Bait Shop

Good clean fun
No bad language, no innuendo, just good clean fun from Bill Engvall and Billy Ray Cyrus. I had no idea that Bill could really act. Sure some of the jokes are corny, but just sit back, relax, and just enjoy.

Innocuous, Family-Friendly Comedy...
I'm a fan of Bill Engvall, one of the nicest, most family-friendly of the 'blue-collar' comedians, and "Bait Shop" plays to his strengths, as the debt-ridden but easy-going owner of a run-down bait shop frequented by an array of likable oddballs. With the bank calling in his mortgage, he is about to lose everything, and resign himself to a menial job with his smarmy, successful father-in-law, 'The Mattress King' (Harve Presnell)...but the Bass Masters Professional Fishing Tournament is in town, with a $50,000 prize, and a rules loophole that allows him (an amateur and past champion) to compete...against the world's greatest angler, egotistical Hot Rod Johnson (Billy Ray Cyrus). Can Engvall, with his rusty boat, ancient equipment, and long-latent fishing instincts, defeat state-of-the-art, high-powered 21st century technology? Do you have any doubt?

This isn't 'classic' comedy in any sense, but it never falls into the rut of 'toilet humor' (a frequent problem of the films of...

REEL GOOD
I was told by a 10 year old girl (the one who sold it to me at the flea market) this was a real good film. This film is to bass fishing what Rocky is to boxing...almost. Bill Dugan (Bill Engvall) owns a bait shop on a lake. He has a cast of regulars in the shop which reminded my of the scenes by the fence in "King of the Hill" which include one man (Rus Blackwell) into conspiracy theories. Bill has a wonderful wife (Mary Rachel Dudley), a son (Vincent Martella) who needs some adjusting, a father-in-law (Harve Presnell) who is wealthy, and unfortunately a balloon payment on his shop.

To make matters worse the flashy bass fisherman, Hot Rod Johnson (Billy Ray Cyrus) has opened a fish emporium store next to Bill's Bait Shop. Bill enters the local fishing tournament were the prize is $50,000 in order to save his shop. Bill uses his old fashion fishing methods, while Hot Rod uses the latest high tech fish finders.

The comedy was simple. The story ignores the fact of...

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