Film reviews
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It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.
Bel Ami
The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.
The Dictator
A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.
The Woman In Black
Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.
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Dinner For Schmucks (Film)
Rating: M
Running Time: 100
Country: USA
Director: Jay Roach
Cast: Lucy Punch , Steve Carell, Zach Galifianakis, Paul Rudd
Distributor: Paramount
Release Date: September 30, 2010
Film Worth: $13.50
FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worthBolstered by spot-on casting, this hilariously entertaining comedy balances the absurdity with humanism.
It is often said that half the job of directing is getting the casting right. Filmmaker Jay Roach has shown a stunning facility for putting the right actors into the right comedy vehicles, ingeniously throwing Ben Stiller's wonderful awkwardness against Robert De Niro's brusque bluster in Meet The Parents and Meet The Fockers, and working with Mike Myers on the seminal Austin Powers films. He gets the mix absolutely right once again with Dinner For Schmucks, a winning comedy which walks a fine line between wit and silliness, cruelty and warmth, and absurdity and humanism.
There is no actor who could have been better as harried financial type Tim Conrad than Paul Rudd, who has been consistently exceptional at playing inherently decent guys forced into doing indecent things. Steve Carell, meanwhile, is unequalled at mixing earnest sweetness with heavy dollops of pure stupidity, and he brings all of that to bear upon the doltish but well meaning Barry Speck, who has turned taxidermy into a bizarre form of outsider art.
The two meet when Tim is charged with finding a suitable guest to bring to a regular dinner organised by his brutish boss (Bruce Greenwood), where each diner has to invite along a fool, with the biggest idiot winning the prize for the night. It's human cruelty at its most base and smugly superior; Tim knows it, but he's desperate to impress his boss so he can climb the corporate ladder and be the man that he incorrectly thinks his sweet girlfriend (Stephanie Szostak) wants him to be.
From the eerily beautiful opening credit sequence through to a slamming collection of absurdist set pieces and a gallery of hilarious supporting performances (Jemaine Clement steals the show as an arrogant artist), Dinner For Schmucks is hilariously entertaining. Its pointed messages, meanwhile, make it even more meaningful.
