Leon Schuster used to be funny. Well, sort of. But that was when I was a pre-teen, barely old enough to make any real sense of his work. Nevertheless, his corny gimmicks and sheer buffoonery were enough to make me chuckle.
But, the older I’ve grown, the more difficult it’s become to find humour in his movies.
Over the last two decades or so, Schuster’s success on the local film circuit has been virtually unmatched - films like "Mr Bones" and "Mad Buddies" are among the highest-grossing local productions ever.
There’s golden oldies, then there’s Leon Schuster: a shameless black culture appropriator, whose brand of comedy seems to deteriorate with each cringe-worthy film.
His latest piece of work or, rather, piece of sh**, "Frank & Fearless", is a new low for the veteran comedian.
Still, somehow, it opened on Friday at 95 screens nationwide, meaning thousands of people around the country will have to sit through a painful hour-and-a-half of this god-awful film.
This comes after "Frank & Fearless" witnesses the aftermath of a brutal rhino killing and subsequently makes it his mission to bring the culprits to book.
Joined by Reini, the baby rhino whose mother was killed by the poachers, and Fearless’s dog, their mission sees them stumble through several obstacles that are intended to be humorous.
Eventually, they find themselves on a mild goose chase with a gang of merciless poachers that ends under predictably lukewarm circumstances. The storyline is incoherent, messy and it’s difficult to understand the intended direction. But from what I can gather, the overall intention of Frank & Fearless is to bring awareness to the plight of the rhino.
Let’s hope this is the last Leon Schuster offering I have to endure, cause I’m gatvol!