The Home Teachers is a 2004 comedy film written by John Moyer and directed by Kurt Hale. The Home Teachers is a comedy distributed by Halestorm Entertainment and intended for LDS audiences, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Plot[edit]
Greg Blazer is a slothful, lazy Latter-day Saint who loves football so much that he wears football jerseys under his church clothes. Much to his dismay, Greg's Sunday-football-watching plans are interrupted by Nelson Parker, a faithful, nerdy, stalwart Latter-day Saint who is Greg's new home teaching companion. Together, the two men set out to complete their assignment, beginning a journey of slapstick comedy and hijinks that includes Greg falling through a ceiling while wearing a wedding dress, dressing up like a deer, and accidentally dancing with a dead grandfather at his own funeral.
Background[edit]
After the successful distribution of two films intended for LDS audiences, Halestorm Entertainment made the decision to produce and distribute The Home Teachers, based on a script by John Moyer. The genesis of the film grew from a single idea. Moyer had the idea of Birkeland falling through a ceiling, and built a script around it.[1] That scene developed into Birkeland, wearing a wedding dress, falling through the ceiling onto a fully set kitchen table, followed by a toilet. Moyer soon wrote many other scenes involving similar slapstick humor and developed them into a story.
Reception[edit]
The Home Teachers was a critical and box office disappointment. Critics lambasted its use of slapstick humor and criticized what they perceived as a heavy-handed plot. The film also suffered from direct comparisons to Tommy Boy, a successful 1995 film starring Chris Farley, and David Spade, and Planes, Trains & Automobiles, a 1987 film directed by John Hughes. Many critics felt that The Home Teachers borrowed too much from these films, a concern one professional critic referred to as "verging on comedic plagiarism".[2]
The Home Teachers was the third film produced and distributed by Halestorm Entertainment. Halestorm's first two films, The Singles Ward and The R.M., grossed $1,250,798 and $1,111,615 at the box office, respectively. Such similar box office grosses indicated a trend for Halestorm releases. However, The Home Teachers, despite being produced and distributed by the same source, grossed $196,123 during its theatrical run. It was less than 16% the gross of The Singles Ward and the lowest grossing LDS comedy of its time.[3]
References[edit]
- ^ BYU NewsNet - Makers of 'The Singles Ward' and 'The RM' are at it again
- ^ Deseret News Review
- ^ "Competing Business Models in Mormon Cinema," by Eric Samuelson. BYU Studies, Volume 46, Number 2, p.225
