Posted: 12/21/2005

Fun with Dick and Jane

(2005)

by Hank Yuloff

My streak is over!!! This past week, I have seen two remakes and had almost decided to abandon my Remakes Suck Rule. I saw King Kong followed by The Producers and was on a I Love Remake roll. Then I ran right into Fun With Dick and Jane and I was reminded why I say (with the exception of Peter Jackson and Mel Brooks flicks) REMAKES SUCK.

If you laughed at the Warnings for this movie, be satisfied that you saw the best. But do NOT go to see it in the theater. Don’t even rent it. Wait until you have it on cable or broadcast TV so you can at least get a beer during the commercials.

Jim Carrey (Bruce Almighty, The Majestic) stars as Dick Harper, a mid-level marketing manager for one of those technology bubble companies in the 90’s. He is promoted to Vice President just in time for the bubble to burst while he is on the Financial Report on live TV. Of course, he has been set up as the fall guy while the president of the company (Alec Baldwin) to gets his own golden parachute while the employees get bupkis. You would think that Carrey would pull this off and be funny. He’s not.

Meanwhile, his wife Jane (Tea Leoni from Spanglish and The Family Man) quits her job as he loses his job so the two of them are now jobless. The timing is supposed to be funny. It’s not.

Most of the movie has them attempting to keep up appearances to their neighbors while their pool, furnishings and front lawn are repossessed. The repossessions are supposed to be funny. They’re not.

They even begin to pay their housekeeper with household items. Funny? Not.

After being the laughing stock of his industry, Dick is drawn into a life of crime, performing petty robberies while his wife goes along for the ride to make sure he does it right. The robberies are supposed to be funny. Nope.

We wander along this road for a while, and the Harpers drag another executive of the company into a plot to get back at the president and steal back the stolen money. Will they succeed and give us a happy ending? Of course they will. Why? Because any ending to this dreadful movie would be happy: You get to leave the theater and leave this boring, unfunny movie way behind.

And so, to review: Not funny. Boring. Remakes (with a few small exceptions) suck.

Hank Yuloff is our senior film critic in Los Angeles.

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