People love this movie. People think its funny. I understand that I am an island on this one.
I didn’t think it was very good. I laughed a couple of times, but I should have been howling.
This is a great premise and should have been one of the funniest films ever made. I truly think that. I wasn’t expecting Citizen Kane, but I was holding out for at least Uncle Buck.
Most of the blame falls on the actors – the main players, not the supporting cast. Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller were horribly miscast. Stiller looked the part, but this guy just is not funny. His comedic timing is as questionable as his choice in scripts. Given his body of work, explain to me how he got to where he is without the help from his father – who by the way does have comedic timing and good judgment in material. Stiller’s catalog of movies is a comedic cat box. His success is more an indictment of our lowered standards than his talent.
Although I normally like him, Vince Vaughn was phoning it in throughout the movie. I kept getting the feeling that he had somewhere else he needed to be. I was expecting him to check his watch during his scenes. There was no point when I wasn’t watching Vince Vaughn the actor instead of his character drooling out his lines.
As I said, many people loved this movie. Why? It’s just not that good and should have been much better. Watch older comedies like The Jerk, This Is Spinal Tap, Blazing Saddles or shorts from Laurel & Hardy or W.C. Fields or any of the Monty Python films and tell me this is even close. This film should have been that good – there is no reason for it to be as bland as it is. There is a trend in comedies since the advent of Saturday Night Live vehicles (Wayne’s World, Stuart Saves His Family, Night At The Roxbury, etc.) that replaces humor with the illusion of comedy. There’s goofy looking people, dressed in goofy clothes but nothing really happens. . Perhaps a fart or whatnot – but not real humor…well, farts are kinda funny.
You may think I am a downer but this lowering of expectations is how we ended up with Whoopie Goldberg, Adam Sandler and David Spade making movies. Shouldn’t we be holding out for something a little better?
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