The Old Man: The Movie — Fantastic Fest Review

The saying that milk does the body good has been told to a generation, but in one village they take it to the extreme. This village doesn’t just enjoy milk, they live for it and the best milkers are treated like kings. The “Old Milker” was on that throne until one day he lost his cow and by the time he found her it had been too long since her last milking and an accident happened, the cow exploded. A void is created and now the village folk must get their milk from somewhere else and Grandpa is just the guy to do it.

Lucky for him his three grandkids are coming down to experience that country life for a bit and get their hands dirty. Grandpa is not the nicest to his cow and his middle grandkid doesn’t dig that so after the first night he leaves the barn door open for the cow to escape. After being woken up by a psychotic rooster, grandpa notices the cow is gone and at his door are some eager village folk for their daily fix of milk, so grandpa and the two oldest kids get on the tractor to find that cow. Finding a roaming cow is not as easy as it sounds and when you add the crazy “Old Milker” to the mix as he wants to kill the cow before another accident like his happens again. The race is on and along the way there is a old tree god, a giant bear, and a missing rock star all encounter along the way in this adventure that will leave your side hurting with laughter.

Having always been a fan of Aardman’s films (Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run) the look of The Old Man : The Movie got my attention. While the look is there, and while the characters are still cute, a better term would be cute-ugly. Visually though it’s the only thing that this film has in common with Aardman’s creations as these characters would definitely try and milk good ol’ Shawn the Sheep. The humor is crude and has a lot of innuendo and damn is it funny. My biggest regret is not seeing it with a crowd, because that would have been an experience.  This is not a film for young kids, but teenagers and adults would love it, I mean who doesn’t enjoy a good fart joke or ten? Mikk Mägi and Oskar Lehemaa created the characters that became an internet sensation in their home country, thus birthing the feature film and while at times it can be a bit much, any shortcomings are overshadowed by the amount of laughs this will give you.