MOVIE NIGHT TRAFFIC LIGHT

$100M

Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest, Northern Exposure, Monk)

Jim Carrey (The Truman Show, Bruce Almighty), Brian Grazer (Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, 8 Mile)

Jude Appato (40 Year Old Virgin), Nicholas Stoller (TV: Undeclared), Peter Tolan (Analyze This, Analyze That)

Jim Carrey – Dick Harper (The Truman Show, Bruce Almighty)

Tea Leoni – Jane Harper (Deep Impact, Spanglish)

One would think that there’s not anything funny about corporate greed and dishonesty leading to the financial ruin of American families.  As it turns out . . . there just might be.

Fun With Dick and Jane is a remake of the original movie from 1977.  Fortunately, at least for Hollywood, there have been so many great examples of crooked behavior in corporate America since the original which gave the makers of this version plenty of humorous material to work with.  This movie depicts the now classic example of the “Man” screwing his employees and share holders while getting rich and causing the company to fail.  Dick (Jim Carrey) is suddenly promoted to a VP in his company only to take the fall for the corruption of the CEO and loose his job.  Thinking that Dick’s promotion would provide all the money their family would need, Jane (Tea Leoni) quits her job just as Dick’s company goes out of business.  Now with 6000 people beating the streets to find jobs, Dick and Jane become desperate to make money.  They subject themselves to medical experimentation, resort to paying bills with appliances and even manage to get deported to Mexico.  In the end, they resort to becoming world-class thieves to provide an income and eventually devise a plan to stick it to the “Man”.

It’s nice to see a film take a poke at the likes of Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco, as well as the executives that created these corporate disasters.  While the premise is interesting and the story reasonably well constructed, the best humor in the beginning of the movie may be that the main character is named “Dick”.  It takes a while for this movie to get going, but Jim Carrey eventually delivers his usual perfection.  Tia Leoni’s performance is definitely an improvement over her agonizing roll in Spanglish.  This film makes fun of nearly everything politically incorrect and manages to get away with it.  For those in corporate America, at least those not on the take, you will find portions of this movie entertaining. 

On the Movie Night Traffic Light on a scale of GREEN meaning “Go – it’s a must see”, YELLOW meaning “Caution – it’s okay” and RED meaning “No - stop don’t do it."

We rate Fun With Dick and Jane YELLOW.  Caution – this one drags in the beginning but grows to be funny.