It is safe to say that if a film was made in the early ‘90s and not released until September of 2009, that the movie is without a doubt a turkey. And that is exactly the case with the abysmal “Night of the Dribbler.”
Now, what if the company releasing the DVD (Code Red) did no promotional work for the film, leaving viewers in the dark about what they are buying, poorly scamming them out of their hard earned cash with the final result? The truth is that if just some of the people who purchased a copy saw a theatrical trailer of this picture, it might have saved them over $20 for something that many assumed was a slasher/comedy.
As a matter of fact, the slasher elements are played out with cartoonish tomfoolery, and the comedy is no where to be found.
However, there is a premise in this mess concerning a killer with a grinning basketball mask that is an original slasher premise. The picture of the killer is what made so many viewers enticed at the notion of this picture, thinking this was a low-budget Canadian comedy with plenty of violence. However, this movie would get a PG rating if it was ever released theatrically. It cans the violence to be an “Airplane!” slapstick spoof, with the major exception that most of the jokes don’t work and are just inept. So basically what you have is a slasher comedy with no blood or laughs.
The members of the basketball team are slowly being murdered one by one, while the equipment manager comes closer and closer to finally making the team. But who is the killer? Is it Stan Bates (equipment manager and the subject of several Master Bates jokes), Beckula (Bates’ Goth girlfriend) or the father that can’t deal with seeing his son on the sidelines? Of course, there are many more suspects, but you really won’t get caught up in the mystery, and you will figure out the ending long before it happens.
The real star of the “Night of the Dribbler” is frequent “Match Game” guest and impressionist Fred Travalena, playing three separate roles: Coach Cherry, Danny Gibson and Dick Airhead. This is not a great showcase for the late Travalena, but he does seem to enjoy inventing many characters, although he could’ve used some more time to polish them. In fact, the movie was intended as a slasher, but due to Travalena’s Christian morality, its makers agreed to change the film into a comedy if he would appear in it. His impressions do provide the very few scenes of laughter.
Code Red is the first company to ever release this movie in a full-frame presentation, and it is accompanied by a commentary track with Travalena recorded shortly before he died. The track is funny and brutally honest with the finished product, and we get to know a little more about this underrated comedian in his own words.
Then there is an interesting five-minute interview with George Thomas, who plays the Elvis-worshipping team captain High Tops. His performance in the film is solid, but he isn’t onscreen very long, and in his interview he discusses his time in the movie industry and meeting David Lynch.
A theatrical trailer is included, which looks like something from Troma and more Code Red coming attractions. All of the trailers included have been included on better releases, and don’t warrant spending money on this disc.
This movie would be great as part of a double feature or an extra on the DVD of another movie, but as a standalone disc it is clearly a waste of money. (The best bet would be a “Mystery Science Theater 3000” commentary track)
“Night of the Dribbler” has been hyped up by Code Red in their blogs, but the company really committed a foul play with this poor release. This release was bought by people that believed in the company and their name, and they are the only ones that were hurt in the long run. Code Red needs to stick to releasing rare gems of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
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