Well, a three word title. And I can sum up this movie in three words: stink, stank, stunk. An appropriate, and analogous example of the coveted three S award was displayed by three smelly scenes – a fart scene, a shart scene and a diarrhea scene. Were they trying to emulate the GREAT Dumb and Dumber? Even good ol’ Uncle Dan Rather would say, “this movie stinks worse than Aunt Sally’s shit soufflé fresh out of the oven on a Sunday afternoon!” Sadly, there was nothing funny about this movie.
At first glance, the cast looks great: Ben Stiller, Debra Messing, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Hank Azaria, Alec Baldwin and Bryan Brown. Impressive, right? The problem, though, is that every character – every single one – was a caricature, and a poorly constructed and hammily acted one at that. Oh, and a bit part by Kevin Hart. He was actually the least hammy one of the cast. Ben Stiller played Reuben, a neurotic insurance guy who married Lisa, played by Debra Messing. They travelled to St. Bart’s on their honeymoon and met the ridiculously cliché French caricature Claude, played by Hank Azaria. Claude was on the beach, nude of course for the “laughs”, then offered to take them scuba diving. Not wanting to take the risk, Reuben let Lisa go alone. When they return, what a surprise, Ben caught them fucking and his world fell apart. Sad to say, Azaria’s accent was perhaps the lamest French one of all time. It was really that bad. You hope you never see him again in this movie but you will be disappointed later on. Seymour Hoffman, who is the ham-man during his best performances, played Sandy, a washed up kid actor and best friend to Ben. His hamminess was so over-the-top it’s cringe worthy. Then Alec Baldwin as Stan – Ben’s boss – and seemed to be competing with Hank for the worst accent prize, seemingly rehashing a character from an awful SNL performance. Even Jennifer Aniston, who was the best of the bunch, over-played the lead part of Polly, Reuben’s old school mate and now quirky new girlfriend. Lastly, Bryan Brown was Leland– he really stretched his abilities to play the Australian wealthy tycoon with a penchant for being a daredevil – what a shocker!
Speaking of Ben Stiller, why doesn’t his real dad play his father in all these movies? I think I’ve only seen one movie where Jerry Stiller played his dad. It’s too bad, because Jerry was great and hilariously funny. Was there a better TV character than The King of Queens’ Arthur Spooner? I think not. You know, I once wrote in “Arthur Spooner” as a write-in candidate in a local election. I wonder if anyone saw the vote and got a chuckle out of it. Most likely not, but who knows.
Anywho, there is no point to belabor this mess. The constant slapstick throughout was so hackneyed and so over done, I didn’t laugh once. And, per usual, I was lit to the bejesus! It’s painfully obvious where this movie was heading and what the ending would be, so there is no element of surprise. Not worth the time – skip this one. One Polly wants a cracker out of nine.