I was late to the whole Bert Kreischer party. I had never heard of the guy until his first Netflix special aired, but I have become a fan and find him to be hilarious. The Machine is a movie about the most famous story that he has told. Of course, this is greatly exaggerated to the max, but if you want a loud, obnoxious, violent, and over-the-top action comedy, this is hard to beat in 2023.
How to Download The Machine
You can expect to be able to download or stream the film from Netflix sometime after its theatrical release. Click on the Download button at the end of this review.
The Movie Review
I do feel that The Machine has a very specific audience. You will either be like me and think that this is hilarious and be laughing like a maniac, or you will be like my wife and think it is the dumbest thing ever! I just love how over the top and crazy this was and while it may run just a tad too long for its own good, I had one heck of a fun time watching this.
The movie stars Bert Kreischer and we get a brief introduction about who he is, the story of him getting involved with Russian mobsters when he was at college, and how he was a party animal back in the day. I thought that they did a great job of getting those who may not be familiar with Bert and his career caught up to speed.
We learn that Bert has put his wild partying days behind him and is trying to be a family man. However, Bert has a rough relationship with his eldest daughter and his estranged dad is coming back into his life. By the way, his dad is played by Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker from Star Wars), and you can tell that he was having a blast in this role.
Anyway, back when he was a college student, he took a trip to Russia where he became something of a legend and became known as The Machine! While he was in Russia, he ended up accidentally stealing a watch that belonged to a Russian woman called Irina’s father and she wants to make him pay… oh she is also a major Russian mobster!
Bert and his dad end up kidnapped and the movie is basically them trying to get away. It is a hilarious action comedy that kind of shocked me with how over-the-top violent it was. While the movie is crazy, we have a real “family” thing going on as we get moments with the characters that show their more personal and vulnerable side that kind of surprised me.
As is the case with any comedy movie, some of the gags do fall a bit flat, but for the most part, they pulled it off here. I think they could have shaved ten or so minutes off this and it would have been even better for it. It does not drag or anything like that, but I think you get rid of a few of the weaker gags and you have a better overall movie.
Mark Hamill was my absolute highlight of this movie. Bert was awesome, but it was Mark Hamill that stole the show for me. He is pretty much just being Mark Hamill and he is freaking hilarious. He and Bert have great chemistry together and I liked the way their relationship “blossomed” as they tried to survive.
The best compliment that I can give The Machine is that it made me laugh out loud multiple times in the theatre and I heard other people cracking up too. It made for a very fun movie night for me (not so much my wife) and it is a movie that I know for sure I will be picking up when it comes out on Blu-Ray or 4K.
