Skip to main content

Review: Dinner for Schmucks

They should have called this Brick Tamland meets the straight man. Tim (Paul Rudd) is a 6th floor analyst for a distressed assets firm (this alone would be the basis for a movie about schmucks) and with the dismissal of a higher-up, Tim has the opportunity to break it big-time. Fender Financial is in the red and could use a big boost to its liquidity with the addition of Swiss millionaire Müeller to the firm. 

Unfortunately if Tim wants to get to the 7th floor to play with the big dogs William (Daily Show's Senior Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore) and Caldwell (Ron Livingston) he'll have to invite an idiot to dinner with big boss Lance Fender (Bruce Greenwood). Oft-proposed girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak) doesn't like this side of Tim and tells him to decline, which he would have done had an prime candidate not came into his life in the form of taxidermy enthusiast Barry (Steve Carell).

Paul Rudd has made a career as of late playing the straight man to the drunken (Sean William Scott's Wheeler in Role Models), the bro-like (Jason Segel's Sydney in I Love You, Man) and the high (Seth Rogen's Ben in Knocked Up). He doesn't try to outshine Carell's Barry, rather he allows everything to bounce off of him. He and Carell are in prime form, it's the story that fails them. 

Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) steals the show as Keiran, an artist who ponders life's little moments - being arm deep inside a zebra giving birth and the lifestyle of a goat herd - while keeping it straight-laced. That's the devotion of Barry and Keiran they both know that they're a little off, but Carell and Clement have to play it straight, as to not go meta, and distract from the film.

The biggest problem with this film is the primary problem with all of Jay Roach's comedies: there is always a lengthy storyline where the protagonist's life is seemingly destroyed only to have it all put back together in the last fifteen minutes.

Carell is entertaining without resorting to the kind of antic one would expect from a Jared Hess movie. He is the heart of the film that the French original lacks. Some might say the French original, Le dîner de cons, is better, but in my experience with french comedies they come off as extremely mean-spirited and this film does not sink to that spiteful level.

Even with the heart, Dinner for Schmucks is tedious in places and the comedy is a little lazy in places.

**/****

Popular posts from this blog

The Best of the Decade

Over the last ten years, the cinema has given us a great deal to be thankful for: a rebirth of the Batman franchise, a series of examinations of what it means to live in this particular decade, and a mass of character studies whether they be animated or popcorn thrillers. As much as I have enjoyed the offerings, a list must be culled together for the end of the year. Except this year is different, this year ten films must be selected from hundreds. Below are some of the best of the aughts. Enjoy! 10) There Will Be Blood Paul Thomas Anderson's magnum opus, a scathing look at extremism in America and the evils of greed and profiteering from religion. It also features the best performance of the decade with Daniel Day-Lewis as oil-man Daniel Plainview. 9)  Up A beautiful tale that entrances all ages,  Up managed to captivate children and tell a tale that adults cherish as well. 8) The Dark Knight Maybe just a comic book film, but it is the best comic book film

Paprika vs. Inception

Months before Inception hit the theaters forums were alive with rumors that Christopher Nolan either accidentally or intentionally stole some details from another film, the Japanese anime Paprika. The biggest point of comparison for some bloggers and forum runners was the fact that both of the films featured a device that allowed a person, or people, to travel into another’s dreams and delve into their subconscious. Minor points of comparison include scenes in Paprika where the character Paprika breaks through a mirrored wall by holding her hand to it, as well as a scene where a police detective falls his way down a hallway. Claims have been made that Inception abounds with imagery similar to or exactly like the anime movie, but with the recent release of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray, and with Paprika available for several years now, an examination of the two plots can be made more fully. Let us begin with the primary claim— Inception stole the idea of a dream

Armond White's Top Ten Films on Flickchart

Armond White is film criticism’s most famous contrarian. At one moment he writes  a review declaring  Toy Story 3  to be the most obscene excuse for toy commercials  he has ever watched, and then two weeks later types out  a glowing review of  Resident Evil: Afterlife . He is of split-mind for sure. But what does his Flickchart look like? Read the rest at Flickchart !