See Dick Suck- Fun with Dick and Jane Anything But
I never saw the original film created in 1977, but if it was anything remotely close to the remake, it wasn’t worth remaking. The movie, “Fun with Dick and Jane” began with an interesting concept, but failed to live up to the hype.
The story takes place in the year 2000. Dick (Jim Carrey) is a low to mid-level wage-slave for Globodyne Industries. Life for him appears to take a positive turn when he is promoted to Vice-President of Communications. He talks his wife Jane (Téa Leoni) into quitting her job and becoming a stay-at-home mom before spending one day in his new role, effectively counting his chickens before they hatch. The very next day, he appears on a show called Money Life, where he is blindsided by the both host and presidential candidate and perennial megalomaniac, Ralph Nader on the company’s unethical practices and poor overall performance. During the interview, he company’s stock plummets until it is totally worthless. After the interview, Dick returns to find the company in total anarchy, as colleagues scramble to shred files and salvage anything of value. Dick soon discovers that the former CEO who hired him had double-crossed the entire company by selling-short and reaping the dividends as the company faltered.
Now unemployed and struggling to make ends meet, Dick and Jane resort to drastic means, which ultimately results in what should have been a hilarious attempt at a crime spree. At their wits-end, they decide to hatch a convoluted plan to get even with the former CEO Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin).
This movie had so much potential, and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where it all went south. With a plot that’s a clever satire of the Enron scandal, one of the funniest actors in Hollywood in Jim Carrey, and one Hollywood’s most versatile character actors in Alec Baldwin, this should have been a fast-break and alley-oop slam-dunk. Instead, we’re bogged-down in a 90-minute off-handed layup drill. (This extended metaphor is in honor of the upcoming NBA season. NBA action is fan-tastic!) So what happened? Carrey had some amusing moments, but for the most part, he seemed to be mailing-in his performance and providing half-hearted Carrey-shtick. It seemed as if a moderately-talented improv actor was doing a crappy Jim Carrey impersonation for 90 minutes. As for Téa Leoni, apparently the only requirement for her role was to look attractive and make Carry seem more animated than he was by acting as bland and wooden as possible. She could have been replaced by a blowup doll and an automated voice recording and I wouldn’t have noticed much of a drop-off in her performance. Alec Baldwin could have carried this movie if only he had more screen time. The smarmy, southern gentleman bit was pretty entertaining, and a singular bright spot in an otherwise underwhelming film.
Fun with Dick and Jane had tremendous potential, but ultimately, it fell flat. I recommend that everyone pass on this one and rent something funnier, like a documentary on the actual Enron scandal.
1)Story: C-
2)Acting: D
3)Visuals: D
4)Originality/Innovation: B
5)Enjoyability Grade: F
6)Date Material: C
7)Contemporary Element (Will it be watchable two decades from now?): F
8)Overall Grade: D
***
Blind Eye Turning: Poems, Prose, and other Scribbles, by Barry Dawson
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