It's not every stand-up's classic routines that become fodder for a movie script, but when you're Bert Kreischer and your material revolves around how you were apparently part of a train robbery in Russia years ago, you can see it happening. Check out the trailer for The Machine, starring Kreischer as himself and Mark Hamill as his dad…
Set 23 years after the original story which inspired it, The Machine (which refers to the persona Bert adopted while hanging with dodgy types in Russia years ago) finds Bert facing familial crisis and the arrival of his estranged father when the ghost of his booze-soaked past arrives: a murderous mobster (Iva Babić) hellbent on kidnapping Bert back to the motherland to atone for his crimes.
Together, he and his father must retrace the steps of his younger self (Jimmy Tatro) in the midst of a war between a sociopathic crime family while they attempt to find common ground.
Written by Kevin Biegel and Scotty Landes and directed by Peter Atencio, The Machine will be in cinemas on 31 May.