4th and 99 is the funniest thing to come out of Pennsylvania since M. Night Shyamalan. The difference here is that the filmmakers, a comedy troupe known as The Minor Prophets, are intentionally trying to make us laugh. Kind of like Broken Lizard's Club, except funny.
As played by TMP regular David Amadio, football player Bobby Makefield is somewhere between 12 and 35 years old. Bobby is at loggerheads with his dad (Gil Damon). That's because Mr. Makefield botched a call while officiating one of Bobby's games, thus preventing his son from scoring the winning touchdown. He instigates a confrontation between Bobby and another player, Tommy Johnson (Steve Kuzmick), and the "boys" face off in an epic one-on-one match on the field.
The hostile parenting on display here is simply hysterical; wait until you see Mr. Makefield do a belly-flop victory dance after Tommy scores a touchdown. TMP movies always have an element that's a little... well, insane. Here, it's Brian Gillin as "Favre." I have no idea why he's named Favre. He wears the former Green Bay god's jersey, and he has a picture of the quarterback strapped to his wrist. The first time we see him, he's walking out of a women's restroom. This is the stuff of bizarro, unexplained comedy, like when Ron Burgundy and his friends got into an all-out brawl in Anchorman.
4th and 99 is better filmed and better edited than other TMP movies I've seen. The action on the field is excitingly choreographed and easy to follow. The actors and filmmakers find just the right note of comic cruelty - they tickle our funny bone, but they do it with a jagged edged sword. Long live TMP!
