Director: Ben Stiller
Writers: Lou Holtz Jnr
I've been trying to write this for three fucking days.
Another film that would have done much better if it was released in the 2000's rather than back in 1996, it would have resonated with a hell of a lot more people. With the commentary on television and people caring more about that than their own lives, it's also fairly relevant today with people on their phones. If Ben Stiller did a follow up to this but with social media maybe, it could really work, hell, it might even give Jim Carrey some work again, where is that Canadian rubber-man anyway? He's talented enough, why hasn't he gotten any scripts?
Anyway, first of all, let's discuss Matthew Broderick. I personally do not like this guy, he can't act. I mean that's rich coming from someone who dropped out of a performing arts course for a year but y'know, it just gets to me how crap he is whenever I see him on screen, like yeah he's good in this but that's because his bland wide-eyed expression looks like it can be terror and stress and complete bewilderment. Well, good is a bit of a stretch, he's ok in this, the blandness is offset by Carrey's craziness. Aside from that, I cannot stand him. I feel insulted every time he tries and I don't understand how he was such a popular actor at one point in time. The fact that this film is centred around him having his life destroyed is just...relieving to me. It soothes me.
Andy Dick is in this. Yeah. Andy Dick. When I saw him I thought it was Tom Green, that guy from Freddy Got Fingered....Don't...Just don't go look at it unless you're willing to watch it more than once. I'm not entirely sure who's worse for this film really. Andy Dick is a big name but has a terrible reputation for...I'm not entirely sure. It's not like I didn't try to look it up but I kept getting bs answers. The closest I got to finding out was that he's just a terrible person to work with and he's obnoxious and that's why he's got such a horrible reputation. But then you have Tom Green who...Isn't really a big name in comparison he just made a horrible film and I think he was a part of that early 2000's bad tv stuff. I wouldn't know because during the early 2000's I was a very small child. So I wouldn't know who's worse to have been put in this film but we got Andy Dick and thankfully he has limited screen time.
Jim Carrey does...oddly well considering I've heard people say that this film could have ruined his career. Seriously. People apparently only ever saw him being funny and that putting him in such a dark possibly serious role was...a foreign concept to them. I mean he did move onto serious work in the future such as Eternal Sunshine and arguably The Truman Show. Nobody liked to see such a funny man in harsh shadows and glowing green eyes and just...basically portraying someone who obviously didn't have the proper upbringing and it reflects that. Of course, he made Liar Liar straight after this and the masses were once again comfortable. Like I said, Carrey does such a good job in this, especially during that karaoke scene. I won't say anything about it but this is probably the funniest scene in the entire film, honestly, if you want to know what I'm on about either Youtube the scene or watch the film. It's just hilariously uncomfortable. But yeah, Carrey is great in this and I really don't understand how people ever saw this as a "not Jim Carrey role" y'know?
Then we have Jack Black, he's got a fairly small role in this and honestly, with him, he's kinda hit or miss. Here, however, he's pretty good at the rejected friend. You really do feel bad for this guy and there's even a scene in which he works out why the name Chip Douglas sounds familiar and he just looks so smug. The actual visual definition of the cat that got the cream. It's great to see, honestly.
I also loved the side plot where it's following the trial of Ben Stiller's character Sam Sweet. It's really interesting to see and I kinda wanna see a mockumentary about this thing. It could talk about twin envy which is mentioned and with today's technology you could so easily do doubles of Ben Stiller, or just do it the old fashioned way and use makeup and costume and such but...either way, I'd like to see it. I also want to know whether Same Sweet was guilty or not but y'know, the point of it being in the film without a verdict was for people to stop being so obsessed with the lives of others and just focus on your own life. Don't let the tv suck you in too much.
Anyway, this was really hard to work out what to talk about. There was nothing especially good in it aside from the side plot and the karaoke scene and there wasn't anything especially bad about it aside from the fact that Matthew Broderick was in it. I just thought I should talk about how the actors did in this and maybe in the future, I'll come back to this and try to give it a better look over. It's not a bad film and it's definitely not a masterpiece. Just something fun to sit back and enjoy. Go look at it and see what you think of it, maybe you can find a stronger opinion than I could. Maybe you'll see something genuinely terrible or extremely amazing, I hope you do at least. Anyway, that's it for today. G'night guys.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then please go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.
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