Fun with Dick & Jane

January 11, 2006

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 90 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

January is a great time of year to go see a movie. I say that because this is when you *know* that every new release in the theaters is gonna suck at least a little bit so you can walk into the theater with the lowest of expectations and know that you won’t be disappointed. And sometimes you may even be pleasantly surprised.

Such was the case with Fun with Dick & Jane. I was all set for this movie to give me one or two laughs and then bore me to death. Instead, however, I got several decent laughs from this Jim “Going through the motions” Carrey vehicle. This is still far from being a great movie, though.

Fun with Dick & Jane is a remake of a 1977 flick by the same name starring George Segal and Jane “I’m a traitor” Fonda. And, to be honest, the original didn’t need to be remade. It was an ‘ok’ comedy back then and this new one is similary just ‘ok’. The story is pretty simple: Dick & Jane Harper are living the good life and are upwardly mobile. Dick has just gotten a great new promotion which has allowed Jane to quit her job and stay home with their kid. But when Dick’s company pulls an Enron, Dick is out of a job along with 4,000 other high-paid white collar workers.

They struggle along for a bit until all the money and the job leads run out. Faced with destitution and eviction from their home, they turn to crime to pay their bills. This is where most of the comedy comes in and (thankfully) the movie picks the pace up a bit. But then, toward the end, they take a detour and attempt to gain revenge upon the person responsible for their misery and the movie again bogs down.

It’s a bad sign when, in a 90 minute movie, you find yourself checking your watch more than once. But don’t be too dismayed. The funny parts are funny enough to help offset some of the slow areas and you probably won’t feel like you got ripped off if you see this in the theater. But you likely won’t want to see it twice.

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 3 Stars, Alec Baldwin, Comedy, Jim Carrey, PG-13, Tea Leoni, Theatrical