Looks like the blissful juggernaut that is Lord of the Rings has opened the New Zealand floodgates, not only as a location that Hollywood covets, but also as a launching pad for a whole bunch of hard-working (yet entirely insane) kiwi filmmakers. In just the last month I've been treated to three great indies from New Zealand: the romantic comedy Eagle vs. Shark, the dizzyingly entertaining horror farce Black Sheep, and now this: a completely scrappy, wonderfully twisted, and adorably scruffy little import called The Devil Dared Me To.

The flick's got the same basic set-up as your average Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler sports comedy: Randy Cambell comes from a long line of (now-dead) New Zealand stuntmen, and he'll stop at nothing to follow in those freaky footsteps, regardless of how much suffering he must withstand at the hands of current stunt-king Dick Johansonson. With the help from a few loyal lunatics (and his one-legged girlfriend Tracy "Tragedy" Jones), can Randy rise from porta-potty duty to become New Zealand's premiere stunt-maniac? Doesn't really matter, because there's lots of crazy fun along the way.

The plot's not all that important, frankly, because The Devil Dared Me To is not much more than a framework on which to hang a bunch of very broad humor and very physical schtick that's never above shooting for "shock value" when the situation calls for it. It's like a cross between The Road Warrior, Mad Magazine and Jackass, basically, and the flick packs more chuckles into 75 minutes than Mr. Sandler generally packs into five movies combined. It's true that most of the movie's best bits come in the form of horrible injuries, horrific deformities, and material most accurately described as "violently gross," but actor / director Chris Stapp does a fine job of keeping the material loud, raucous and adorably stupid.

Much of the crew behind The Devil Dared Me To worked together on a New Zealand TV series called Back of the Y, and it's obvious that these goofballs are having a really good time with their first feature. As the cartoonishly evil Dick Johansonson, Matt Heath provides laughs at a very respectable clip. The hulking and ever-sweaty Andrew Beattie is an amusing scene-stealer as "Spanner's Dad" and the lovely Bonnie Soper capably proves that kiwi women can be just as silly as their more muscular counterparts. (Also very funny is Dominic Bowden as a slimy lawyer / stuntman manager.)

The Devil Dared Me To is very short, very nutty, and quite a bit funnier than most Hollywood comedies I've seen in recent years. Viewers who are able to look past the exceedingly low-budget production value and decipher the vulgarity-laden kiwi accents will find themselves chuckling all the way. I dug the flick a whole lot, and I'm what's generally known as a "tough laugh." Or maybe I just like it when foreign films are better than American movies, because that means someone "outside the system" really putting forth some effort. And if it weren't for festivals like SXSW, I'd have been robbed of a dozen very satisfying laughs.