As much of a waste of time it was for me to watch this, the true waste here involves the comedic talents of Jack Black, Amy Poehler, Ben Stiller and Christopher Walken. Truly a great cast and a great premise could only result in a great comedy, right? Not by a long shot... by the end of the movie, I simply found myself asking, "Why was this movie made?" It was quite pointless, as the big ticket items of the plot were glazed over and replaced with long, pondering scenes which did not move the story along at all. Really disappointing. I think I must blame Barry Levinson for the failure that is "Envy" - seemed the whole way through that under a different director's vision, this flick could have been hilarious. I'm sure it seemed great to the stars on paper, but the end result was a complete lack of zazz!
Reviews
3 Reviews
Run Ronnie Run
(2002)
Just misses the mark...
18 December 2002
As a film within the general comedy genre, "Run Ronnie Run" definitely rates highly enough. Unfortunately, this is the brainchild of two of the funniest comedians on the planet, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. Given this, any true fan of these guys' work from Mr. Show or The Ben Stiller Show will be disappointed to find that it just doesn't push the envelope of wit, satire and brilliance that we have become accustomed to from Bob and David. Granted, I viewed the 1.5 hr version currently traded on KaZaa, so perhaps the studio's partly to blame for the film's lack of vision. But I am inclined to think that Bob and David mistakenly set out to turn their drunken white trash hick into a typical comedic hero, a la Adam Sandler, rather than concentrate on depicting the brutality and absurdity of American media. The reason that the Ronnie Dobbs skits on Mr. Show were so great was due to Ronnie's boorish and unlikable personality - he was an asshole! But in his full length feature film, he is portrayed as a rags-to-riches protagonist, a good guy at heart, meant to invoke sympathy and a connection with the audience. By neglecting the overall parody and mockery of reality TV and modern media trends and instead building character development, "Run Ronnie Run" fails in achieving the lashing satire and bitter criticisms of our society that runs so rampant within the Mr. Show sketches and David's new comedy album "Shut Up You F**king Baby!" But in the end, I still love them and appreciate the effort they made in attempting to bring their uniquely smart humor to the big screen (perhaps someday, it will get there).
Very Good, but not Jarmusch's best
2 April 2000
Ghost Dog is a very well-made film. For most directors, it would be their best work, but given Jarmusch's past endeavors, this one falls a bit short- the movie as a whole drags on a bit too long, many scenes are predictable, and he probably could have picked better passages from the Teachings of the Samurai to correlate to the story. Overall, though, it is definitely worth checking out!
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