrating her sixteenth birthday when Irina (Iva Babic), a Russian mobster, turns up and, at gunpoint, kidnaps Bert and his father Albert (Hamill). She reminds Bert about the incident on the train and that her father is now one of the biggest crime bosses in Moscow and wants his watch returned. Once back in Moscow, Bert must retrace his steps all those years ago and hope that he can find the watch. Otherwise…
While Kreischer is pretty new to acting, he successfully carries the film along with Hamill, and together, they are the perfect dysfunctional father-son duo. Having made a name for himself when he was younger for his hard-partying exploits, he uses it to great comedic effect throughout the film, his legendary status as The Machine (in the movie and real life) resonating everywhere, in both the US and Russia.
When we first meet Bert, he is in therapy along with his wife and two young daughters, finding it difficult to differentiate his “Bert Kreischer The Machine” personality from “Bert Kreischer Loving Father and Husband,” but throughout the film’s escapades and several near-death experiences, by movie’s end, he successfully manages to combine both identities so that they can live together, where one is not overpowering the other. When I see a comedian on stage, I often wonder how they are behind closed doors, away from the fans and the limelight, and “The Machine” gives a little insight into that viewpoint.
While the film is fantastical in many ways, it’s still hard to believe that the central narrative actually happened to Kreischer in real life. Were it not for this component, “The Machine” probably wouldn’t have been half as funny as it is, but Kreischer’s larger-than-life and overly confident personality, especially after he’s had a few drinks, brings out his true colors and we understand how he inherited that moniker.
Now available on Blu-ray™ and DVD
