School for Scoundrels (PG-13)
Mike:
Scott:
Scott: Tonight we are reviewing School for Scoundrels
, about a place where people who have nowhere to go find places to go and things to do.
What did you think Mike?
Mike: It was okay. The movie has its moments, but it's kind of hit or miss. Some things really made me laugh, but it gets quiet in many parts that I think are supposed to be funny.
What about you?
Scott: I didn't see a whole lot of hit in it, it was mostly just miss.
Mike: Dude, I heard you laughing.
Scott: I laughed, you are right. But I think there were supposed to be more funny parts. By the way, I didn't know that the theatre had so many crickets. You could hear them after several punch lines.
Mike: This was definitely not Old School caliber. Not Road Trip either.
Scott: Director Todd Phillips directed Old School and Road Trip so you would expect more from this.
Mike: Wrote it too.
Scott: Looking at the stars though, you know why it didn't deliver the same way. They just don't have the same comedic talent.
Mike: Actually, one of my complaints is that a number of funny people were wasted.
I love Ben Stiller, David Cross, Sarah Silverman and Horatio Sanz, but none of them were given anything funny to say or do.
Scott: Very true, although I never thought Sanz was very funny. In Saturday Night Live at least, that is the only place I had seen him before.
Mike: Horatio has cracked me up many times on SNL.
I noticed that IMDB picked up on your continuity error about the alarm clock times changing back and forth.
Scott: As soon as I saw the clock in the bedroom I knew to keep an eye out for it. It’s always funny when there are items like that that you can see changing throughout a scene.
This film stars Jon Heder, of Napoleon Dynamite fame, as Roger, a loser that gets no respect at home or work. He is given the number of a guy who can help him. Dr. P. (Billy Bob Thornton) runs a get help (not well) class for losers that makes men out of wimps.
Mike: I liked Heder. I enjoy watching him be a lovable loser trying to gain some confidence.
Scott: Of the many dull spots to this movie, I liked his performance the most.
Mike: He cracked me up a number of times.
Scott: It was the first time I saw him where he seemed normal, even if a bit of a dork.
Mike: You gotta love the guy who brought Napoleon Dynamite to life.
Scott: I loved him in that role, but it's nice to see him move a little away from that.
Thornton, on the other hand, didn't seem to put too much into the role. He just didn't pull me in to his character.
Mike: Billy Bob made me laugh, too, but it looks like he only has one character to play in movies anymore. He keeps playing the abusive jerk for laughs. At least in this movie it didn't look like he was an alcoholic. That’s probably the only difference from his roles in Bad Santa and Bad News Bears.
Scott: He looks too skinny; there is nothing to him anymore.
Mike: He is a talented actor. I've seen him act. Just not recently. He was great in A Simple Plan, but not much like that in the last few movies. I liked him in Friday Night Lights too.
Scott: He was good in Lights.
The surprise person for me in this, not because of her acting, but because she is in the movie, is Jacinda Barrett as Amanda. I watched her on The Real World in 1995. It's amazing that she made the transition into a feature films.
Mike: I have no idea who she is. She was okay.
Scott: I think she played her role too cute, a better range would have done wonders.
Mike: She just didn't come across as the girl that two guys would basically go to war over.
If you look she's been in a number of films that we've seen, but I never noticed her in any of them.
Scott: Like what? I haven't seen any of her films.
Mike: Ladder 49? Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason? Poseidon?
Scott: Haven't seen any of those.
Mike: You better hop to it then. Sounds like you are missing a lot of films that should have been good, but just weren’t.
Now that I think about it those were all rentals. Kind of like this movie is going to be for most people.
Scott: So what do you rate this?
Mike: I give it a 2.5 overall and a 3 for comedy. The movie made laugh, but petered out at the end. It’s like it changed gears and stopped even trying to be funny 80% of the way through.
Mike: What do you rate it?
Scott: I give this a 2 overall and a 1.5 for comedy. It had it's moments, and some were funny. But you saw a lot of jokes coming. You also saw where the story was going in some places.
Mike: Very predictable, but lots of dumb stuff that made me laugh. You have to love a good pepper spray joke.
Scott: I don't know that you have to love it, but it is in the movie, and it is one of the better jokes of a sad lot
Mike: Maybe next time the filmmakers can go to School for Comedy Films.
