Poor Jon Heder. It must be hard to find decent roles now that he's known as Napoleon Dynamite to anyone who knows his name. But seriously Heder, why did you accept this script? I'm sorry to say it Heder, but "Gosh! You're such an IDIOT!"
Alright, forget the fact that the plot is a direct rip-off of the much funnier Anger Management. Forget the fact that Billy Bob Thornton unsuccessfully reprises his Bad Santa character minus the excessive drinking and f****ng. Forget the fact that the film makes traumatic rape memories a running gag. The fact of the matter is that the film just isn't funny. Seriously, how did it fail? How do you cast Billy Bob Thornton as a complete asshole and Jon Heder as a hapless loser - the parts that these two were born to play - and fail to make it hilarious? How does Thornton + Heder + Luis Guzman + David Cross + Michael Clarke Duncan + Ben Stiller add up to a film which is just so... NOT FUNNY? It simply doesn't make sense to my tired brain.
I guess it could be because the script is so incoherent not even Kubrick could've made a decent movie out of it. It has very few funny jokes and it barely knows what it wants to be. Comedy or drama? Romance or thriller? A heartwarming, intelligent comedy masterpiece or a lazy cash-in on Thornton's popularity? Well, I think you know the answer to that last one.
The film's pacing is way off; as the film rushes to its conclusion (a plot twist even the kid from Bad Santa could've seen coming a mile away) it feels like we've only watched half a movie. The lack of any real laughs, an engaging plot, the rehashed characters, it all makes for an utterly unsatisfactory comedy which isn't worthy of Billy Bob Thornton.
Much like this review, School for Scoundrels is lame and a waste of time. Don't see it.
Alright, forget the fact that the plot is a direct rip-off of the much funnier Anger Management. Forget the fact that Billy Bob Thornton unsuccessfully reprises his Bad Santa character minus the excessive drinking and f****ng. Forget the fact that the film makes traumatic rape memories a running gag. The fact of the matter is that the film just isn't funny. Seriously, how did it fail? How do you cast Billy Bob Thornton as a complete asshole and Jon Heder as a hapless loser - the parts that these two were born to play - and fail to make it hilarious? How does Thornton + Heder + Luis Guzman + David Cross + Michael Clarke Duncan + Ben Stiller add up to a film which is just so... NOT FUNNY? It simply doesn't make sense to my tired brain.
I guess it could be because the script is so incoherent not even Kubrick could've made a decent movie out of it. It has very few funny jokes and it barely knows what it wants to be. Comedy or drama? Romance or thriller? A heartwarming, intelligent comedy masterpiece or a lazy cash-in on Thornton's popularity? Well, I think you know the answer to that last one.
The film's pacing is way off; as the film rushes to its conclusion (a plot twist even the kid from Bad Santa could've seen coming a mile away) it feels like we've only watched half a movie. The lack of any real laughs, an engaging plot, the rehashed characters, it all makes for an utterly unsatisfactory comedy which isn't worthy of Billy Bob Thornton.
Much like this review, School for Scoundrels is lame and a waste of time. Don't see it.