Stuff by Steve

Synopsis: A remake of a 1977 comedy by the same name, Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) loses his VP job as a major corporation. Frustrated by his misfortune, he and his wife (Téa Leoni) turn to crime to “keep up with the Joneses.” The catch: they are not criminals, just misguided suburbanites.

Somewhat reminiscent of “Trading Places” (Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy), the gist of “Fun with Dick and Jane” was a fairly traditional reversal-of-fortune comedy. You know the kind; mostly cheap laughs gave levity to the main character’s run of bad luck, but after learning that our main man’s misfortune was actually the result of some dirty dealing, a plan was hatched to make everything right with the world by sticking it to the powers-that-be who were responsible for said pain and suffering. Inspired by the recent corporate scandals of Enron, ImClone, et al, the story came across as somewhat of a parody of current events, sometimes bordering on being quite preachy. Ultimately, this proved to be a bit distracting, especially when you wonder, who is this film preaching too; the three people in the audience who are involved in cooking their own companies’ books? And then, seemingly in contradiction, you begin to contemplate how a life of crime can be justified, regardless of the circumstances, and you start searching the screen for some life lesson to reveal itself from the perspective of our protagonist. It doesn’t happen. No matter, though; just shake your head a bit and wait for the next slapstick scene. The movie’s overall tone was light (hello, Jim Carrey), and I laughed out loud a few times more than I was expecting to. Ultimately, this movie was not as deftly pulled off as many classic comedies that preceded it, but you could sure do worse on a Saturday night. In apparently stark disparity with the entire professional and amateur reviewer community, I liked it.