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Dinner for Schmucks / Rated PG-13 for crude language, nudity and suggestiveness.
In 1988 there was a French movie called “Le Diner de Cons”. Translation: “The Dinner Game”. In July 2010 there is a new movie called “Dinner for Schmucks”. I hope the first one was funny. The new one has about as many laughs as dentist visits. While everyone in Dinner for Schmucks tries their best, and this includes Steve Carell as Barry the taxidermist, Zach Galifanakis (the off center guy with the beard in The Hangover), and Paul Rudd as the regular fellow, nothing can help the weak script and overly long story line. While the film has a good idea (apparently lifted right out of the French film) no matter how hard the actors try and how talented they are they can never quite get any real laughs out of the audience. Since I wasn’t laughing I had plenty of time to listen to everyone else. They weren’t either. The story concerns PR’s Madison Ave. job at a financial firm where he is trying to get a promotion. He has a good idea and is noticed by the boss. He is invited to a special, once a month executive dinner but he must bring along a schmuck or someone eccentric enough for everyone else to get a laugh out of. Both SC and ZG play IRS co-workers who seem to fit the bill. SC is a loner whose wife left him for ZG and all he does is collect dead mice and turn them into cute characters in various scene boxes or in large set pieces. Believe me this is not as easy as it looks on screen. Oddball characters add a little interest as does the sitcom situations which keep occurring that are supposed to inspire the audience to fits of laughter. They all come off about as funny as watching in the mirror as your barber hiccups and cuts a wide swath right down the middle of your head. A couple of good Beatles songs accompany the beginning and end titles and the Theodore Shapiro score tries to bring the sensitivity and humor to life. His score is far better than the images on screen. The best part of the film are the opening and closing credits. They feature the taxidermy scenes SC is supposedly creating. The dead mice are better actors and solicit more sympathy than the live performers on screen. All in all a watch-able farce but not the comedy fare they are trying to be. If you have any actual photos of the period from 1773 to 1783 that can be mailed to the newspaper I would appreciate your help. I am working on creating the entire Revolutionary War using only dead rodents and tin foil and am trying to be as accurate as possible. It’s a challenge.
Rated 2.0 out of 4.0 reasons “Psycho” put me off my hobby and “Dinner for Schmucks” has brought me back.
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