Napa Boys Presents: The Napa Boys 4 – The Sommelier’s Amulet

Directed by Nick Corirossi, Napa Boys Presents: The Napa Boys 4 – The Sommelier’s Amulet follows friends Miles Jr. (Armen Weitzman) and Jack Jr. (Corirossi) as they attempt to win a coveted wine-making championship. Filmmaker Corirossi, armed with his and Weitzman’s screenplay, delivers an often astonishingly unwatchable trainwreck that strikes all the wrong notes right from the word go, as the movie, which doesn’t contain even a single chuckle (let alone belly laugh), has been hard-wired with a pervasively (and aggressively) off-kilter feel that grows more and more grating as time progresses – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by a recurring emphasis on larger-than-life, painfully broad comedic jokes and set-pieces (eg Jack Jr. suffers from an extreme case of diarrhea). The slapdash and increasingly desperate narrative ensures that the movie feels so much longer than its 92 minutes, while the inclusion of bizarre bits of earnestness (eg a flight attendant delivers a speech extolling the virtues of her work) perpetuates the decidedly amateurish, lackluster feel. By the time the endless (and hopelessly anticlimactic) final stretch rolls around, Napa Boys Presents: The Napa Boys 4 – The Sommelier’s Amulet has confirmed its place as a palpable misfire (and waste of time) that ultimately comes off as one long (and baffling) inside joke.

no stars out of ****