Kevin Rubio
Why Watch? When we reported that Josh Trank would be directing a standalone Star Wars movie in the expanding universe, we included a found footage comedy short film he’d made which shows why you shouldn’t bring a lightsaber to a house party. Kid don’t play.
Thus, it’s only fair that we highlight the ingenious 1997 short film from Kevin Rubio that mashes Cops together with stormtroopers to fantastic result. As a mockumentary, it doesn’t miss a note. Not only does it include sly nods to the movies, it allows the comedy to breathe on its own by stepping back and letting dramatic situations play out in absurd ways – turning a straightforward script into comic gold by putting it in the mouths of familiar pop culture figures.
The funniest part is that you can actually see this being a realistic part of the day-to-day trooper job when Luke, Leia and Han aren’t busting up their business in the name of freedom. Let’s call it believable ridiculousness. When the big adventure leaves the frame, someone has to answer the domestic disturbance calls and issue traffic tickets.
The cherry on top is our friendly cop narrator who sounds like he transferred from Fargo PD. Here’s Rubio explaining where the idea first came from along with clearer (yet cropped) footage.
What Will It Cost? About 9 minutes.
Related Topics: Short Films
