BY MIKEY MIGO
My expectations for this movie were probably too high. In fact, I treated this movie as an experiment of sorts. Every time a new comedy comes out, I check out trailers, read up on it, and check out the talk show and interviews. I pretty much gather information and hype myself up. In the process I often ruin the first impression, know the jokes, and know way too much about it. It’s a curse of being a movie nerd. For this one, I wanted to try something different. I avoided the trailers at all costs, even covering my eyes and ears during a theatrical trailer during “Get Him To The Greek”. I avoided interviews, reviews, and anything else mentioning this movie. I love me some Steve Carell and Paul Rudd so I had no doubts that I’d enjoy it. I’ll also admit that I did know it was remake and a few of the supporting stars. But that’s it. This was a BAD IDEA. The curiosity I had for the movie was much more optimistic than it should have been. I can honestly say off the bat that this movie was not that good. I’m not saying there weren’t good parts, but as a whole this movie kind of sucked. Paul Rudd plays a business guy wanting to advance his career so he steps up and asserts himself in a meeting getting his bosses attention. He is then invited to a secret party where everyone brings a “winner”. By “winner”, they basically mean weirdo. By chance, Rudd encounters a Michael Scott/40 Year Old Virgin hybrid character played y Steve Carell. Carell ends up being his guest for the party and in the meantime screws Rudd’s life up a little. Hilarity never really ensues. They were being funny, but it wasn’t funny. The movie was amusing, but ultimately a letdown. Zack Galifianakis, Carell’s villain, did okay but more cruel and lame than funny and mean. Jermaine Clement plays a self-loving artist that comes off as Gene Simmons without the charm, which is just uneasy and unpleasant. You can see where they’re attempting to be funny with the character, but it just didn’t work. Then I saw Jeff Dunham, the comedian who has all those puppets, and was completely taken out of the movie. That guy sucks the funny out of life. Was Carrot Top not available? I know I sound harsh, but everyone involved in this movie has seen better days. I’m a fan of these people and a movie like this is a black eye to their cred. On the bright side, there were three small roles in the movie that shined though. Kristen Schaal, playing Rudd’s secretary, was pretty awesome. Then Ron Livingston always rocks and played the jerk here perfectly. But the two times I actually and literally laughed out loud were thanks to Chris O’Dowd as a blind swordsman. For those who don’t know this guy, check out his work as “Roy” on the awesome UK show “The IT Crowd”. I’d suggest waiting until this movie is cable. It’s PG13 already so you’re not going to miss anything. Instead, I suggest going out and picking up “IT Crowd” on DVD. You’ll laugh way more during one of their half hour episodes than this near two hour movie. I can almost promise you that.
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