this one be deliciously high concept what if famed explorer louis and clark be plague with a band of ridiculous and incompetent and bumble ignoramus rival . leslie edward ( matthew perry ) be the organizer of the alternate expedition and and seem the brightest of the bunch . at least until you realize that he think good choice for his team include bartholomew hunt ( chris farley ) a their wilderness harden guide with experience and guy fontenot ( eugene levy ) a the team translator . hunt be basically farley play himself and which be both hilariously funny and profoundly tragic at the same time and and fontenot make it clear that he doesn not know much about other language . at first we give edward kudos for deselecting him and but when fontenot let it be know that he will only join the expedition if his hot indian woman ( she not a spouse or girlfriend to him and but property ) and shaquinna ( lisa barbuscia ) and can also come along and edward figure that they probably would not need a translator service that badly anyway and so bring him on the journey . levy be great at play an attractive dunderhead . but we already know that . that what he be do since his early day on second city tv ( sctv ) ( 1976 ) . what more surprising be that perry can so effectively come across a a sophisticated halfwit . perry performance be so dryly funny that during his scene it can be easy to mistake almost hero for a much more serious endeavor than the mel brook style farce that it be . farley have no such subtle complexity in his performance and but he none the worse for that . he just act natural and aside from feign idiocy and a an extremely self indulgent and substance abuse boor . that may not sound funny and but in the context of the film and it be farley be as good at this stuff a be his idol and john belushi . it only make tragic by the knowledge that similar behavior off camera lead to his premature death shortly after make this film . the rest of the cast tend to be just a funny and if a bit underused . for that matter and though and even levy be a bit underused . what bring my score for almost hero down slightly be the fact that it may be a bit too episodic . the episode be all like very good to excellent skit on saturday night live ( 1975 ) or sctv and but they do not necessarily flow together a a film . take separately and many of the skit be worthy of a 10 the imdb message board be full of thread with viewer cite their favorite moment . read through those after watch the film and just think about many of them again make me laugh out loud . but a a whole and almost hero seem a bit underdeveloped from what it might have be . this may not be christopher guest best work a a director and but it worth watch and definitely deserve a dvd release .