Winnebago Man (2010)

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Ben Steinbauer has been one of the many fans of the bootleg outtakes on VHS tapes of a Winnebago industrial promotional film. He is obsessed with the angry Jack Rebney swearing his way through the filming. Jack seems to be a tough man to find until Ben finds him as a zen-like caretaker of a remote fishing camp in northern California. Later, Jack reveals his true foul-mouthed angry old guy persona as Ben convinces him to meet his fans.I didn't see the found footage tapes before this movie. After watching this film, I watched the footage and can see why it has gathered such a cult following. It's hilarious. The non-stop flow of expletives builds to a funny short. His angry tirades just keep coming. As for this documentary, it takes that tape and does the expected route of tracking Jack down. He doesn't disappoint. He's a grumpy old man and everybody knows at least one in real life. He has a quaint charm and one can't hate on the old guy going blind. Although the narrations could be cut back.

*mild spoilers* Ben Steinbauer takes us on journey into the mountains of California in search of an internet cult icon.In 1988, Jack Rebney was filming a marketing video for Winnebago. It was a two-week shoot in the heat of summer, and the guy just simply goes bananas (if you have never seen it, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSWUWPx2VeQ). While the edited video gets sent off to Winnebago to be used as a sales pitch, a 4-minute VHS outtakes reel is being passed around by crew-members; it eventually ends up in the hands of collectors and is copied an uncountable amount of times. Years later, the internet blows up and gives birth to video sites i.e. Youtube, and Jack Rebney is instantly a viral superstar.The quest is for Ben to find out how Mr. Rebney, now twenty years older, feels about being dubbed the Winnebago Man, aka The Angriest Man in the World; or to see if he knows of his popularity at all.Jack Rebney is a person everyone in life has most likely known at one point or another. He is the older man that pulls off being grumpy and charming simultaneously. He is a wizard with profanity, and uses body language that demonstrates his disdain. For many of us, he is the anti-hero we long to be during those times of stress and irritability.Ben Steinbauer has created something hilarious and moving with "Winnebago Man". His efforts in finding someone that is a legend to some are truly sincere. The deeper this documentary goes into Ben's pursuit, the more you learn about a person that is slightly different from what you would expect. There are a few moments where I felt Ben was prying too much with things involving Rebney's life, but I do not think he was trying to be nosy, just overly enthusiastic. This would be perfect to watch back-to-back with "Best Worst Movie". A high recommendation to fans of comedy documentaries.

Ben Steinbauer's documentary about Jack Rebney is an interesting and entertaining piece of filmmaking. I realize there is a huge sub-culture of "YouTube junkies" mind-boggling in diversity and size. Because I do not regularly peruse YouTube videos I was unaware of one of the most iconic characters ever to achieve a kind of mass popularity in cyberspace: "Jack Rebney, The Angriest Man In The World". It is definitely a cultural phenomenon whereby a man who would otherwise be as unknown as any other has become a world-wide star. His dialog, and I'm not just talking about his profanity, has transcended the internet ending up even in Hollywood movies. The industrial video he made for Winnebago probably helped shift some units by helping dealers sell their product...maybe not? But, the outtakes, which originally only went to a few executives at Winnebago and the crew, have transcended time place and product & will "live in infamy" on the internet and within pop-culture.How could one man's frustration shooting an "infomercial" come to this? Who is the man, the so-called "Angriest Man in The World"? What became of him after the video and, more saliently, is he still alive? These are some of the questions that Ben Steinbauer was interested in and he had to expend some effort, indeed, because Jack Rebney had long ago retreated and become a true hermit. Finally when Steinbauer found Jack, Jack was not often not honest, but still capable of great bursts of anger-many times still laced with language more suitable to jail and wartime. Jack is a juxtaposition who finds his notoriety irritating and intoxicating. He seems miffed that he is a kind of cultural icon due to the internet, more specifically due to film he thought shouldn't have ever existed in the first place. Perhaps in his seclusion he has found peace, but you get the feeling that under the surface he's mad as hell still with a lot of it centering around events culminating with the George W. Bush presidency. At one point I think Jack believes Ben's movie will to allow him to profess his manifesto regarding politics (and the general decline of the United States) which, it seems evident, is where Jack thinks his importance to his audience should lie. Ben tries to make it clear he seeking something more like how Jack got to the point he was as when he made the Winnebago video, that is what his fans are more interested in. This serves to irritate Jack and all grinds to a halt for quite some time. Ben does an end-around and finds a way to get back to Jack though and because of that we do end up getting this documentary. As mentioned earlier, the film Winnebago Man is entertaining. We get a slice of Jack Rebney, though not a whole picture of who this man really is. The holes are unavoidable as Jack Rebney has covered his tracks, purposely fell away from the day-to-day trappings of civilization. Who Jack is, perhaps, is truly only known to Jack himself and he is playing his cards close.In the end "Winnebago Man" fans are not terribly interested in Jack's life-story and/or his deeper views. The whole phenomenon rests on actually seeing a man voice "over-the-top" frustration so frequently and with, seemingly, bottomless profanity. Ben Steinbauer succeeds admirably by, first, finding the man behind the expletives who can still get just as frustrated and angry. This is what Jack's fans love him for...he's like us, but he has no need to fit in at all anymore. To coin Jack: "You believe any of that $#!+"?

For many years, I've been entertained by the video I know as "The Angriest Man in the World," featuring a frustrated Winnebago salesman melting down during the hot summertime shoot for a promotional film. Originally distributed via VHS swaps and later disseminated on YouTube, the video comprising obscenity-laden out-takes is filled with quotable dialogue and deliriously funny meltdowns. When I had the pleasure of catching this doc about the video and its star during a sneak last night in LA, I expected little more than a quick and pithy revelation of the man behind the mad. However I was thrilled to discover a thoughtful, provocative, and even quite moving study of what it means to become an unintentional celebrity. The narrative surprises of this film are better discovered than discussed, but suffice it to say that Ben Steinbauer's utterly compelling and utterly hilarious doc should shoot to the top of your must- see list if it hits a festival near you. And while the movie provides unadulterated joy for those who have already joined the cult of Jack Rebney -- the Winnebago Man himself -- I'm confident that anyone interested in serious explorations of pop culture will be fascinated.