Too Late

The assistant to a Hollywood comedy legend has to hide the fact that he's a monster out of the spotlight -- literally -- in this goofy horror/comedy.

"There are two kinds of people in the word: the eaters, and the eaten."

At least that's how it goes in showbiz, and Bob DeVore would know. As played by Ron Lynch in "Too Late," Bob is an ancient Hollywood artifact, an old-school comedian in the rimshot mold. He wears an outdated suit and could be anywhere between 55 and 85 years old, a dinosaur who's been around forever, and will be after everyone else is gone.

He's also a glad-handler and a schmoozer, at least when the lights are on and the curtain is up, or backstage when he wants to press the flesh or make connections. Other times he's a monster -- quite literally, a beast who turns up at the dark of the moon and must feed on human flesh.

Oh, and he's a terrible boss, too.

That's the set-up of "Too Late," also the title of Bob's stand-up comedy club, one of the hottest spots in Los Angeles and about to become even hotter as the setting of a variety TV show. Bob stands to make a killing, which is ironic because he already does.

Alyssa Limperis plays Bob's right-hand woman, Violet, an up-and-comer who dreams of telling jokes onstage but fear keeps her in the background, working for Bob and producing her own tiny little show, Death of Comedy, at a coffee shop where the performers often outnumber the paying customers. Violet is smart and funny, though too afraid to show it, and so must continue to reside in the shadow of Bob -- also acting as his chief enabler, feeding some of the annoying or less-talented acts to him.

In showbiz you must pay your pound of flesh... literally, it would seem.

"Too Late" has an interesting premise, but doesn't do much to flesh it out. (Pun, and a bad one at that, fully intended.) Director D.W. Thomas and screenwriter Tom Becker have created something that feels more like television than a feature film, a movie that's loose and fast-moving but also punches below its weight.

The best thing about it is Limperis, who oozes onscreen charm and charisma. Her Violet knows she's doing bad things for a bad man, but like everyone else in Hollywood she's so desperate to make it, she'll hitch her wagon to any horse that will carry her further along in her career. Even a cannibalistic one.

The metaphysics of Bob's condition are deliberately left unclear. He seems to act much like a vampire, sleeping in a coffin in his backstage lair, though he doesn't drink his victims' blood so much as swallow them whole. After such meals he's left as a shambling, bloated zombie for a few days. At one point Violet comes across some old photos that indicate Bob has been working this game for a very, very long time.

Will Weldon plays Jimmy Rhodes, a winsome comedian fresh of the bus from Boston, who bumps into Violet in a closet at a party -- it's where he lives -- and they form a quick bond. Violet is always on the lookout for hungry dudes who want to use her to get onto Bob's show, and for a time it seems like Jimmy might be just another one of them.

There's a lot of standup comedy in the movie from (I'm guessing) real comics, and this movie has the look and feel of a "let's get some of our buddies together and make a flick" project. A couple of name comics, Fred Armisen and Mary Lynn Rajskub, turn up for bit parts, she playing herself (or a version thereof) while Armisen plays Bob's lick-spittle light-and-sound man, never quite able to find the right shade of blue filter for the spotlight and perpetually grumbling under his breath after Bob's verbal beatings.

A lot of businesses are weird and attract extreme personality types, and require people to gradually devolve in the worst versions of themselves to become a success. I thought the newspaper trade was dysfunctional, until I saw what television was like, and the movie biz makes them both seem like accounting.

"Too Late" has a few amusing moments, and Limperis seems like somebody whose star should rise if she can get some better material. But it isn't funny enough, or scary enough, to work either end of the horror/comedy gig particularly well.