Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Dinner For Schmucks
I'm gonna be honest, I had absolutely no desire to see this movie (I think I start a decent amount of movie reviews that way, haha). I don't really like Steve Carell and there was not one funny moment in any of the previews I saw for this film. But Jared got advance screening passes to the movie so what the heck. I'm not gonna complain about seeing a free movie and I do like Paul Rudd. So we headed to Easton and waited in a long line with hoards of other people who can't pass up free stuff. The funny thing is I think I enjoyed it more than Jared did. I won't say it's a great movie, but it had a decent amount of funny moments that really don't make for snappy stand-alone one liners for a preview. It was a combination of two kinds of comedies I generally don't like: making fun of someone who is either dumb or handicapped in some way and the 'Ben Stiller' bit where terrible shit just keeps happening to the same person. Luckily there was some relief along the way so it wasn't a constant shit storm and Steve Carell's character, although ridiculous seemed somewhat self aware to enough of a degree that it didn't seem totally exploitative. The crowd laughed riotously at some of the dumbest lines in the movie to the point where you couldn't even hear the next line. I have a feeling they are the same people that have made Two & A Half Men the #1 rated comedy on television.
Paul Rudd's charm was not used to it full extent and this may have been the least funny role I've seen Zach Galifianakis in (he didn't have much to work with) but I'd give it a B- I suppose. Never need to see it again but it wasn't quite as bad as the previews made it seem like it would be.
