Everything You Know Is Wrong

This movie is proof that the Firesign Theatre's best medium is radio. In the movie, they are in fact lip-syncing to the album of the same name (NOTE: The album *is* available(on CD), at Laugh.com). In short, skip the move, go straight to the record.

This not so much a real movie, but the Firesign Theatre lip-synching along to one of their all-time best comedy albums (and since the album is currently out-of-print, the film is invaluable). Taking a satirical swipe at ('70s) new age beliefs, U.F.O.s, and revisionist history, it has (surprisingly) not dated one bit. Plus, the Firesign Theatre, a comedy recording troupe, put out few films during their career. This one is the best, with all four members essaying several roles. Plus, the cinematographer went on to shoot "E. T." for Speilberg!

I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would. I went into it thinking, "The audio works perfectly well by itself, what makes you think you're going to add anything to it by making it into a movie?" but the visual component did add something. All these guys are excellent actors and watching them practice their craft by lip-syncing perfectly to their recording was impressive rather than cheesy as I thought it might be. It really did look as if they were talking. Given the modest budget, the movie does a good job of creating the appropriate atmosphere for each scene, and it adds sight gags that go beyond merely accompanying what already can be gained by listening to the audio. I would readily show this movie to anyone who might never be exposed to the Firesign Theatre otherwise.

I gave this movie a 9 out of 10 SOLELY on the basis that I believe this is the Firesign Theatre's at their FUNNIEST and MOST ACCESSIBLE. The film itself is not all that great. As others have said, it's merely a lip-synch to the album (missing a scene or two and adding a bit of music). This movie is to the album what TV was to radio--certainly, the visuals were added, but what Stan Freberg called the "Theatre of the Mind" could always entertain from within in ways no picture could. The original album gets a 10, but knock it down a peg for the cinematic silliness. Find the CD (on laugh.com) instead and you'll see why these four (or five) funny guys, at their peak, were (and their old albums are still) the funniest thing going.

This "movie" is the brainchild of The Firesign Theater, and outfit best known for hilarious comedy albums like "Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand me the Pliers" and "We're all bozos on this bus." They are not known for their work in motion pictures, and Everything You Know Is Wrong demonstrates why.

Some of the material here is funny, but the visuals don't add to the comedy. It seems like the actors are just lip-syncing to a Firesign Theater record. It looks like a bad home-movie of someone's aunts and uncles karaoking comedy albums.

Note I said *some* of the material is funny. Some of it is quite aggressively not. Like Monty Python, Firesign Theater have two modes: when they're focused, they're sharp and funny, but sometimes they're just pointlessly bizarre. Unfortunately, after a promising beginning this movie falls into the latter category and wallows there. There's some sort of plot about an alien takeover, or something, but generally weird stuff happens for no particular reason. There's nothing here to equal Firesign's best stuff: no Nick Danger, no synthetic chinchillas, not even any bubonic plague.

If you're a fan of the group, you might want to see this, but you'll probably be disappointed. If you've never heard of Firesign Theater, grab "Shoes For Industry!", their greatest hits album, and start from there.