“Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” Review
(From Left) Martin Herlihy, Ben Marshall and John Higgins star as themselves in “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” which sees the dramatically named trio go on an epic journey to find buried treasure and become multimillionaires.
In the last few seasons of “Saturday Night Live”, one of my favorite elements of each episode has been the recorded shorts by the comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy. In a break from the show’s tradition of sketches filmed live before a studio audience in New York City, Please Don’t Destroy (composed of Martin Herlihy, John Higgins and Ben Marshall) have contributed many hilarious recorded shorts that have really appealed to my sense of humor. Now, after three seasons with the iconic series, the three of them have written and starred in their own film “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” which continues to remind me why I love this trio of twenty-something comedians with over-the-top laughs and insanely likable leads.
Starring the trio as themselves, Martin, John and Ben have been best friends since middle school and now find themselves working dead-end jobs at a sporting goods store owned by Ben’s father (Conan O’Brien). With Ben wanting to make a business of his own and John pursuing a relationship with his girlfriend Amy, John begins to feel left behind in their friendship until he realizes that a compass the three of them found as children might be a key to finding the mythical Treasure of Foggy Mountain. Wanting to find the treasure and become rich, the three of them embark on an epic quest that will put them in direct conflict with a couple of park rangers (Megan Statler and X Mayo), a bizarre cult led by a former treasure hunter (Bowen Yang) and their own egos.
It seems that, lately, there have been many films written by and starring stand-up comedians which try to be semi-autobiographical with a mix of humor and drama including Bill Burr’s “Old Dads” and Sebastian Maniscalco’s “About My Father”. “The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” doesn’t go for that. This movie is completely ridiculous and I love it for that.
Martin Herlihy, John Higgins and Ben Marshall are all wonderful leads with an incredibly strong friendship that lends its way to hilarious banter. The script, which the three of them wrote together, is just bursting with charm and good humor and watching the film feels like just seeing these three throw as many crazy ideas to the wall as possible with so many of them landing well. With their quick style of humor constantly on display and the stakes of the film being so ridiculous, this is just the perfect film to watch with a group of friends to have a ball with.
Along with outstanding supporting performances by Megan Statler, X Mayo, Bowen Yang and Conan O’Brien, there’s no shortage of talent to be found in this movie. “The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” is also smart enough not to dwell too much on many jokes so, if one doesn’t really hit, there’s another good one ready to take its place. However, when the film does need to be serious, it does so pretty well so that you can feel some investment in Martin, John and Ben’s journey. You can feel that their friendship is being strained and you hope that this quest can bring them together. You also hope that they start dancing to Soulja Boy’s 2007 hit song “Crank That” in a manner that can only be described as “aggressively white.” It’s amazing what the human mind wants, isn’t it?
Directed by Paul Briganti, whose previous work has included directing segments for “Saturday Night Live” and “College Humor”, and produced by the legendary Judd Apatow, you can really feel everyone’s comedic instincts aligning for this film. Maybe it’s because I too am a skinny, awkward white guy in my twenties but every joke these three came up with just went right up my main street of humor.
With three talented guys I admire heavily at the center of this film, “The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” gave me exactly what I wanted: a wickedly hilarious experience that kept me laughing for 90 minutes. If seeing Please Don’t Destroy on “Saturday Night Live” wasn’t part of your weekend routine, it probably will be after seeing their feature film debut.
