Fun with Dick and Jane (2005)

The original film of this title was a mid-70s flick co-starring George Segal and Jane Fonda as the hard-up rich couple who take to larceny to fund their life style when hubby loses his job.  The film was pleasant enough, as the two leads shared excellent screen comedy, but if ever a movie was screaming for a remake or an updating, this was not the one.  So just why Jim Carrey, who also produced the film, decided that this would be the perfect vehicle for his talents is quite frankly beyond me.  He is an actor who was amusing enough when he first came to one's notice in "The Mask" and "Dumb and Dumber", but his subsequent roles have been a little hard to take in anything but small dollops.  Here he is paired with Tea Leoni as his wife and partner in crime.  Now, she is someone who I really liked in her early television roles and someone for whom I still have a soft spot, but her subsequent movie roles have not really worked to her advantage.  This film too will do little for her career.  The slapstick plot really made me cringe and even the supposed feel-good ending where Carrey brings big baddie Alex Baldwin his comeuppance and achieves justice for all of Baldwin's erstwhile employees didn't sit that well, keeping in mind the crimes that the hapless couple had perpetrated before this frankly stupid denouement.