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Lets just say this movie won't make any of my top-lists...

There is not really enough in this movie for me to start hating it but it's still a very unremarkable attempt at comedy film-making. It never feels like it's progressing toward anything good or interesting with its story and the humor is laid on too thick.

it's the absurd type of comedy, that truly tries to be as absurd as possible, with its story, comedy and its characters as well. It really pushes things at times and even though the movie is set in the real world, it has a very out of this world kind of vibe to it. It's not exactly the realistic type of comedy but this also clearly wasn't the approach the film-makers were aiming for. The visual style and approach of this movie all feels very deliberate and a little bit too much so.

If I would had to compare this movie and its style to something, I would pick any random Wes Anderson movie. It's similar in the way that it tries to make you laugh and be funny, by doing as little as possible. It just shows you stuff and expects you to laugh at it. 'Look there's a guy and he's only wearing underwear. And guess what..he's bald! And not just that, he's fat as well! Isn't that hilarious?' Well, not really, unless he starts to do something funny or interesting, which just isn't ever enough the case with this movie. I do really feel this is a very lazy way of film-making. Some more true creativity would had been welcome for this movie.

But in all honesty. I'm probably making the movie sound worse than it in fact truly is. I mean, it's not like it ever becomes a truly bad or boring one, it's just that the movie doesn't ever really work out, in the way it so clearly- and almost desperately wants to.

Everything about this movie makes it apparent that it was nothing more than just a fast and cheap movie to make, for basically all involved. Apparently the story, on which this movie was based, got written in just a few days and it also really comes across like that. If only the writer had taken a few more days, the situations and characters in this movie would had been more fleshed out and also would had been more interesting to follow around. That way, all of the many different events and characters could had potentially connected in a better and more clever way as well, within the movie.

And the fact that this must had been a quick and simple movie to do would also explain the presence of the many great and well known actors in this. Most of the roles must have taken no longer than a couple of days to shoot and the Billy Crystal character probably has the most amount of dialog in this and he doesn't first show up until the movie is about 20 minutes in already.

But really, the cast-list is just crazy and would make you believe that this is one special and hilarious project, which clearly however isn't the case though. Let me just name some of the big names that appear in this movie; Matt Lucas, James Caan, Juno Temple, Saffron Burrows, Johnny Knoxville, Dolph Lundgren, Rebel Wilson, James Marsden, DJ Qualls, Peter Stormare, Ned Bellamy, Billy Crystal, Rosie Perez, Amanda Plummer. Impressed? Well, really no need to be and it actually brings me to another problem.

So there are many characters in this, played by some great actors but the movie is only around 90 minutes short. That means it's crammed with characters, who in the long run just don't really add enough to the movie or its story because their character's roles are just too limited within it.

The movie already has sort of disappeared into obscurity, where it belongs. It's mostly a failure but still an interesting one!

5/10

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About Frank Veenstra

Watches movies...writes about them...and that's it for now.
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