When three friends who live together realize that they don't like their life trajectory, they set off to find a gold treasure that is rumored to be buried in the nearby mountain.
The one-note comedy “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” is sloppily written, poorly acted, and lacks any semblance of an inspired comedic spark. The premise may be decent, but the large amount of failed and unfunny attempts at humor and the single-minded approach to director Paul Briganti‘s storytelling sink this one before it ever has much of a chance.
Narrated by John Goodman, the movie tells the story of Ben (Ben Marshall), Martin (Martin Herlihy), and John (John Higgins), three childhood friends who are now deadbeat co-workers at a sporting goods store. The trio embark on a daring adventure in search of the legendary treasure of Foggy Mountain, which is rumored to be a wealth of gold that’s buried nearby. The young men face a series of obstacles along the way, from a disappointed boss (Conan O’Brien), hairless bears, aggressive birds, inept park rangers (Megan Stalter, X Mayo), and a falsely sanctimonious cult leader (Bowen Yang) who seem determined to stop them from finding the priceless treasure.
It’s a paper thin premise that would have worked much better as a series of short, sketch comedy videos (for which the YouTube and SNL trio is so well known). There simply isn’t enough material to sustain a feature length film, and Ben, Martin, and John’s charming dork shtick only gets them so far. The story is one part fun to two parts dumb, and it wears out its welcome way too early. Everything is casual to a fault, which leads to the project coming across as movie made by and for adolescent slackers.
Look, I’m not too old to “get” the humor, despite what teens would probably say. I see the attempts at comedy, but only a handful of the jokes and gags are actually funny. The failure to success ratio proves to be the film’s downfall.
“Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” is a buddy comedy that’s heavy on the buddy and far too light on the comedy.
