Institute History
Description
What would you do if you won a hundred thousand dollars in a half-time basketball free-throw contest? Open a copy store perhaps? That is exactly what Stanley and Bob do, but unfortunately a King Co. superchain copy store opens directly across the street soon after. With no other way to compete, they enlist the dubious services of their friends and hatch increasingly desperate and hilarious schemes to get rid of the competition.
Stanley (Luke Wilson) and Bob (Joshua Malina) are the perfect foils for each other. Stanley, the one who made the basketball shot, is feeling frustrated with his unaccomplished life, nagging girlfriend, Vicki, and unsuccessful business venture. Bob, the one who bought the basketball tickets, is a perfectionist who takes pride in Long Shot Copies and refuses to sell out to real-estate developers. With the help of their few, faithful customers and Vicki’s family, they go to war with the conglomerate across the street. Nothing is beneath them as they lie, cheat, and literally steal the customers away.
With a great deal of theatre and stand-up experience behind them, cowriters/codirectors Tom Booker and Jon Kean promise to be one of Hollywood’s funniest comedy duos. In the wake of Starbucks’s and Borders’s “takeover” of America, they take a very topical subject and squeeze as many jokes out of it as possible. Kill the Man is not only a hilarious film but laced with irony as well as it takes on the task of defeating corporate America.
Tom Booker and Jon Kean, Directors
Tom Booker and Jon Kean met in 1992 while portraying Bobby and Greg Brady in a stage production of The Real Live Brady Bunch. Soon after, they formed Theatre-A-Go-Go!, a theatre company with its roots in improvisational comedy, where they created such stage classics as Patty, Patty, Bang!, Bang!—The Patty Hearst Musical; Manson: The Musical, and an off-Broadway production of Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls. This is their first feature film together. . . or apart, for that matter.