Natural Born Pranksters is a 2016 American comedy film starring YouTuber celebrities Roman Atwood, Dennis Roady, and Vitaly Zdorovetskiy. Their film debut features the trio staging pranks that were too elaborate to put on YouTube. The movie was produced by Collective Digital Studios and distributed by Lionsgate. The trio wrote the feature and it was directed by Ben Pluimer and Atwood, in his directorial debut. The movie also has numerous cameos by social-media personalities including Jenna Marbles, Furious Pete, Jukka Hildén, Dave England and Tom Mabe.
Plot summary
The movie is a series of stunts and pranks pulled on unsuspecting victims. Some of the pranks include, but not limited to: pulling a sexually themed prank on masseurs, attempting to convince critics a painting made of fecal matter is real art, pretending to get third-degree burns at a tanning salon, pretending to kill dogs in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant. They scared sunbathers on a Miami Beach by dropping a realistic looking plastic snake in the sand, had eating contests, shot each other with confetti cannons and jolts from electric fly zappers. In one elaborate stunt, they convinced a pregnant wife to prank her husband by pretending she had given birth to an African-American baby, neither the husband or wife was African-American. They also staged murders and alien abductions. The film also featured clips from their YouTube channels.
Cast
Roman Atwood
Dennis Roady
Vitaly Zdorovetskiy
Cameos
Dave England
Kevin Brueck
Furious Pete
Jukka Hildén
Tom Mabe
Jenna Marbles
Brittney Atwood
Radio DJ Big Boy
Production
The process of writing and developing the pranks and stunts for the film took two years, and it was filmed in 30 days. In addition, they had guest writers from Punk'd helping them advance concepts. Atwood said they developed 400 pranks overall, but only ended up using about 32 in the movie. The trio had to get their pranks approved by the legal department and insurance providers, with their lawyers telling them "no a lot" for some of their stunts. None of the pranks featured in the film were safe for YouTube, as they violated the terms of service of the video platform. Hidden cameras were used with men in disguises, pretending to be homeless pushing a cart and dads pushing strollers. Police officers traveled with them to defuse situations where the person being pranked was upset and wanted to call the police.
The three have also faced physical confrontations sometimes with their pranks. Roady recalled an incident in Finland, where the prank was kidnapping a woman in front of a group of people, putting her into the trunk of a car, and was confronted "by a guy", and his "nose got cracked". In another stunt involving a car enthusiast, he caught them trying to siphon gas from his car and took off his belt and swung it at them, nearly missing the three. In 2014 Zdorovetskiy created headlines when he streaked across the field of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro, with the words “Natural Born Pranksters” written across his chest.
Reception
Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times was highly critical of the film saying "In borrowing the model of “Jackass” and “Punk’d,” this “film” lacks the essential DNA of what made those shows appealing...these pranksters...aren't nearly so generous, and their sadistic stunts display a deep mean-spirited streak, resulting in racist, sexist and homophobic harassment. UK based Vulture Hound wrote "The intro sequence is brief, high octane and fun, giving the audience a taster of what’s to come...the pranks are of expected viral quality - invasive, boundless and some are downright extreme, exactly what made them infamous...ultimately, the film falls victim to its own ambition and slips into monotonousness in the effort to remain shocking, avant-garde and interesting. Through the quest to include more and more great content, it becomes a hindering overload.