Fishing With John - Criterion Collection

Lurie has captured something special with this project. By taking these fine actors out of their normal working environments, we are able to see past the typecast onscreen personas that we normally associate with the roles that they play. Lurie gives us a candid glimpse into the psyche of these men - who don't act a part but let their guard down and simply interact with their situation. Finely Done!

I know, I know, a fishing show...sounds boring right?
Well, add some enigmatic celebrities with some nice cinematography and you'll feel like you're drunk with your buddies out at the lake.
This is a quirky inventive escape from your run of the mill programming. You get to see some cool off-screen personalities of these stars as they fish around the world with musician John Lurie.
See the fellas swap fishing tales. See Jim Jarmusch and John go shark fishing with a chum bucket, cheese and a pistol. We've got Matt Dillon in Costa Rica, Hopper in Thailand, Dafoe in Maine....

Lots of dry humor and good times. I'm not sure about the replay value though.

I remember watching this DVD with a very good friend of mine, and we were both dumbfounded. It was one of the most unique, hilarious, and endlessly watchable TV shows EVER. It's really unclassifable. It's not really a fishing show; it's not a nature show; it's not a celebrity show; it's not a talk show. It's all four of those and then some. It has some of the funniest, most out of place (deliberately) narration ever (my favorite is when the narrator says "I wish I had a corn beef sandwich" in the middle of one of the fishing expeditions). Seeing John Lurie and Willem Dafoe freeze to death in the show only to be revived next episode (without any explanation) is hysterical. The celebrities here (Dafoe, Jim Jarmusch (this show is very much like Jarmusch's early work), Tom Waits, and Dennis Hopper) are really game for this show, and their enthusiasm for the show really makes it fun to watch. John Lurie is a great musician, actor, and host here. It's a pity that only six episodes were ever made. This stuff is staggeringly funny, and I'm glad Criterion put this out on DVD. It's one of their most unique and special DVD's ever.

As an avid fisherman who's seen a lot of fishing shows, none come this close to putting me there. Mainstream fishing shows are akin to a prolonged Bass Pro or LL Bean commercial with more sponsor logos than NASCAR, going from one money-shot to another. Fishing with John is decidedly non-commercial, gritty and more true to life (hilarious dramatizations included). I've never seen a production that could capture and frame so well that awkward yet comfortable void that permeates human friendship, especially in male bonding. The dry wit and subliminal humor is rare, underrated and sadly lost on most people. I haven't belly laughed this hard in a long time. In one episode John asks Matt Dillon if he thinks people are really genuine when they say, "I don't care what anybody thinks", then after a brief pause the narrator states with rare enthusiasm, "I think this is John's best show". This is my style of humor and I would love to go fishing with anyone who gives it 5 stars.

I've never seen anything like this. Take Gogo and Didi from "Waiting for Godot", put them in a boat with a script from a Monty Python sketch, and add a Zen narrator from Heaven. The soundtrack is great and the cameras are everywhere even though nearly all of it seems candid. Marvel at the fish dance of it all.