What kind of folks would make a movie titled Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace, you might ask? Well, the same kind whose previous credits would included a movie entitled
Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter, of course.
A
slapdash, silly, low-budget Canadian spy spoof, the film centers around
the titular secret agent (Phil Caracas) and his partner El Santos (Jeff
Moffet), whose quest is to track down a valuable missing necklace. Over
the course of the movie, this means showdowns with a hinterland horror
known as Bionic Bigfoot and a team of Amazonian assassins, among many
other trials and tribulations. Fish nunchakus and copious affected slow
motion are also deployed.
Writer Ian Driscoll and director Lee Demarbre have a deep affinity for kung-fu shenanigans, and Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace is full of the same type of marginally choreographed rows. Caracas — returning from Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter
as well — gives his character a certain goofy charm, but execution and
tonal consistency are the big bugaboos here. What glues the movie
together more than any sense of slapdash style is its breathlessly
anarchic tone. In Driscoll and Demarbre’s DIY world, continuity
problems are best incorporated and made fun of within the flow of
things, rather than painstakingly ironed out. This works a few times,
but eventually drags things down, because it just seems lazy.
Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace is at its best — a
term loosely applied — when dashing mindlessly over and around all
obstacles, but the movie’s running time, at just under two hours,
belies this model of brevity-as-virtue, and the “action” herein is far
too large a piece of the pie. People don’t want to sit through
low-budget films for more than a scene or two of inadequately staged
action; you have to woo them with ideas. This film has some, but
they’re not as entertainingly explored as in the filmmakers’ previous
work.
Housed in a regular Amray case,
Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace
is presented on a region-free disc in a full-screen transfer that
preserves the imperfections of the movie’s 16mm production alongside a
Dolby digital 5.1 English track that’s a definite step up from the
visual plane of the movie.
Cast and crew alike sit for an
audio-commentary track, and a 23-minute making-of documentary graces
the roster of supplemental material, along with a 25-minute 1999 short
film,
Harry Knuckles and the Treasure of the Aztec Mummy, that
serves as this feature’s predecessor. There’s also nine minutes of
footage from the film’s Ottawa premiere, meaning plenty of comical
pronunciations of the word “aboot,” as well as interviews with on-queue
fans and Demarbre’s mother. Alas, even proud mothers of those involved
might have some problems looking past the unevenness and wan double
entendres of
Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace.
D (Movie) B- (Disc) 
