Director: Jay Roach
Year Released: 2010
Rating: 0.0
Oh, wonderful: someone decided to make Brick from Anchorman the main character in a movie (instead of delivering an absurd one-liner and disappearing for a long stretch of time). In order to get a promotion at work, a straight-laced businessman (Paul Rudd) has to attend a 'special dinner' his boss arranged in which the (WASPy) guys each bring a dweeb with them for everyone else to laugh at - his special guest is a taxidermist (Steve Carell) who specializes in Joseph Cornell-esque boxes containing dead mice dressed up in outfits. Pathetically unfunny and criminally gawky: not only is Rudd playing the same character he's always played, but so is Carell, and Carell's man-child simply isn't pitiable, he's obnoxious. The script never takes into account human psychology, and the need to keep it a "family-friendly" PG-13 immediately eliminates much of the potentially extreme humor. Typically amusing Zach Galifianakis and Jemaine Clement aren't given much to work with, either - the former stares and the latter growls. I roll my eyes.
