"Seeking a Friend for the End of the World"

Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, starring Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, and Martin Sheen - Rated R

This one squeaked by with a Commodus just because of the first, very funny part.

*Note: This review is going to be kind of spoilerish because I didn’t like the direction the movie took and I have to explain what that direction is for my review to make sense.  Stop reading if you want to experience Seeking a Friend for the End of the World fresh. 

End of the world movies have been very popular lately so it seemed inevitable that someone would make a true apocalyptic comedy.  Seeking a Friend for the End of the World looked to be just that based on the previews and the first third of the film.  Unfortunately, the filmmakers were more concerned with telling a love story than a comedy. 

To be fair, a film should not be judged because the preview was misleading.  That happens all the time.  I am not judging this movie because of the previews I saw, I am judging it based on the first twenty minutes of it.  Seeking a Friend… starts off as a humorous look at what people would do if they found out the world was going to end.  There are parties in which people do the drugs they were always too scared to try, parents cuss at their kids, sex is fair game, and everyone casts off the veil of society and let loose.  The first part of the movie is filled with stuff like that and I found most of it truly funny.  And then the movie started.

Seeking a Friend… turns out to really be about Dodge (but let’s just call him Steve Carell, especially since he’s playing a role he’s played five or six times already), a very depressed man.  Carell’s wife leaves him as soon as she hears about the end and he doesn’t handle it very well.  He mopes through all the chaos until he encounters Penny (Keira Knightley), a quirky woman who inspires Carell to go looking for the one that got away.  The two head off on a road trip and the movie slows to a crawl. 

As far as road movies go, this one doesn’t.  There is no sense of progression whatsoever.  They leave the city and everything just looks the same after that and they suddenly end up in places they need to be.  It’s all so boring.  What doesn’t help is the fact that comedy is ditched when they get in the car.  That’s when it all turns into a love story. 

Early in the film a friend tries to set Carell up with a new girlfriend and he laments that it’s not worth wasting the time getting to know someone with the end so imminent.  Because of that little piece of logic, the movie is held hostage to that idea as Carell listens to Penny’s boring stories that no one could possibly care about.  I wanted to yell, “Shut up!” multiple times during this film. 

Nothing against love stories, but this film just isn’t compelling.  Carell’s reasoning early in the film should have been followed by the filmmakers.  What’s the point in hearing all these boring stories?  Oh, he’s falling in love!  Cute.  Now die.  How stupid is that?  They should be engaging in much zanier antics than falling in love.  It’s the end of the world!  Do something halfway interesting!  Instead, when they come across an amusing situation (like a trip to made-up restaurant called Friendsy’s that has turned into a cult situation), they run away and get back to their boring crap in the car. 

This movie was such a wasted opportunity and there’s no need to waste any more words on it.  I guess we’ll have to wait for The End of the World for a true apocalyptic comedy.  But definitely check out the first few minutes of this movie, because it really is funny.  And if you can stomach a pointless romance, keep watching.  I did, but I certainly regretted it.

"Dinner for Schmucks"

Dinner for Schmucks - Directed by Jay Roach, written by David Guion and Michael Handelman, starring Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Jemaine Clement, Stephanie Szostak, and Zach Galifianakis - Rated PG-13

The Kurgan likes laughing at idiots.

Comedies about weirdoes, idiots, or otherwise flat out annoying characters always walk a fine line. That line is the difference between funny and unbearable. Dinner for Schmucks stayed on the funny side for me.

Schmucks is about a dinner party a rich executive throws in which underlings and colleagues invite the most idiotic person they can find and make fun of them, awarding the biggest idiot at the end of the night. The film is really just about the lead up to the titular dinner. This film is more about relationships. In this case, those relationships are those of Tim (Paul Rudd), Barry (Steve Carell), and Julie (Stephanie Szostak).

Tim is on his way up in the company, so that means it’s very important to bring the best idiot to dinner. Enter Barry, a happy simpleton who takes everything literally…oh and he makes “mouseterpieces”; more on those later. Barry commences to ruin Tim’s relationship with possible fiancé Julie…hilarity ensues.

This film really reminded me of Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. It’s not that there is a lot of travel in Schmucks, it’s that Carell and Rudd share the same troubled friendship as Steve Martin and John Candy. Carell just seems to intentionally mess up Rudd’s life. They play it that same as Martin and Candy did. Carell seems oblivious and even well-meaning, while Rudd becomes more and more angry. Let’s be clear, though, this comedy is nowhere near Planes. But Rudd plays the funny straight man pretty well to Carell’s zany, but redeeming idiot.

That factor is what put me on the positive side for this film. As far as laughs go, there are plenty, but they are not constant. What makes up for that are the likable characters. Rudd is a jerk at times, but I still wanted things to work out for him. Carell is weird and annoying, but I hoped for the best for him as well. This movie could have easily been mean spirited but it has a heart, and that saves it.

Some people might not share this opinion, though. Your enjoyment depends largely on your feelings toward Carell. He has a generally strange look in this film. I laughed at times just because of the faces he made. He also has a few ridiculous lines and at times just makes noises for laughs. I’m not saying all of it was funny, but I found myself laughing at him more often than not.

Carell’s “mouseterpieces” definitely make the character. Carell spends his free time (his day job is at the IRS) taking taxidermy mice and putting them in cute, and sometimes strange, scenes. The sheer oddness of it all should provide a few laughs, but the more unlikely scenes still have me laughing when I think back on them. My favorite was the “mouseterpiece” of a mouse finding his wife in bed with another mouse. A typically depressing situation made cute and funny by the use of dead mice.

That’s not where the weird ends with this film. The supporting cast is full of weirdoes. Zach Galifianakis (Hollywood’s go-to eccentric comedian since The Hangover) makes for a great quasi-villain for Carell. He is another actor who creates laughs for me from appearance alone. It helps that he is given free rein in this one, as a mind controlling idiot.

Jemaine Clement (HBO’s Flight of the Conchords) upstages the other weird characters as an egotistic artist. He may be the most ridiculous character in the film, but I found him consistently funny. But my favorite supporting character is David Walliams as the rich Swede that Rudd has to land for the company. He plays what is supposed to be a straight role with great eccentricity. His facial gestures had me laughing throughout and he’s given some great, and strange, lines such as, “That’s my wife’s favorite finger!” Walliams may not stand out for most, but if you pay close attention to him, you’ll see that his few short scenes contain some very funny moments.

That’s basically it for this film. Dinner for Schmucks isn’t a comedy classic, but it is a solid comedy in a summer that has largely been humorless. The film may not pay off much when it comes to the actual dinner (I thought the inclusion of puppet-wielding Jeff Dunham to be quite weak), but it makes up for it with strong main characters that are genuinely likable. That’s the trick to Schmucks. It’s a movie about making fun of idiots, but it doesn’t condone that. I’m glad that it doesn’t, because who wants to walk out of a comedy only to feel bad for laughing the whole time?