IT'S… SOMETHING

A Video Review of "It's Pat"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

There have been literally dozens of movies based on skits from "Saturday Night Live" and only a few have actually been successful (read as funny), The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World probably being the good ones. They invariably fail miserably and go on to be played on an endless loop in a special room in Hell reserved for folks like Hitler, Caligula and Adam Sandler. It's Pat is no exception.

The "It's Pat" segment was a skit on "SNL" in the late 1980s involving an androgynous person named Pat, played by Julia Sweeney, whose mystery gender was the focus of the joke. That's right, the joke. They based a movie on one freaking joke. It may work for two to three minutes on late night television but not for seventy-seven big screen minutes!

Julia Sweeney is an intelligent and yes, funny performer. If you haven't seen God Says 'Ha!', see it now. It's just a damn shame she has become known only for the Pat character. It's tragic that other able folks like Kathy Griffin and Kathy Najimy got dragged into this mess. One would expect it of Charles Rocket or David Foley (who plays the same drag character he played every week on "Kids in the Hall" as Pat's mate, Chris) but not the Kathys.

There is exactly one five second funny bit in this entire movie. It happens when David Foley tries to close a suitcase on a water bed. If only they had made a movie of that.