Harmless, but often quite funny, this scatological commercial comedy (extra scatological in the ‘Unrated’ edition) has Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott as High School motivational speakers (Skip Drugs/Chug our company’s Energy Drink) who suffer a critical/spiritual meltdown, a vehicular incident, and are lucky to get Community Service rather than jail time thanks to Rudd’s ‘ex,’ Elizabeth Banks, attorney-at-law. Stuck 'Big Brothering' a couple of needy boys (one nerd/one constantly acting out) under the supervision of tough former-addict Jane Lynch, a chilly start soon starts to thaw as compromise & understanding seep in: Everybody Wins/Everybody Learns a Lesson. A formula perfected in THE BAD NEWS BEARS/’76 though it goes back (in film) to the silents. And why not? Even when poorly done, the tropes work like a charm; and here Rudd & company (he co-wrote; David Wain does spritely/brightly lit direction) serve it up well-acted (lots of comic looneys roaming about in support), cleverly structured with satisfying payoffs, and written with enough enthusiasm to get past the spots that miss. (Though a couple of beers before watching wouldn’t hurt.)
DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned, THE BAD NEWS BEARS/’76
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Never thought of it before, but hearing Rudd sing out of tune (it’s his big emotional climax) shows what a natural for Nathan Detroit he’d be if Hollywood ever gets around to the oft-rumored GUYS AND DOLLS remake. The hit 1955 version looks worse than ever (and it looked pretty bad at the time) and one of its main problems is having two Sky Mastersons (Brando & Sinatra) and no Nathan Detroits in the cast.
No comments:
Post a Comment