5 Men and a Limo is a 1997 American short film produced by Aspect Ratio Films as an introduction sketch for the 26th Annual Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards

Key Art Awards

The Key Art Awards are an annual collection of honors given for outstanding achievement in artwork and other promotional materials advertising movies...

. In the film voiceover actor Don LaFontaine

Don LaFontaine

Donald Leroy "Don" LaFontaine was an American voiceover artist famous for recording more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers. His nicknames included "Thunder Throat" and "The Voice of God"...

 picks up four other voiceover actors in his limo to travel to the awards. The actors talk about themselves and the awards, making humorous references to common phrases and techniques they use when voicing movie trailers. Besides LaFontaine, the other actors appearing in the film are John Leader, Nick Tate

Nick Tate

Nicholas John "Nick" Tate is an Australian actor best known for his role as Eagle pilot Alan Carter in both seasons of the 1970s science fiction television series Space: 1999, as well as for playing the role of Gordon Hamilton's errant brother James in the 1980's soap opera "Sons and...

, Mark Elliot, and Al Chalk

Al Chalk

Al Chalk is an African American voice actor. He has voiced thousands of movie trailers, TV promos, commercials, and other audio presentations. He has also appeared on-camera in Hollywood films and television programs....

. Hal Douglas

Hal Douglas

Hal Douglas is a retired American voice actor best known for his work on movie trailers and television commercials.-Life and career:...

 provides his voice for a telephone call, but does not appear.

The limousine in the film is LaFontaine's. The driver is Clinton Hendricks, LaFontaine's personal sound engineer and driver.

Reception

The film's original purpose was to serve as an introductory sketch for the 1997 Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards broadcast. According to John Leader, the sketch played to a packed house at the awards ceremony and was so well received that the next day, bootlegged copies began circulating around the Internet; to date, one copy of the film has over 730,000 views on YouTube alone. In addition, the five voiceover artists, many of whom had few on-camera credits to their names prior to 5 Men and a Limo, had become instantly recognizable; LaFontaine went on to do on-screen appearances in commercials for GEICO as "that announcer guy from the movies", while Leader has done on-screen commercials for Burger King and Kudos granola bars.

Cultural references

When Hal Douglas is heard phoning LaFontaine, the familiar intro to the "Theme from New York, New York

Theme from New York, New York

"Theme from New York, New York" is the theme song from the Martin Scorsese film New York, New York , composed by John Kander, with lyrics by Fred Ebb. It was written for and performed in the film by Liza Minnelli...

" is heard on the music track as a subtle indication of Douglas' east coast management. This is abruptly interrupted by a sample from the 1985 electronica song "Oh Yeah" by Swiss band Yello, once LaFontaine ignores Douglas and introduces Al Chalk.

External links

• LaFontaine's clip archive page, which includes this film and other material
• IMDB entry for 5 Men and a Limo
• 5 Men and a Limo on YouTube