- Story -

Tim is an ambitious executive who jumps at the chance of getting a promotion when his boss allows him the opportunity to attend a dinner. However, this is no ordinary dinner as everyone who attends must bring with them someone who has a remarkable skill, as I think its referred to at one point, though its made clear that by remarkable skill, they mean someone who's a right idiot really, with the person who brought the most remarkable person (ie the biggest idiot) to dinner being awarded the promotion on offer. Tim accidentally bumps into a quirky guy by the name of Barry, an IRS officer who as a past time makes stuffed mice into different historical figures(!) and realises that he would be a perfect candidate for this dinner, so he offers for him to join him at dinner. Meanwhile, Tims long term girlfriend Julie, who Tim has proposed to unsuccessfully multiple times before, hears about this dinner and is disgusted at the idea of having to bring someone for everyone to mock and walks out on him in disgust and Tim and Barry end up spending alot of time together during the lead up to the dinner - will Tim be able to get his promotion and get back with Julie and what about Barry? will he find out why he's been invited to the dinner? you'll have to watch the movie to find out.


- Thoughts/Opinions -

This is another pretty low brow movie, I think its safe to say. It has an interesting lineup in terms of the cast, featuring Steve Carrell, Zach Galifianakis and even David Walliams as the Swiss multi millionaire client that Tims banking organisation is desperate to do business with. The characters are all quite zany, particularly Barry and his somewhat bully of a friend Therman, who can apparently control your brain by a form of hypnotism. Barry and Tim are, obviously, the main characters , Tim is a bit of a wishy-washy type character I thought, I wouldn't say that he's someone you could feel too sorry for at the start of the movie, although given the absurdity of what happens and some of the characters, not just Barry but also Julie's 'friend'/work colleague Kieran (who's a bit of an arty Russell Brand, sex fiend type uh chap...!), you can laugh at the situations he ends up in and I think that come the end of the movie, you are perhaps happier for him as a character - of course the ending is a bit too Hollywood and the term 'oh-so-obvious' also applies - the scenes set during said dinner really do become comically farcical, I'm not going to go into details as obviously that would involve some spoilers but yes its a bit farcical, infact as a viewer by the time the dinner scene(s) arrive, it dawns on you (or it did me anyway) that Barry is perhaps one of the more regular, less idiotic, guys there. As much as Barry is a quirky guy with a particularly peculiar hobby, it becomes clear that he appreciates being around Tim and thinks of him as a friend, as he tries to help him repair his relationship with Julie but, as often happens in such movies, he unfortunately makes things worse on accident, though he vows to make things up to him, much to Tims despair/reluctance.

This is a fairly basic zany comedy which isn't particularly original as far as some of the gags are concerned, although I did laugh a few times during the movie, it isn't unentertaining if you want an easy, comical watch. I think Carrell and Galifianakis really make the movie, Carrell easily portraying Barry as a bit of an anorak (is it the case that, as portrayed in some movies, people who work for the IRS are bores with not much of a life, socially speaking? or is it just that some people tend to presume that? lol) but thats ok because his heart is in the right place and really its not Barry who's the villain of this 'show', he's just a bit of a dim witted guy, somewhat remiscent of Dupree from You,Me and Dupree, only he's not got the same eye candy factor lol the villain of the show, or villains would be the over the top arty polygamist Kieran (scenes with him are amongst the funniest) and Mueller, the multi millionaire that Tims company is chasing after, who is played by Walliams in his usually 'slightly' camp manner.

I find it a bit hard to know how to rate this movie, its really a matter of personal taste how you feel about it, although I will mark it down a bit due to the ending, in as much as its really quite cheesy with a rather obvious moral which in a way it felt like we were being preached in a sense, which I didn't particularly appreciate. I think that some people will find this quite a good laugh and enjoy the quirkiness of it, find it funny in some parts and generally quite entertaining, while others will shake their heads at the ending and feel cheated, wondering why they were presumably supposed to feel sorry for a character who perhaps isn't entirely likeable (as a bit of a greedy guy wanting his job promotion etc.). Personally, I found that the characters made it work pretty well, I thought it was entertaining and laughed at a few of the scenes, so it worked for me so to speak but I wouldn't say its a movie everyone will necessarily enjoy. I should note that the movie contains some crude, sexual content and some strong language, so the 15 rating is appropriate and as such, I wouldn't recommend young teens or kids watch it, it might be a bit embarrassing, although there's no really graphic scenes, it might be a bit uncomfortable to watch with your parents perhaps!.


- Would I Recommend It? -

This is a difficult one....it all depends on your taste. There are quite a few similar movies in terms of zany comedies with daft characters and so on, some of which are better than others. The main cast of this movie have all appeared in other comedies, is this one of the better ones? ehhh I'd say its really quite run of the mill, so I suppose I don't have a strong enough liking of it to outrightly recommend it. I'd say that I'm undecided, as it depends on what your taste in comedy movies is, whether your a big fan of the main cast and so on - if so then I'd say that its worth renting or catching it on TV but I don't think I'd bother buying it, as im not sure I'd want to watch it again.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you found it useful. Thanks for any and all rates and comments, I really appreciate them! this review was originally posted on Ciao UK under the same username.