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Craig Younkin
Movie Review
Dinner for Schmucks
By Craig Younkin Published July 31, 2010
US Release: July 30, 2010
Directed by: Jay Roach
Starring: Paul Rudd , Steve Carell , Ron Livingston , Zach Galifianakis
PG-13 for sequences of crude and sexual content, some partial nudity and language.
Running Time: 114 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $72,215,000
Directed by: Jay Roach
Starring: Paul Rudd , Steve Carell , Ron Livingston , Zach Galifianakis
PG-13 for sequences of crude and sexual content, some partial nudity and language.
Running Time: 114 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $72,215,000
D+
Can this year get more depressing? Dinner for Schmucks is a painful remake of French film The Dinner Game.
So now we have a movie that wants us to laugh at the disabled. Can this year get more depressing? “Dinner for Schmucks” is a painful remake of French film “The Dinner Game."
Steve Carell plays Barry, a taxidermist who likes to present dioramas of dead mice. Tim (Paul Rudd) needs to bring an idiot to his boss’ dinner of laughing at idiots and Barry fits the bill. Before that even starts, Barry sets off a wave of destruction that is at best smirk-worthy, at worst just plain dumb. From Barry’s doing, Tim’s apartment and relationship with his girlfriend (Stephanie Szostack, playing an art dealer working with a guy who seems to be ripping off Russell Brand's Aldous Snow) are ruined, a crazy ex (Lucy Punch) is back on his tail, and the IRS wants to audit him. This was all done accidentally, of course, because Barry is really just a simple-minded guy. In all honesty though, the guy is mentally ill. He shouts when he talks, has no idea what to do with a woman (he even tried to find his ex-wife’s clitoris under the sofa), he takes the phrase “stay in the chair” literally, and he lets himself be swayed by the mind-control of his equally-mentally ill boss (Zach Galifianakis). Tim meanwhile is made to look like a jerk even though the movie claims he’s a nice guy, and yet, there is nothing likable about Tim, nor is Barry-the-manchild anything but a destructive force.
Director Jay Roach has the unenviable task of turning this into a sweet buddy comedy but in the end you just want Tim and Barry to get away from one another. And then comes the dinner, where the blind and other disabled people are ridiculed. That “Schmucks” claims to be a good-natured comedy is really the biggest laugh here.
Steve Carell plays Barry, a taxidermist who likes to present dioramas of dead mice. Tim (Paul Rudd) needs to bring an idiot to his boss’ dinner of laughing at idiots and Barry fits the bill. Before that even starts, Barry sets off a wave of destruction that is at best smirk-worthy, at worst just plain dumb. From Barry’s doing, Tim’s apartment and relationship with his girlfriend (Stephanie Szostack, playing an art dealer working with a guy who seems to be ripping off Russell Brand's Aldous Snow) are ruined, a crazy ex (Lucy Punch) is back on his tail, and the IRS wants to audit him. This was all done accidentally, of course, because Barry is really just a simple-minded guy. In all honesty though, the guy is mentally ill. He shouts when he talks, has no idea what to do with a woman (he even tried to find his ex-wife’s clitoris under the sofa), he takes the phrase “stay in the chair” literally, and he lets himself be swayed by the mind-control of his equally-mentally ill boss (Zach Galifianakis). Tim meanwhile is made to look like a jerk even though the movie claims he’s a nice guy, and yet, there is nothing likable about Tim, nor is Barry-the-manchild anything but a destructive force.
Director Jay Roach has the unenviable task of turning this into a sweet buddy comedy but in the end you just want Tim and Barry to get away from one another. And then comes the dinner, where the blind and other disabled people are ridiculed. That “Schmucks” claims to be a good-natured comedy is really the biggest laugh here.
Craig's Grade: D+
Craig's Overall Grading: 340 graded movies
| A | 10.9% | |
| B | 41.8% | |
| C | 31.8% | |
| D | 15.3% | |
| F | 0.3% |
