even though i have the utmost respect for richard dreyfuss as an actor , his presence in a motion picture does not guarantee any particular level of quality . 
like everyone else , dreyfuss has bills to pay , so he occasionally accepts big paychecks for prominent roles in bad movies . 
consequently , while his career highlights include jaws , close encounters of the third kind , stakeout , and tin men , his resume is dotted with titles like moon over parador , let it ride , and now krippendorf's tribe . 
let me start out by saying that krippendorf's tribe is occasionally funny ( although never riotously so ) , but that's about its only asset . 
the best word to describe this film is " asinine . " 
the target audience would appear to be recent nursery school graduates if not for the numerous sexual innuendoes , which are aimed at someone going through puberty . 
krippendorf's tribe tries to be a zany , off-the-wall comedy , but the film makers have forgotten three important rules . 
the first is that some minimal level of plot credibility has to exist . 
the second is that viewers should be able to identify with , or at least care about , a character or two . 
finally , and most importantly , more than 5% of the jokes have to work . 
once upon a time , james krippendorf ( dreyfuss ) was a respected professor of anthropology at little bounderby college . 
he and his wife obtained a grant to seek out a " lost tribe " somewhere in the wilds of new guinea , a goal which they never accomplished . 
shortly after their return from the failed trip , krippendorf's wife died and he was left with the herculean task of raising three children -- shelly ( natasha lyonne ) , mickey ( gregory smith ) , and edmund ( carl michael linder ) -- on his own . 
now , over a year later , the college wants to see the results of the money they gave krippendorf ( which he has spent not on research , but on things for his family ) , so they send a new member of their faculty , professor veronica micelli ( jenna elfman ) , to inform him that he has been scheduled to give a lecture on his findings . 
when he arrives at the college for the momentous event , rather than telling the truth and risking being sent to jail for misappropriating school funds , he fabricates a tale about a mythical lost tribe , the " shelmikedmu " . 
to provide video footage , he films his children dressed in native garb . 
soon , much to krippendorf's surprise , the shelmikedmu are a national phenomenon . 
but one disaffected professor ( lily tomlin ) is determined to prove that the tribe is a fraud . 
the only way krippendorf's tribe works is if you assume that all of the characters ( not to mention the viewers ) are dumber than dirt . 
unfortunately , it's impossible to like or sympathize with a bunch of putzes like this . 
director todd holland completely fails to develop any character into something more substantial than a device to implement various dubious gags . 
meanwhile , attempts at satirizing the shallowness of american culture ( i . e . , how easily the public can be fooled into jumping on the bandwagon of the latest trend ) come across as feeble and derivative . 
the acting in underwhelming . 
dreyfuss has definitely not given his " all " to the role of james krippendorf . 
alongside him , jenna elfman , the spunky co-star of tv's dharma and greg , radiates perkiness and little else . 
this quality , while fine for a 22-minute television program , quickly becomes irritating in the arena of a feature-length movie . 
no one in the supporting cast -- lily tomlin , david ogden stiers , natasha lyonne ( woody allen's daughter in everyone says i love you ) -- excels . 
i know that a movie's in trouble when it's half the length of titanic , but seems much longer . 
most of what comes on screen is generic sit-com level material -- the kind of slop that people will absorb while dozing off in their favorite easy chair in front of the television set . 
if there's any upside , it's that i don't see much box-office support developing for this lame , ill-marketed miscue . 
krippendorf's tribe will quickly become extinct .