There are bad movies and bad movies. Some smell bad because of poor scripting or embarrassing acting or inept direction (or all three); others just start with such an idiotic concept that they can not help but fail. The above film (one of Sky's offerings this week) definitely falls into that category.
A small-time three-time loser (Dax Sheperd) comes out of prison and wants to take revenge on the judge who sent him away each time. When he finds that the guy is dead, he decides to exact punishment on the judge's son (Will Arnett) who's a pretty nasty bundle of self-importance anyhow. Shepard frames him on a disturbing-the-peace charge which is not properly defended by Arnett's lawyers who want to get him out of the way in their money-making foundation. Shepard then allows himself to become a four-time loser (I always thought that meant jail forever in America) so that he can bunk with Arnett and make his life a misery. Incidentally, this is meant to be a comedy! No, I do not know either of these actors either nor the director, Bob Odenkirk, who I believe is also an actor. The only cast names that rang any bells were Dylan Baker as the corrupt prison warden and Chi McBride as the big fat black who decides to make Arnett his girlfriend (actually the only well-conceived performance in this sorry shooting match). Shepard's character has the syllable "shit" as part of his surname; I doubt this was unintentional.
I also watched "Flushed Away" (2006) another of this week's offerings. While this is far from a bad movie, it is not particularly good either, despite its high-powered voice cast. The first computer-generated animation from Ardman, it is something of a misfire and lacks the charm of other works from that stable. I believe its failure was the main cause of that small British studio's link with Dreamworks being dissolved. Perhaps they can now return to the sort of movie that they do best without trying for pathetic international jokes.
1 comment:
Neither of these offerings particularly appeal to me.
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