Save your money. That's the most polite thing I can say about Dinner For Schmucks. Seriously. And save your time. Unless you enjoy incredibly poor writing and a plot that is completely NOT possible along with overacting by Steve Carell.
The premise of the movie is that to play with the big boys at his company, Paul Rudd has to invite an idiot to a corporate dinner. Everyone brings an idiot so that the employees can laugh behind their back and the employee with the biggest idiot wins. So Rudd wants a promotion to impress his girlfriend and enter Steve Carell, who creates shadow boxes and large-scale scenes with dressed dead rats. See, you're laughing already - not.
Here's my problem as a writer with this plot. It uses the comedy of errors mechanism to start the trouble, but the trouble does not grow from one inciting incident as it should. In a true comedy of errors, one person starts something that runs like dominos and the other character has to deal with it. In crappy writing, one person (Steve Carell) continually creates drama because there is not enough cohesion or plot to continue the story without it. Every drama he creates could also be solved with a single sentence explanation or a call to the police. I can suspend disbelief, but not for over an hour and a half of a two-hour movie.
I am afraid that Steve Carell has become the new Jim Carey of Hollywood in that people think he is funny enough to carry anything. He's not. Jim Carey wasn't either. Without a good script, they are NOT funny. Making faces is not funny. Overacting is not funny.
The only funny part was the actual dinner scene, which was about 10 minutes at the end of the movie.
This was a huge disappointment and another head-shaker for me. All the great books out there with fabulous plots and this is what gets a movie. Really?
Deadly (Disappointed) DeLeon
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Thursday Movie Review
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10 comments:
That just goes to show you how extremely valuable us writers are!!!
It doesn't sound like a comedy of errors. It sounds mean-spirited; and I don't think mean-spirited is ever truly funny.
Leslie - yes, now if only Hollywood would hire a few....
MsHellion - yes, but it still could have been funny if there was a lesson learned, etc. But not the way it was written. No lesson there except don't go to the movies. (sigh)
I knew I didn't find the ads for it even remotely funny.
Tori - You were right, but I got dragged to it. It was against all instinct.
I thought the 40 year old virgin was lame too. And I'm a huge Carrell fan.
Leslie - yeah, it wasn't the funniest, either, but at least it wasn't out-right god awful. This one was.
I totally agree on the Jim Carrey thing. He had some funny moments, but rarely enough to carry a movie. I've only seen Steve Carrell in Evan Almighty. I rarely go to movies and I watch TV even less. I much prefer to sit in my comfy chair at home reading a well written book by one of my favorite authors (of which there are many!).
kris - yes, movies are sometimes very disappointing. I also have better luck with books, especially lately. It just boggles my mind the amount of money spent on producing dreck.
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