Yeah...I really disliked this short. I haven’t seen most of the Chase Columbia shorts following this yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the weakest of the bunch, because it is really bad.
OK, here’s the thing: the initial premise seems like a good one. Chase being both the investigator as well as the bandit he’s supposed to be catching does seem like an idea with lots of potential, but it instead becomes a vehicle for Jules White to let things get out of control and just throw random plot points and other stupid things in it.
The first half of the short isn’t quite as painful as the second half, but it’s nothing to really talk about. I guess if I did have one positive thing to say, it’s that Eva McKenzie does do a convincing job in portraying hysterical state her character is supposed to be in. Beyond that, though, a lot of this is nothing more than exposition and setting up how Chase gets himself into more trouble. There really isn’t anything funny about it, but if it were leading to something good, I could find it forgivable.
Sadly, once Chase returns from stealing the money, things just get worse and worse. It starts off with Chase’s bland and annoying wife constantly yelling at him to get back to bed. While this is going on, we also have to sit through these ear piercing sounds of a dog and cat constantly barking and meowing, and once it finally ends, Chase ends up in this dorm and that noise is replaced by a bunch of screaming. The dorm also has all these dumb traps that have no logical reason for being there and for some reason everyone keeps falling for. They do that chair gag 4 times, and not once is it ever funny. Then there’s this dumb plot point about a basketball initiation that leads to the girls suddenly tying him up and doing initiation rituals on him, only for them to realize that they were right the first time and that he really was the Nightshirt Bandit. Jules, I beg of you, make up your mind as to what story you want to tell! I swear, it seems as though they just combined 3 or 4 shorts into one and didn’t think anymore of it.
Yeah, I know White did like his fast-paced nonsense, and it could work in some cases, but I don’t remember any of his shorts being this unfocused and out of control. And of all people, he chose to stick Chase with this garbage. It literally is as far from Chase’s style as you can get and while Chase is clearly trying to inject some of his style into it like with the mirror part, it’s just not enough to make up for all that goes around him.
Awful...just, awful!
2 out of 10
