Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain Review

Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain, the first feature film from the comedy troupe Please Don’t Destroy, is now available to stream this weekend (on Prime Video in Canada and Peacock in the United States) after it’s postponed theatrical release was eventually scrapped. The film follows Ben (Marshall), John (Higgins), and Martin (Herlihy), a group of friends who found themselves now in their mid 20s and still living together. When they realize that they don’t like the trajectory of their lives, they set off to find a gold treasure that is rumored to be buried in the nearby Foggy Mountain. The end result is a wildly uneven comedy that will definitely play better to existing fans of this comedy troupe, but even those with no prior knowledge of the troupe or of their sense of humor are also likely to still get some good laughs and enjoyment, and might even become fans of the group afterwards.

The primary goal of any comedy is to make the audience laugh, and while about half the jokes fall flat on there face or go on for far longer than they should, the ones that work are side splittingly hilarious while certain sequences will have audiences who are fans of their sense of humor dying of laughter. Though it’s bizarre, dumb, and beyond ridiculous, it’s funny which is all that matters while there are quite a few impactful running gags that thankfully that consistently land. While it admittedly is a really dumb movie operating on a very specific wavelength, those who can get on it will be treated to a good time and get some good silly laughs out of it.

Despite this being Marshall, Higgins, and Herlihy’s first leading roles in a film, they do a surprisingly good job at holding it together and obviously have great chemistry with each other. While the trio all make for decent actors, the film is ultimately at its best whenever it’s just following the three of them together. Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien has a small supporting yet scene-stealing role, in a way that only he can, as Ben’s dad Farley. He is also responsible for what might be the funniest moment in the entire film due to how well he sells it. The soundtrack is great as well, and although sending the film to streaming was probably the right call from a business perspective, it’s a shame that audiences were not given that chance to see it in a theatre because it is one that surely would have played really well with a crowd.

Even though the film is a fun one time watch, it is also heavily flawed and whose appeal is likely to lie solely with fans of this kind of comedy. Whenever it shifts its focus away from the leading trio, with the exception of O’Brien’s Farley, it suffers as all of the other characters just aren’t very interesting or very funny. Like many other comedies, it also suffers from a weak third act that fails to carry the momentum of the first two acts. Moving in a direction that doesn’t completely work, it feels kind of weird compared to what led to it. While a bit short on laughs, the climax and a surprisingly heartfelt ending help make up for it.

At the end of the day, Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain may not be a new comedy classic, but it’s laugh out loud hilarious in spots, and enjoyable enough to make up for what didn’t work. The film feels like a bunch of sketches stitched together to make a feature film but that was almost inevitable, and thankfully it works more often than it doesn’t.

still courtesy of Peacock

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/