I was drawn to Unfinished Business from the first trailer, and the negative reviews didn't do much for my confidence. However, I gave it a go and whilst its not great, its a lot better than the critics are making it out to be.
I watched this on a plane, so it was heavily censored so I missed a lot of jokes. I think this cancels out the fact that I didn't have to see certain scenes that would probably have made me hate the film, so as far as I'm concerned its a tie.
Vince Vaughn hasn't had a good 10 years, but he looks more alive here than he has in other rubbish. Dave Franco and Tom Wilkinson are quite funny as his dual sidekicks, even if they got a bit inconsistent sometimes or stale at others. Franco's bringing a box of personal belongings to a job interview "to seem confident" evoked genuine amusement in me. Sienna Miller plays a smug villain surprisingly well - the fact that I hated her is probably a good indicator that she's doing a good job. James Marsden also does a great job in key scenes.
I imagine the largest complaint with this film is the lack of laughs, which is true and worth knocking off a few stars in and of itself. But I was pleasantly surprised with the family angle that Ken Scott took here, and whilst it was underdeveloped, it showed that there were some nice intentions here. The line that Vaughn's daughter writes at the end probably ended up being the nicest piece of writing in the entire film.
So to conclude, Unfinished Business suffers on laughs and a conventional story, but there's enough good moments here to stop it being a total waste of time.
I watched this on a plane, so it was heavily censored so I missed a lot of jokes. I think this cancels out the fact that I didn't have to see certain scenes that would probably have made me hate the film, so as far as I'm concerned its a tie.
Vince Vaughn hasn't had a good 10 years, but he looks more alive here than he has in other rubbish. Dave Franco and Tom Wilkinson are quite funny as his dual sidekicks, even if they got a bit inconsistent sometimes or stale at others. Franco's bringing a box of personal belongings to a job interview "to seem confident" evoked genuine amusement in me. Sienna Miller plays a smug villain surprisingly well - the fact that I hated her is probably a good indicator that she's doing a good job. James Marsden also does a great job in key scenes.
I imagine the largest complaint with this film is the lack of laughs, which is true and worth knocking off a few stars in and of itself. But I was pleasantly surprised with the family angle that Ken Scott took here, and whilst it was underdeveloped, it showed that there were some nice intentions here. The line that Vaughn's daughter writes at the end probably ended up being the nicest piece of writing in the entire film.
So to conclude, Unfinished Business suffers on laughs and a conventional story, but there's enough good moments here to stop it being a total waste of time.