The Paper Brigade

The Paper Brigade
The Paper Brigade
	VHS cover
Directed by	Blair Treu
Written by	Denice K. Rice
Produced by	David Anderson
Starring	Kyle Howard; Robert Englund; Kylee Cochran; Chauncey Leopardi; Travis Wester
Cinematography	Brian Sullivan
Edited by	David Blangsted
Music by	Ray Colcord
Distributed by	Leucadia Film Corporation
Release date	September 25, 1996;
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Paper Brigade (also known as Gunther and the Paper Brigade) is a 1996 adventure/comedy film directed by Blair Treu. The film stars Kyle Howard and Robert Englund.

Plot[]

The film follows Gunther Wheeler (Kyle Howard), who along with his family moves from the large and vast city of New York to the small and quiet suburb of Pleasant Valley, New York. Gunther already shows signs of frustration and discomfort upon settling in. Shortly after, he meets his nerdy next door neighbor Charlie Parker (Chauncey Leopardi) who welcomes him and his family to the neighborhood. Later on at the town mall to explore the sights. As Gunther is checking out the food court he then meets Allison Robbins (Kylee Cochran) Who is a gorgeous waitress that Gunther instantly develops a enormous crush on. Seeking a way to impress her, he runs into three local bullies Chad, Luke, and Wylee. Who are publicly offering two concert tickets to see a famous band coming to town. Gunther accepts their offer, but finds out the tickets are $175 cash only.

Needing money desperately Gunther calls Charlie about the opening position and accepts to take the job as a local paperboy. Unfortunately Gunther’s first day on his route he runs into some unexpected problems as he is attacked with tomato’s by two kids in a treehouse, gets his shirt torn up by a unchained dog of one of the recipients. As Gunther who is dirty and exhausted, has only one paper left to deliver sees that he’s on the wrong side of the block and decides to cut through backyard side of a house where he encounters Crazy Man Cooper (Robert Englund) who is a former military serviceman, and has a habit of attacking intruders, ambushes Gunther who is shot with paintballs and is chased away by a flock of guard-geese. Shortly after, the other paperboys arrive and see Gunther messed up, Charlie tells him that he has to deliver his last paper. Infuriated Gunther openly quits, and chucks his last paper at Charlie telling him to deliver it. However he sees Allison realizing it’s her house and quickly delivers it to her personally. Reminded by his mission Gunther becomes motivated and reluctantly tells the others he’ll give it another try.

The next day Gunther shows up back at the mall with the two tickets on loan from Chad, and asks Allison to go on a date with him to the concert and she accepts. Soon while on his route he stops by the house of one of the recipients whose papers are still on the lawn and yard from his past routes. Afraid of his laziness, Gunther reluctantly gathers the papers and delivers them to the owner Ida Hansen a old aged widow who is extremely kind to him. Concerned as to Mrs. Hansen’s unawareness of his recent deliveries, she explains that because of her old age and physical condition it’s very hard and painful for her. Feeling sad for her Gunther informs her that he’ll make her future deliveries personally. Shortly afterwords while biking along Gunther runs into Chad and his friends driving beside them in his car, they mess with him grabbing ahold of his bike as Chad demands payment for the tickets. They purposely force him off the road and crash into a swimming pool.

Sometime later on Gunther confronts Charlie and the others after his route demanding to know why he hasn’t gotten paid. Charlie explains to Gunther that they make money off of recipients tips, and realizes that he hasn’t received any tips, Charlie hesitantly informs him about several complaints from people about Gunther’s performance and demands to know why he hasn’t been tipped as much as the others. Fed up and needing money Gunther prepared for the rough customers and get old man Cooper who grants him permission to pass through his yard. Starting to pull his act together Gunther improves spectacularly in his job and attitude and gets tipped generously and makes up more than enough money and pays off Chad for the tickets.

Seeing how well that the job pays Chad becomes intrigued and takes over the others paperboys routes seeing how well financially the job does. As Gunther arrives they explain the situation and how he was their inspiration. Demanding the papers Charlie pleads for Gunther not to give them up but fearing to get beat up willingly give them the papers but gets beat up anyways as a warning. They steal the delivery routes and addresses and head off to do the deliveries. Back in the garage Charlie and the others are disappointed at Gunther for failing to stick up for his own friends, thus they ignore and turn their backs on him.

Later at the mall Gunther tries to flirt with Allison but she gives him the cold shoulder. Having heard about what transpired with Charlie and the paperboys she blows him off because of his cowardice to stand up to Chad and his gang. Explaining how she thought she saw something in him but was wrong.

The following day Gunther is praised by his dad and Mrs. Hansen about how he’s grown. Seeing how he made a mistake Gunther gathers the other paperboys and sabotage Chad and his friends through a whole bunch of pranks. Until they are chased into Mr. Cooper’s yard where the boys and Cooper himself ambush the bullies with paintballs and are driven off by the guard-geese, claiming victory and their routes back.

Later on Gunther prepares for his date with Allison, a limousine arrives at her house and is presented with a rose, but to her surprise she is greeted by Gunther’s younger brother Andrew who explains to her that Gunther couldn’t make it because of something important that came up. Allison asks Andrew where he went, but Andrew refuses stating that he promised Gunther he wouldn’t tell. However Allison seduces him to the point where he does tell.

At the baseball stadium Gunther has accompanied Mrs. Hanson to the game for a surprise anniversary she thanks Gunther for this sweetly. Gunther notices Allison arrive in the seat next to him, surprised as to how she knew where he was the two greet each other. Touched by Gunther’s maturity and selflessness Allison and Gunther share a kiss.

Cast[]

Kyle Howard as Gunther Wheeler, a city boy who moves to a small town.
Robert Englund as 'Crazy Man' Cooper, a reputed insane neighbor who Gunther befriends.
Kylee Cochran as Allison Robbins, Gunther's Crush.
Chauncey Leopardi as Charlie Parker, Gunther's nerdy neighbor and fellow paperboy.
Travis Wester as Chad, Bully #1
Ethan Glazer as Andrew Wheeler, Gunther's Younger Brother.
Michael “Mikey” Peterson as Henry, the shy and quiet member of the neighborhood paperboys.
Matthew Ness as 'Fish' Fisher, one of the neighborhood paperboys and a member of Charlie's group.
Matthew Best as Gus, one of the neighborhood paperboys and a member of Charlie's group.
Bibi Osterwald as Widow Hansen, A sweet lonely lady who loves baseball.
Michael Stephenson as Luke, Bully #2
Christopher Marsh as Wylee, Bully #3
Joey Miyashima as Milkman
Braden Powell as 'Scooter'
Eean Crawford as Leonard
Lincoln Anderson as Mickey
Wes Brewer as Freddy
Dennis Saylor as Mr. Litman
Michael Flynn as Mr. Wheeler, Gunther's Father.
Karon Cook (Double) for Mrs. Wheeler, Gunther's Mother.

External links[]

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