The Heartbreak Kid
Did we time warp back into the mid 90s?
Ben Stiller stars as Eddie Cantrow, a guy that owns a sporting good store. He falls in love with a woman in a matter of weeks and decides to marry her. They travel to Mexico for their honeymoon. But, Eddie begins to realize that his new wife is more of a train wreck than even Mrs. Britney Spears. Later, he falls in love with another woman.
The Farrelly brothers directed this misguided ‘comedy’ and it shows. There are tons of nudity and dirty joke, but not much else. I will give them credit for letting the film be raunchy without dropping it to a weak PG-13. You will see more than you ever wanted of Malin Akerman’s naked body. (There’s even a shot of her peeing on someone with a close up shot of her va-jay-jay. I kid you not. I didn’t laugh or feel disgusted. I felt indifferent.)
But, the movie is flawed, greatly flawed. The Farrelly brothers and Stiller made There's Something About Mary together, which is a better film than this movie. In that movie, we cared about Stiller’s character, but here his character is a bit too shallow. You’ll have a hard time caring for his plight. His wife is a bit annoying, but he should have noticed it during his early dates with her. You can only hide crazy for so long.
There are a few scenes that are funny, but the main story just doesn’t have the spark that ‘About Mary’ has.
Many scenes go on too long, while other scenes are just pointless. The script needed another rewrite before going to the set. Story is flap. I’m surprised no one caught that. (BTW, the woman having sex with a donkey was played out after 40-year-old virgin and Clerks II.)
For a small role, Carlos Mencia is all right in the movie. When he’s not stealing jokes, he can be a funny guy. Stiller is playing the same character that he plays in every movie, but that’s not a bad thing. However, he’s far more interesting in “A night in the Museum”.
Overall, I can’t hate the movie, but I’m not in love with it either. It kept my attention, but the story needed some reworking. This movie would have been a huge hit back in the 90s, but now there are far better raunchy comedies out there.
Grade: C
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2 comments:
I see Ben Stiller getting into a rut these days,always a comedy, always nudity(sometimes pointlessly), and always a really overused storyline. He should have stopped with TSAM, but he went on and on with Starsky and Hutch the same way, and in a few others.
he seems to have found himself in a rut. While his movies have always been huge hits, this one simply didnt catch on like the others.
Strangely enough, I'm not tired of him like Will Farrel.
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