Dinner for Schmucks (2010). I'm a sucker for movies where a comedian disappears into a character, films like Zoolander, Waterboy, even Joe Dirt. They're silly, but it's a good kind of silly. And you get to see them act, rather than just playing themselves. Well, Dinner for Schmucks has Steve Carell doing a really weird, off-putting man-child. Paul Rudd plays straight man. And a delightful cast of side characters add a lot of color (Chris O'Dowd, Kristen Schall, Jemaine Clement, Zach Galifianakis).
So you know how I like my comedies silly? Well, a big problem I have with most comedies is how they get super serious in the last act. It makes no sense to me. Horror movies don't spend the last 30 minutes being funny, and dramas don't spend the last 30 minutes being cheery. So why do so many comedies suddenly turn serious towards the end? They abandon laughs in favor of wrapping up plotlines (romantic entanglements, etc.) that no one really cares about.
Dinner for Schmucks takes the opposite approach. I won't spoil it for anyone, but let's just say the end of this movie is an insane celebration of wacky comedy. Only the last five minutes are spent on serious stuff, and even then its' undercut with humor.
Dinner for Schmucks (2010). I'm a sucker for movies where a comedian disappears into a character, films like Zoolander, Waterboy, even Joe Dirt. They're silly, but it's a good kind of silly. And you get to see them act, rather than just playing themselves. Well, Dinner for Schmucks has Steve Carell doing a really weird, off-putting man-child. Paul Rudd plays straight man. And a delightful cast of side characters add a lot of color (Chris O'Dowd, Kristen Schall, Jemaine Clement, Zach Galifianakis).
So you know how I like my comedies silly? Well, a big problem I have with most comedies is how they get super serious in the last act. It makes no sense to me. Horror movies don't spend the last 30 minutes being funny, and dramas don't spend the last 30 minutes being cheery. So why do so many comedies suddenly turn serious towards the end? They abandon laughs in favor of wrapping up plotlines (romantic entanglements, etc.) that no one really cares about.
Dinner for Schmucks takes the opposite approach. I won't spoil it for anyone, but let's just say the end of this movie is an insane celebration of wacky comedy. Only the last five minutes are spent on serious stuff, and even then its' undercut with humor.