Steve Carell stars as “Big Dumb Steve Carell” in Steve Carell’s Big Dumb Movie a/k/a Dinner for Schmucks. I’m not sure what possessed anyone involved to barf up this big dumb meal on to cineplex screens...
As mentioned above, Steve Carrel plays Dumb Steve, here known as Barry, in what might be the dumbest Steve he’s ever played. The only problem is, it isn’t funny this time. It’s excruciating. (“Oh look! Dumb Steve Carrel broke something and doesn’t know what he did! HAHAHAHAHAHA. Best movie of all year!”) In order to amplify the (non)laughs, Paul Rudd plays hapless Paul Rudd who bears the brunt of Steve Carell’s antics. Why either wastes their considerable talent and charm in dreck like this is unbeknownst to me.
The one trick pony of a plot (Steve Carell is dumb and breaks stuff) is pulled along by the Rudd’s character, “Stockbroker Tim,” and his desire to impress his boss and a potential client by bringing an idiot to a dinner that awards a prize to whoever brings the biggest dumbass. Tim wants to win the contest, yet somehow the audience ends up losing.
I guess the camera work was well done, but at this point it’s like saying I liked the font in my calculus textbook. It’s boring and unfunny. (Derivates! HA!). Unlike learning calculus, however, repetition does not bode well for this film. The same thing happens, over and over again. And then the same thing happens again. Steve Carell breaks stuff and Paul Rudd gets mad. For. Two. Hours. Herein lies the main fault of the movie, and the cardinal sin of any film: it’s boring.
It’s a well known, if unspoken axiom that in film criticism the bad movies are some of the best reviews to read if only to hear the reviewer’s version of an insult comic. And yes I’ve played the game above (You’re welcome sadistic readers. I’m half sorry to cast and crew – this movie is pretty bad...) but to be honest, leaving the theater, I couldn’t even think of snarky jokes. This movie is just too bland to even laugh at. Its juvenile slapstick can’t even appeal to youngsters since abundant (and unfunny) ribald humor appears throughout making it inappropriate for them.
I suppose there was a good film that could have been made. The use of Carell’s stuffed mice as a representation of his inner thoughts might have brought out a little heart in the film. There was one brief picture of a lonely mouse drinking a cheese milkshake that seemed sincere but was lost in a sea of mundane “jokes.” This angle is underdeveloped and when Rudd and Carell *Spolier Alert!* finally become best friends at the end of the film it feels false and flat.
Go rent Hot Tub Time Machine if you’re a grown up wanting dumb laughs, and Despicable Me is a much better, much funnier film for kids.
© 2010 Beyond the Films.
0 thoughts:
Post a Comment