Yesterday, I saw Dinner for Schmucks. I am not going to write all that much about it because to be honest, the film really doesn't warrant that. There were some funny parts, but I found myself trying, dare I say, forcing myself to laugh. Generally, when I go into a comedy I try to laugh a good amount, even if parts aren't super funny. Maybe I am trying to give the film the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I just really want it to be funny. Maybe I am a happy-go-lucky kind of guy who just wants everyone to have a good time. Or maybe, just maybe I feel like I am owed a funny movie due to the at times outrageous prices of movie theater tickets. Whatever the case, I really wanted Dinner for Schmucks to be good. I know its not fair to go into a movie with high expectations, but films are not made in a vacuum. I guess if you walked up to the movie theater, had never heard of any of the movies they were showing, and payed for a ticket and you got a ticket to a random show, then and only then could you say: "Yeah I didn't really have any expectations."
Maybe I didn't even want it to be all that good, I just really wanted to like it. I will probably explain the difference in a later post. It sort of fell victim to not having any secret winners that weren't in the preview. After all, Steve Carell is hilarious. He has been great in every movie in recent memory and is consistently hilarious in The Office. In Dinner for Schmucks he sort of just played a crazier but less funny Michael Scott. Bit of a let down. When it comes to Paul Rudd, I can't really say that he was bad, he was just sort of a filler guy. He generally plays the straight man (in terms of a comedy duo, not his orientation...which is usually heterosexual anyway) but he generally still has a bunch of funny jokes. I don't know if the script didn't have many written for him or if he just wasn't on his game for ad libs, but I can't remember a single funny line he had...and I saw the movie last night! This is a huge bummer for me because of all the actors in Hollywood, I most want to hang out with Paul Rudd because he seems like a normal guy...but a funny normal guy who would want to hang out with me. Like if he ever read this blog he would see that I wanted to be his friend and he would shoot me an email or something (he will never read this blog).
There were a couple of bright spots. First of all was the emergence (for me at least) of Stephanie Szostak. I had never seen or heard of her previously (she doesn't even have a wikipedia page which calls onto question her actual existence). She wasn't all that stretched as the female lead, but she is totally gorgeous and has a nice accent (which I assume is real). Also, Jemaine Clement is pretty funny. Its nice to see that he can play a character aside from just being his awkward, funny musician self.
The one thing that I took away most from seeing Dinner for Schmucks is at one point it made me so uncomfortable that I literally wanted to get up and walk out of the movie theater. I mean, the scene was kind of funny, but literally it was so painful. There was a huge knot in my stomach, I kept putting my face in my hands (similar to Rudd on the poster at the top, but I got more facial coverage with my hands), and I couldn't stop myself from audibly moaning in the theater more than once. I am not really sure if this is good or bad, but it certainly was memorable, which is more than can be said for the rest of the film.
Thanks for reading and keep watching.
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