PLEASE DON'T DESTROY: THE TREASURE OF FOGGY MOUNTAIN

Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain, Universal Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 17, 2023

The comedy trio known as Please Don't Destroy have a bit, and it's a good one, too. Some will know them from various online videos, and more will be aware of their regular presence on "Saturday Night Live," where they have pre-recorded segments that mostly revolve around what losers their characters are or that it's funny how these three guys are popular in some unexpected way.

Then again, maybe more people know Martin Herlihy, John Higgins, and Ben Marshall from the online stuff, but that's more or less irrelevant to the point. They're popular enough for the trio's career trajectory to keep rising, and here is Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain, a feature-length movie that puts their comedic skills to a test that several groups before them have failed—or never attempted, because it is such a challenge.

These guys come close to succeeding, which is a noteworthy accomplishment in its own right. A significant stretch of their debut feature, written by the three and directed by Paul Briganti, is quite and, at times, uproariously funny. To think of the first half of this movie is to seriously consider giving the whole of it a pass, because Herlihy, Higgins, and Marshall have created such self-deprecating on-screen personas, put them in relatable situations, and find some goofy but simple ways to showcase just how weird but sympathetic those characters can be.

To think of the second half or so of the movie, though, is to witness the trio struggle as writers, as they try to figure out how to turn this material into an honest-to-goodness plot and stretch that plotting in ways that are, yes, still very silly but that also keep getting in the way of the group's laid-back virtues. It remains easy to like these performers and the watch their characters bumble their way through an increasingly complicated plot. It's just a lot harder to accept that these guys require so much of that plot in the first place.

The story involves, as the title suggests, a hidden treasure, concealed by some explorer a couple centuries ago. He also left behind some clues, hoping that some intelligent, curious, and daring party would discover the hints and uncover the way to a bust of Marie Antoinette, which is worth about $100 million in the present day.

Instead, our three protagonists, who are definitely not clever or inquisitive or adventurous, find the explorer's compass as kids, forget about it, and go about their lives of abject less-than-mediocrity. John Goodman serves as the narrator here, making sure we know that it's him, ensuring that his disbelief that the trio could do anything with the clues is perfectly clear, and, at one point, forgetting two of the guys' names. That's the sort of self-aware and self-effacing humor making up a lot of this movie, and it works, even when the movie itself ultimately lets it down.

That's mostly because Herlihy, Higgins, and Marshall—appearing as, appropriately, Martin, John, and Ben—are so good at playing guys so dunderheaded and worthy of being ignored that they don't even realize how dim and unpopular they actually are. Take their introduction, which has the three failing at something as simple as making breakfast, sending them on a trip around town on roller-skates, because nothing will keep them down in spite of their best efforts. By the time they arrive at work at a sporting goods shop, they're three hours late, much to the consternation of their boss and Ben's dad (played by Conan O'Brien). The timing of the whole sequence is, like a lot of the bigger gags, right on the money.

Compared to the treasure hunt and a lengthy back end that involves a cult, it's much funnier just to watch these three characters in their element. John is scared his best friends are growing up too fast—at the age of 26—and wants to keep them close, since they're the only ones who overlooked how a magic trick at a school talent show, in a particularly inspired joke, progressively got worse. Ben wants to prove his business sense to his father and take over the shop, and Martin is dating a devoutly Christian woman (played by Nichole Sakura), who keeps dressing him in brightly colored, oversized leisure suits.

It's basically a hang-out story filled with jokes at the characters' expense, and the endeavor stays that way even after John figures out they found the key to finding the treasure as kids and convinces his pals to find it. There's some admirably wacky stuff here, like a bird call that sounds like a man howling in pain (that suspiciously works at one point) and an attempt to use a wingsuit that transforms one of the friends into a human kite.

Alas, the comedic momentum and near-absurd energy don't last, though, as the guys are foiled by a pair of park rangers (played by Meg Stalter and X Mayo) and find themselves in the clutches of a cult leader (played by Bowen Yang). It all leads to a lot of complications that aren't nearly as amusing, because it sidelines the main characters for, well, all of those complications. Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain remains a valiant effort from this up-and-coming comedy trio, but it falls just short of weird and goofy success.

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