I like Will Ferrel and Vince Vaughan is an excellent actor (watch him in swingers he is awesome). Unfortunately they are wasted in this movie, a very bland attempt at re hashing tired clichés for other movies (fightclub, animal house, porkys, van wilder, American pie, billy Madison).
Todd Philips directs very amateurishly. The camera work is very sloppy with no sense of rhythm which is incredibly important in a comedy to underpin the flow of the jokes. It is badly edited spoiling what jokes there are (And there are some good ones). Some of them however are incredibly pathetic and predictable - for instance the re-occurrence of the toaster gift. When Vince Vaughans son receives a gift you just know what it s going to be based on its size. Its sits there for about 20 seconds before its revealed - thats bad camera work, a good director would hide its size until the last moment thus adding an affectation of surprise to the albeit obvious punch line. Not to mention the fact that this is the third time someone receives it as a gift - Just to make sure we really really had no chance of seeing that one coming. A joke is good once, three times it just starts to get old.
Todd Philips isn't that great a writer of comedy either. What writer with any ability has to bilk jokes and scenes from other films ?
For instance there's the painfully bad homage to fight club with the waiter and colleague wanting to be part of the fraternity and then toward the end of the film it descends into an exact copy of the last 30 minutes of billy Madison - IE. hero has to prove oneself before the academic community in adebate/sporting/qu iz type scenario before villain self-destructs. If that wasn't bad enough just before the final credits roll we see the old man 'blue' dressed as an angel singing at a piano just like we saw carl weathers do it at the end of 'happy gilmore'.
Then you have Juliette Lewis who's performance at the start was so badly acted you realize why she was so good at playing trailer trash whores - because thats what comes naturally, but even here she fails.
A Message to Todd Philips. 2 things.
1) Next time let Vince Vaughan and Will Ferrel write and direct. 2) Sit back, pay attention and LEARN how real talented people operate.
5/10
Todd Philips directs very amateurishly. The camera work is very sloppy with no sense of rhythm which is incredibly important in a comedy to underpin the flow of the jokes. It is badly edited spoiling what jokes there are (And there are some good ones). Some of them however are incredibly pathetic and predictable - for instance the re-occurrence of the toaster gift. When Vince Vaughans son receives a gift you just know what it s going to be based on its size. Its sits there for about 20 seconds before its revealed - thats bad camera work, a good director would hide its size until the last moment thus adding an affectation of surprise to the albeit obvious punch line. Not to mention the fact that this is the third time someone receives it as a gift - Just to make sure we really really had no chance of seeing that one coming. A joke is good once, three times it just starts to get old.
Todd Philips isn't that great a writer of comedy either. What writer with any ability has to bilk jokes and scenes from other films ?
For instance there's the painfully bad homage to fight club with the waiter and colleague wanting to be part of the fraternity and then toward the end of the film it descends into an exact copy of the last 30 minutes of billy Madison - IE. hero has to prove oneself before the academic community in adebate/sporting/qu iz type scenario before villain self-destructs. If that wasn't bad enough just before the final credits roll we see the old man 'blue' dressed as an angel singing at a piano just like we saw carl weathers do it at the end of 'happy gilmore'.
Then you have Juliette Lewis who's performance at the start was so badly acted you realize why she was so good at playing trailer trash whores - because thats what comes naturally, but even here she fails.
A Message to Todd Philips. 2 things.
1) Next time let Vince Vaughan and Will Ferrel write and direct. 2) Sit back, pay attention and LEARN how real talented people operate.
5/10