Remember all of those Saturday Night Live skits where they propose a simple comedic concept and then proceed to hammer the bit into dust? Imagine one of those insufferable skits dragging on for over one hundred minutes and you'll have a good idea of what this movie has to offer.

Jim Carrey plays Carl, a junior loan officer who has a pathetic existence. He is divorced, has been passed up for a promotion and losing his friends due to his being an unreliable dope. After some highly contrived situations, Carl finds himself running into his old friend Nick (John Michael Higgins) who is exciting and free. You see, Nick has adopted the "Yes" lifestyle. He says "yes" to everything and magically life has become a wonderful adventure. Nick invites Carl to attend a conference where guru Terrence Bundley (Terrence Stamp) invites attendees to pledge to say "yes" to everything for a year. Of course Carl takes the pledge and, of course, his life magically becomes a wonderful adventure.

For the next hour or so, Carrey sprints from one inorganic situation to the next saying "yes" to whatever preposterous offer comes his way. It's all so zany.

I like the concept, it is so pro-existence, so for living life to the fullest….wait no, that’s crap – it stinks and stinks overtime. Saying “yes” to everything saps you of your humanity. You have an ingrained sense of right and wrong. This provides you with your basis for choice. It would be better, more life fulfilling to follow your conscious for a year. Your conscious is God's reminder that you have free will and responsibility. Do what you know is right for a year, heck, do it for a month and you life WILL CHANGE. Saying “yes” doesn't change a single thing, doing what you know is right in your gut will.

There is a couple things in this film which struck me. Carrey is in his late forties. At the time this was filmed he was forty-seven years old. He is almost fifty, yet our culture is fine with him portraying a half-man loser who still hangs with his buds at the local sports bar, no kids and who is a JUNIOR loan officer - honestly, he has a scene where he's passed out over a toilet. If you're nearing fifty and you're still getting drunk like you're in college, you either have a drinking problem or a thinking problem - take your pick. This role belongs to an actor half Carrey's age.

What does it say about our culture that a fifty year old is comfortably shown in this role? Would we be as comfortable if Carrey's love interest was his age? No. Zooey Deschanel, his love interest, was twenty-nine during the filming. Because, as we all know, your average good looking woman in her late twenties is hot on the heels of any man nearing fifty who has no prospects.

To push the age thing a little further. In the film Carl receives a sexual favor from an old woman. Carl is disgusted by the old biddy but relents to her advances. This is played up for laughs...well, its not funny so they try to play it up for laughs. The point is that the idea that Carl would hook up with an older woman is deemed wacky.

Here is the deal: The actress who portrays the old woman Tilly is Fionnula Flanagan, born in 1941, making her 67. Carrey was 47. Deschanel was 29. Its fine for Carrey to be slobbering all over a woman 18 years his junior but its disgusting that a woman 20 years his senior would be doing the same to him. The fact is, both are troublesome. Again, the bit works better if Carl is portrayed by a thirty-year-old actor.

Perhaps Carrey should drop the roles where he portrays middle-age, half-men and focus on making real comedies like he was supposed to do back when he was funny fifteen years ago.

As a final note, at one point they actually turn to anti-George W. Bush paranoia. Carl dates a Syrian woman, offers someone a loan to buy fertilizer and takes some planes trips. During a flight, a security guard who looks suspiciously like W. pulls Carl from the terminal insinuating he is a terrorist- thank god this BDS crap is over.

There is little in this film that isn't complete, unwatchable bunk. I recommend you say "no man".





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Dumb & Dumber (1994)


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Labels: Bradley Cooper, comedy, film, Jim Carrey, movie review, Zooey Deschanel

Short Review: It’s more like number two.


The first two thirds of this film are passable. The final third is a complete embarrassment. It’s like enjoying a moderately prepared dinner and then topping it off with an apple cobbler that was warmed in the chef’s armpit.

Jim Carrey attempts yet again to “be serious” (see Man on the Moon for another attempt – then again, don’t). This outing, he grumbles his way through a film about a troubled man who becomes obsessed with finding the number 23 in his life. Walter Sparrow (Carrey) is given a book entitled The Number 23 by his wife Agatha (played by Virginia Madsen who is now apparently the one to call on when a production needs a pretty but passive female presence to counter a lead actor over the age of 40). Walter becomes convinced the book was written about him and quickly becomes dangerously obsessed with the work. The beginnings of this obsession are interesting and handled well by director Joel Schumacher and screenwriter Fernley Phillips. Carrey also handles his roles (he also portrays the main character in the book) with some skill. It is when the piece wraps up that everything goes to pot. Carrey’s acting goes into overdrive as he attempts to be as dramatic as possible while the script attempts to sell a completely irrational resolution. Schumacher’s pacing tightens up to heighten the impact of the big reveal, but this backfires. Instead of providing a taut, surprise ending, the hasty pace comes off as someone hurrying through the crappy resolution hoping to mask its stupidity. Many films manage to hide their illogical choices and poor construction until after they're done. This one flaunts theirs.

There is also an issue with a number of very grizzly scenes of murder and death. You see everything. If someone falls from a high place, we see them hit the ground, if someone gets their throat cut we see the slice open up. This lack of imagination on the part of Schumacher is disgusting. We do not need to see a woman’s body slam into the cement after dropping from a third story window. In a time long past, this would have been handled off screen and with reaction shots from those who witnessed the event. By showing us the grim moment of death, along with the thick “thud” is simply bad film making. It is cheap and it is the stuff of hacks.

I see it as yet another instance of Jim Carrey not doing what he was meant to do (make us laugh). He was made to be a goof and these excursions into more serious roles don’t succeed. Carrey is a good actor but his demeanor lends itself to comedy not drama. He’s been misusing his gifts and it’s a shame.


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Labels: film, Jim Carrey, movie review, Virginia Madsen

Related Reviews:
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Labels: Cameron Diaz, film, Jim Carrey, movie review

Screenwriters: Nicholas Stoller (Fun with Dick and Jane), Jarrad Paul, and Andrew Mogel
Director: Peyton Reed (Down with Love)
Actors: Jim Carrey (Dumb & Dumber), Zooey Deschanel (The Happening), Terence Stamp (Superman II), and Danny Masterson

Labels: film, Jim Carrey, movie trailer, Terence Stamp, Zooey Daschanel

Labels: animated, Dr. Seuss, family film, Jim Carrey, movie trailer, Steve Carell