Made in Orlando: 'Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector' (2006)

Courtesy of Lionsgate

For years, Orlando has tried to position itself as a premiere filming destination, a sort of "Hollywood East." Surely the goal was to lure huge productions to town, flooding the economy with the millions of dollars that come with such films. It doesn't look like it's working though.

Title: Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector

What's It All About, Alfie?: Larry the Cable Guy plays Larry the Health Inspector, so unfortunately this movie is not about a movie who is a cable guy by day and a health inspector by night. He's just a plain old health inspector for the city health department. His reckless habits gets him teamed up with newbie inspector Amy Butlin (Iris Bahr, Columbo: Columbo Likes the Nightlife), and together they set out to solve the Hardy Boys-like mystery of who is sabotaging the food of premier restaurants in the days leading up to some sort of "All City Top Chef" thingy. Suspects abound, Larry goofs around and there are copious fart sounds. Fantastic.

Is It Watchable?: Well, by the current standards of the Made in Orlando series, it is indeed a watchable movie, depending on your tolerance for good old boy, lowest common denominator fart and poop based humor (more farts than poop, mind you). And this is for real here, because farting is so integral to the universe of Larry the Cable Guy that it becomes integral to the plot of the film. The story actually hinges on malodorous emissions. Funny that this movie was made in the same town as Ernest Saves Christmas because it feels like that same kind of 1980s character-based comedy. And when I say character-based, I don't mean movies like Being There and Rushmore, I'm talking about movies like Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke and Big Top Pee-Wee. After all, Larry the Cable Guy showed up again as a small-town sheriff in the thankfully Illinois-shot Witless Protection. So they are aiming for a key demographic of Larry fans and they hit them, I'm sure. People hold up Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as the highest grossing movie with horrible reviews ever, but I would dare say that $15 million dollar box office return on this movie's $2 million budget would make this one of the more profitable films of the decade for sure, speaking in terms of ratios and adding on ole DVD sales (another $25-50 million for sure, if not more). This movie could be a hell of a lot worse, I suppose, but it could have been a little better. Why else go out and get people like David Koechner and Trent Wilson and give them so litte to do? But hey, if a Kid Rock cameo makes you giggle or smile, help yourself to a big ole heaping handful of Larry.Use of Orlando: The filmmakers use the city very well, utilizing some of the more interesting and even iconic locations around town. However, what they do not do is utilize the name of Orlando. The regional all chef competition is referred to as the All City, with no mention of which city. This could be any ole southern locale. At least any southern locale with palm trees. So while they were happy enough to make their movie here, they didn't want to use it as a name location. They went for an Anonymous Town, USA type of vibe. So screw 'em. But locals will get a kick out of seeing the now defunct Old Germany Pete's All-American Bar and Grill ("two restaurants under one roof since 1997!"), a Twistee Treat stand, a Hot Dog Heaven stand and the now-broken Lake Eola fountain (thanks to a Back to the Future-like lightning strike). And the Orange County courthouse in downtown Orlando gets to sub in as the exterior for the location of the city health department. It is a rather majestic looking building after all. Some would even say judicial looking. But these guys looked at it and saw public health workers. Good for them. If someone really knows Orlando, and I mean really knows it, from downtown all the way to the outlying areas like Casselberry and Longwood, they would pick up on the location. But otherwise, it could be pretty much anywhere. The same movie could have been made in Omaha, Nebraska, and nothing would have been different. Such if life.