Fun With Dick and Jane

Review by: Doc

This movie really is fun...
This holiday release movie is a great example of truth-in-advertising. This movie really is fun. A remake of a 1977 film which starred George Segal and Jane Fonda, it stars Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni as a prospering suburban couple, who, faced with a disastrous series of financial setbacks, decide that a life of crime may be the answer.


The setting is changed to today’s corporate scandals. The credits even mention Tyco, HealthSouth, and Enron. Carrey is suddenly promoted to VP of Communications of Globodyne, and placed in front of an MSNBC-type camera just as the news of the corporation’s collapse breaks and the stock tanks as he talks.


This is obviously a vehicle for Carrey’s rubber-faced comedy and he comes through admirably. I especially enjoyed the elevator scene as he ascends to the top floor anticipating his promotion. Who hasn’t tried a little song-and-dance routine while alone in the elevator and his is a scream.


Everyone is skewered in this film. From crooked CEO’s (well-played by Alec Baldwin) to drug-trial companies to the Border Patrol, the tortured descent of Carrey and Leoni into financial desperation is told in hilarious and excruciating detail.


On the full disclosure note let me add that I don’t go to a movie to dwell on the deeper meanings of life. I am looking for entertainment, especially in a comedy, and I have enjoyed immensely most of Carrey’s films. As enjoyable as I found this movie, Carrey is in danger of becoming another Eddie Murphy with light family comedy in a predictable and trite mold made entertaining or tolerable only by his own peculiar talent.


In addition, there are gaps in the plot large enough to drive a getaway car through. As I sat through the final few scenes in a bank, I kept asking myself, what bank would allow behavior like this in a lobby? Also, the conclusion comes out of left-field with little or no explanation as to how it is accomplished.


If your own post-holiday finances dictate you wait for the DVD it won’t be a tragic loss, but this is a perfect movie for a cold and snowy Saturday afternoon when you can use a few laughs and some popcorn.


I give it three of five scalpels and a chuckling phalanx up.



Doc Hollywood

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