Dinner For Schmucks Provides A Few Yucks

Dinner For Schmucks, the new Jay Roach comedy is funny, but it doesn’t live up to the trailers... meaning that, do not expect the entire movie to be as funny as the previews that we saw. We have seen Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd together before in the modern classic, “Anchorman,” but in “Dinner For Schmucks” both men are the main characters in the movie. Dinner For Schmucks plot is centered on the corporate culture - it is Darwinian, where in a fleeting moment, company colleagues are bemoaning the sacking of one their own and the next moment they are fighting for the fired colleague’s vacant office.

Paul Rudd is one of the employees who is dreaming to move up to where the big boys play, but to do so, he must impress the boss… played with serpent like aplomb by Bruce Greenwood. There big boys’ idea of fun is to invite ordinary people they deem idiots for dinner and award the winner the dubious prize. Paul Rudd’s character is uneasy to do this, but he covets the perks of the big boys; it doesn’t help matters that Mr. Rudd thinks that his girlfriend wants him to climb the corporate ladder to attain the perks afforded those who do. Mr. Rudd then inadvertently comes across the Steve Carrell’s character, who fits the idiot’s criteria and promptly invites him to the dinner.

From the get go, Mr. Rudd’s character is queasy about subjecting the Steve Carrell’s character to be the butt of jokes for the slimy corporate bigwigs. But the strong Steve Carrell character is so deep into his laughable stupidity that it seems that it doesn’t matter if there are those who are laughing at him. There are indeed laugh-out loud moments in “Schmucks,” but the script doesn’t give Mr. Carrell and Mr. Rudd much to work with. Mr. Rudd is the perfect straight guy, but Carrell invokes a little of Steve Martin’s, “The Jerk” character; Leslie Nielsen in “Police Squad” and Don Adams in, “Get Smart.” The scenes at the dinner table are hilarious, especially the bit about mind control versus brain control. Another great aspect of “Schmucks” is how Carell makes the normally icky rodent lovable… where they are place in historical and cultural settings emulating epochal moments in our history.

The worst part of the movie, “Dinner For Schmucks,” is the constant cowardice of the Hollywood writers, who have no qualms in offending Christians, but have reverence for other religions – if they were equal opportunity offenders like the writers of South Park and The Simpsons, then it wouldn’t be so offensively conspicuous. I spent thirteen dollars to see “Schmucks,” but if you cannot afford to see it, wait for it on DVD or pay per view.