Dinner for Schmucks

OPENING: 07/30/2010

STUDIO: Paramount Pictures

RUN TIME: 114 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Takes One to Know One.

Opening Statement
My reaction upon seeing the Dinner for Schmucks trailer was a blend of pain and pleasure. I like Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, but the premise seemed awfully flimsy. I also experienced a blend of pain and pleasure watching the film itself. To my surprise, the premise actually works, but other elements of the script do a lot of damage to a film boasting a wide variety of entertaining performances.

Facts of the Case
The oddball premise is this: every year, a group of businessmen get together and participate in a special dinner. Each businessman will bring the most idiotic person he can find along to the dinner. At the end of the meal, one of the guests will be awarded a trophy. Ordinarily, Tim (Paul Rudd, I Love You, Man) would be appalled at the concept of participating in such a dinner. However, he’s learned that his participation might just earn him a promotion at the office. Tim hesitates at first, but after he meets the peculiar Barry (Steve Carell, The Office) he cannot help but feel fate is shoving him in a very specific direction. Barry is one of the most spectacularly clueless and unusual men Tim has ever encountered. Barry is an IRS Agent who spends his free time making elaborate dioramas filled with stuffed mice. He has very little useful knowledge and provides those around him with a consistent stream of confidently-delivered misinformation. Tim invites Barry to the dinner, Barry accepts and the battle between Tim’s personal guilt and career ambitions begins.

The Evidence
There’s another battle taking place within the 110-minute running time of Dinner for Schmucks, too: the battle between the talented cast and the pedestrian script. For every funny moment delivered by the film (and there are certainly more than a few), there’s another groan-worthy sequence loaded with clichés and convention. Why, oh why must we endure yet another film in which a guy loses his girlfriend for the entire midsection of a movie due to some terrible misunderstanding that no one makes a real attempt at clearing up? This particular subplot does nothing but pad the film’s running time; had it been clipped the movie would have benefited immensely.

There are also plenty of moments when entertaining comedy will slip so far into broad farce that it stops being funny and starts becoming stupid. Please note the overlong sequence in which Tim’s ex-girlfriend Darla (Lucy Punch, Ella Enchanted) enters the fray, desperately attempting to engage in some over-the-top role play while Tim tries to speak to his girlfriend on the phone. I wanted to toss something at the screen. The same could be said of a scene in which Tim’s important business lunch is interrupted by the aforementioned Darla. You sense a theme, but I promise that Ms. Punch’s performance isn’t the problem; it’s just that she’s been given the worst scenes to work with.

Despite these problems, it’s easy to imagine many leaving Dinner for Schmucks with a smile on their face, as the film starts strong, ends well and contains a lot of delightful bits in-between. There’s some amusing corporate satire wiggling around in the background of the film, as Tim’s assorted superiors (including Ron Livingstone of the excellent corporate satire Office Space) are essentially depicted as a group of frat boys in suits, using their wealth and power to fund elaborate yet juvenile pranks. The group is led by Lance Fender, who is played by Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek). Greenwood is a reliable actor but deceptively versatile; he can play hollow corruption and warm sincerity with equal conviction. He’s called upon to do the former in this instance and does a fine job of it.

Paul Rudd and Steve Carell do an excellent job in the lead roles, even if we’ve seen shades of these performances elsewhere. Rudd’s turn is the same sort of exasperated everyman he’s patented at this point, though once again it’s refreshing to see that Rudd’s straight man portraits are just as funny as many of the “comic relief” characters that accompany him. Speaking of which, Carell may have a physical appearance and a general persona quite similar to Sandra Bullock’s spectacularly unsuccessful turn in last year’s All About Steve, but he makes it work. Unlike Bullock, Carell seems fully committed to his portrait of a loon, never second-guessing any of the wild antics he’s called upon to carry out. It’s essentially an exaggerated compilation of Michael Scott’s dumbest moments, but it works.

For me, the biggest laughs came from the supporting players. Zach Galifinakis (who has recently been cast in every single comedy being released over the course of the next two years) turns in good work as a co-worker of Barry’s who believes he is a hypnotist. Talented folks like Kristen Schaal (Flight of the Conchords), Larry Wilmore (The Daily Show), Chris O’Dowd (The I.T. Crowd) and others generate laughs in smaller parts. The best supporting player is Jermaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords fame) whose portrait of a pretentious artist is a consistent source of off-the-wall delight. Clement has a way of stealing the show in everything he appears in; here’s hoping we continue to see a lot more of him in the years to come.

Closing Statement
There are certainly a lot of funny moments in Dinner for Schmucks, which is what one hopes a comedy will provide. Alas, there are also simply too many moments that misfire for me to really recommend the film without reservation. I laughed, I winced, I smiled and I sighed. Bearing that in mind, I can only advise you to attend this dinner at your own risk.

The Verdict
6/10

Date Night

OPENING: 04/09/2010

STUDIO: Fox

RUN TIME:88 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

Opening Statement
Steve Carell and Tina Fey have been providing laughs on their respective back-to-back NBC sitcoms The Office and 30 Rock for years. Now, the two get a chance to appear onscreen together in the new flick Date Night. The result is a film less entertaining than the television shows they star in, but nonetheless a reasonably appealing way to spend 88 minutes.

Facts of the Case
Carell and Fey play Phil and Claire Foster, an ordinary married couple with two young children. The Fosters have slipped into a somewhat humdrum routine, so one night Phil and Claire decide to spice things up by going to an expensive restaurant in the heart of New York City. Unfortunately, they’re unable to get a reservation. Unwilling to let this setback ruin their romantic evening, Phil steals the reservation of an absent couple named the Tripplehorns. A bit unethical, but at least they’ll get a table. Alas, it seems that the real Tripplehorns are in trouble with some very unsavory characters, leading to a very unpleasant case of mistaken identity for the Fosters. Suddenly, Phil and Claire find themselves on the run from dangerous hit men, searching frantically for the real Tripplehorns and a mysterious flash drive that can put an end to the whole situation.

The Evidence
I couldn’t help but sigh in disappointment when I noticed that “Date Night” was directed by Shawn Levy, whose financially successful but artistically flat comedies have never really impressed me. Levy’s films (which include Night at the Museum, the remake of The Pink Panther and the remake of Cheaper by the Dozen) generally offer overbearing slapstick comedy fused to rather clumsy plotting. That’s also the case with Date Night, but fortunately the two leads manage to overcome the material and generate some genuine warmth and humor.

Some of the film’s best moments occur during the first 20 minutes or so, when we spend some time getting to know the Fosters. These moments have laughs of a fairly low-key sort; little observations of a marriage that do a nice job of drawing us into the film and setting up the characters. Fey and Carell play off each other in such a natural, comfortable manner that it’s very easy for us to believe that they’re a real married couple. There’s an amusing bedroom scene that in which the tentative desire for intimacy is overwhelmed by weariness and a general lack of romantic mood.

Once the plot kicks in and the silliness starts, we’re able to enjoy what happens because we care about Phil and Claire… and because they still feel like credible characters even when the movie jumps off the rails. Phil’s an accountant and Claire’s a realtor; neither party is going to develop advanced combat skills (nor do they transform into wacky comic stereotypes, for that matter). The film also graciously allows for a few scenes in which the action slows down and we get some touching moments of honesty between the two leads. The movie lives up to its premise of being a comedy about a married couple that gets into a crazy situation, which is something worth considering.

There are a number of colorful supporting players (including a heavily tattooed James Franco, a constantly shirtless Mark Wahlberg and a typically seething Ray Liotta), along with a handful of action scenes (including an overlong car chase), but pretty much everything in the film outside the two central characters is either generic stuff that we’ve seen hundreds of times before or unique stuff that just fails to generate any interest despite its unique nature. Mark Wahlberg as a shirtless ex-military playboy is an amusing starting point, but that’s pretty much the extent of the joke. Levy also has a somewhat obnoxious manner of over-accentuating the foreshadowing he does in the film, offering close-ups of people, things or places that will be Of Great Importance later.

Closing Statement
Did I like the film? Sure, because I liked Fey and Carell. But I’m partial to liking the two of them anyway, because I find them refreshing, genuine comedic talents and exceptional actors. Otherwise, there’s just not much to write home about. If you’ve got nothing better to do, you could do worse than Date Night.

6/10

Get Smart

Opening Date: 06/20/2008

STUDIO: Warner Bros.

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge

Missed it by quite a bit.

Opening Statement

Co-creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry gave us a spy sitcom for the ages, spoofing The Avengers and Man from UNCLE-defined genre while laughing in the face of Cold War fears. Like most television comedies of its day, the jokes grew tired and the stories ran out of gas by the time the series concluded its five season run. But by the time Don Adams hung up his shoe phone, we were left with some great characters and visual imagery that remains strong to this day, thanks in part to the diligence of Nick at Nite.

Fast forward 35 years and Hollywood producers are feverishly mining every piece of TV nostalgia they can get their collective hands on. Bewitched was a bust, Rocky and Bullwinkle got frostbite, The Dukes of Hazzard never should have left the family farm, and Lost in Space should have stayed lost. The list of misses far out weigh the moderate hits found in the Addams Family, The Fugitive, and the Star Trek franchise (even number great, odd numbers awful). But we all know the movie business never learns from its past mistakes, and as punishment we are offered up summer “blockbusters” like Get Smart.

Facts of the Case

Maxwell Smart (Steve Carrell) is CONTROL’s best intelligence analyst. In fact, he’s so good at what he does — generating 800 page reports that detail the most intimate movements and emotions of the men and women who pose the greatest threat to America’s security — that even when he passes his field agent exam, The Chief (Alan Arkin) can’t afford to promote him. But when an unexpected attack threatens the lives of every top agent, it’s up to Max and a recently reconstructed Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) — who underwent massive plastic surgery following a compromised mission — to defeat KAOS and save the world.

The Evidence

Get Smart is one of those movies you sit through and when lights come up ask yourself, “Why did they make this?” There is nothing criminal about it, but the collective missteps that occur along the way sink the picture, and you end up walking away with nothing gained.

Let’s take the script, for example. Screenwriters Tom Astle and writing partner Matt Ember earned their stripes writing gags for standup comedian-centric television series like Grace Under Fire, Titus, and The Drew Carey Show. Their only other screenplay was for the much maligned Matthew McConaughey / Sarah Jessica Parker relationship comedy Failure to Launch. Now, this isn’t to say past experience predicts or defines current or future work, but in this particular case it holds true. Get Smart plays like a series of comedic set pieces strung together by an overarching plot that is neither original nor provides any sort of payoff whatsoever. In fact, the whole thing seems a bit schizo. Is it a comedy that uses action to propel the characters’ journey? Or is it an action picture that uses humor to temper its intensity? Unfortunately, it waivers back and forth so often you give up trying to figure that out.

I appreciate the fact that they chose not to remake the series for the big screen, but put in enough subtle references to the original to make fans smile — Bernie Kopell, Agent 13 (Bill Murray) in a tree, Hymie (Patrick Warburton), Fang, the shoe phone, the cone of silence, and even Max’s Sunbeam convertible. I also enjoyed how they attempted to grow the characters from their comedic origins — Max is one of those genuinely good guys who always seems to finish last, and 99 is a woman who has never been truly understood for the person she is beyond the career. But that is about the extent of my appreciation for the film. Much of it is hollow, contrived, and brutally long. What studio got it in its head that every movie should now be two hours long, and why does every filmmaker seem to be taking this as a mandate? They could have shaved off a good 20-30 minutes and nobody would have noticed.

The performances themselves are relatively solid, but falter under ridiculous circumstances and poor dialogue. Steve Carell does a nice job of evolving Max from the bungling hero Don Adams created into a sweet albeit naive guy who just wants to do the right thing. But the stuff this script gives him to work with is pitiful. There’s an entire sequence in an airplane lavatory where he repeatedly shoots himself with miniature crossbow arrows… and it goes on forever. Ember and Astle must have missed class the day they taught the comedy golden rule of three.

Anne Hathaway integrates a few of Barbara Feldon’s trademark voice patterns (“Oh, Max”) during what is a genuine portrayal of a woman out to rediscover who she really is after losing the only identity she’s ever known. Alan Arkin gets some classic moments playing The Chief, but everyone else seems to be filler — Dave Koechner, Terry Crews, Ken Davitian, and James Caan as a George W inspired President. Terence Stamp sleepwalks through the film as Siegfried, a role made delectably screwy by Bernie Kopell in the series. Stamp has more to offer with considerably less screentime in Wanted than he does here. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is intended to have more significance as the CONTROL superstar, Agent 23, but the way it’s written is probably the most unforgivable aspect of the script. It’s as if Astle/Ember lifted it right from some 1970s screenwriting text book. While in a bit of direct-to-DVD cross promotion, Masi Oka and Nate Terrence’s roles as CONTROL’s tech/weapons geeks Bruce and Lloyd get to spin off into their own feature-length film — Get Smart’s Bruce and Lloyd Out of CONTROL (get it?) — arriving on store shelves July 1. For the studio’s sake, Get Smart better be a huge box office success, or their going to be stuck with a whole lot of product on their hands.

Now, I’ve put a lot of emphasis on the script — and deservedly so — but Adam Sandler’s pal, director Peter Segal (The Longest Yard, Anger Management), ultimately shoulders much of the blame for the film’s disjointed ineffectiveness. It’s a beautiful looking film, playing on a world stage while being shot in America’s backyard (Montreal), but good looks don’t hold up when there’s nothing behind them. His pacing is nonexistent, resulting in a meandering cake walk from one set piece to the next. Worst of all, you could care less about the outcome and by the time it finally arrives it’s so ludicrous you just want the credits to roll so you can leave.

Closing Remarks

While treating the characters of this classic series with respect, Get Smart ultimately shoots itself in the foot by offering up a lame story that’s poorly executed. Sure, you’ll notice elements of Alias and James Bond peppered throughout (in fact the whole WWE’s Great Khali playing a Richard Kiel knockoff is downright blatant), but when there’s nothing for the audience to invest in, two hours watching fluff can be a bit painful.

Guilty as charged.

The Verdict

6/10