Review of Dinner for Schmucks (2010) by Harry W — 16 Jun 2013

Dinner for Schmucks has a cheap premise and is predictable and unoriginal at times, but Steve Carrell is so utterly hilarious that it proves thoroughly entertaining.

Dinner for Schmucks pays no honour to the French film it was based on, and the entirety of it is mostly an uneven comedy with a plot lacking in creativity and dynamics that lack originality.

Dinner for Schmucks lacks plot or script creativity since the jokes are essentially a rehash of every comedy movie in existence today since he dynamics refer to an odd couple and out of place dynamics which act repetitive until the climactic moment where things come to a halt and a new joke must begin. The formulaic ad predictable plot of Dinner for Schmucks leaves it simple minded which makes it easy to watch but therefore it has no comedic surprise which leaves no real reason it should be very memorable.

Paul Rudd also supplies a fairly basic lead without a clever character or any laughs stemming from him in the story, and really any actor could have played his part equally as well.

But it is memorable, solely due to Steve Carell.

Steve Carell's look is different to any other film in the story and with his blonde haircut comes an entirely new outlook, one where his character is confident and ambitious, and believes he is intelligent, but the audience knows otherwise even when he tricks them into thinking otherwise. His character is hilarious because of his charm, and his ability to throw a world-class buddy fit while he takes advantage of a skill for physical humour which is not too commonly seen in much of his work, but is used to great effect in Dinner for Schmucks. Steve Carell gives a fine comedic performance on it which is an iconic one as it is hilariously separable from all of his other work even while it maintains much of the same charm of the various comedic characters he has portrayed over time. He manages to make the single-joke film get milked for a substantial amount of time to great effect, and he makes hilarity ensue to ensure Dinner for Schmucks isn't a waste of time.

Zach Galifinakis was also hilarious within his brief time on screen and he surely steals the screen when he wants to which is a talent he has picked up on easily. His small role in Dinner for Schmucks was great.

Lucy Punch was also hilarious in an over-the-top portrayal of a crazy ex girlfriend with plenty of sexual charm and comedic excessiveness in two lines.

Essentially, the talents of these thee cast members is the main reasons to watch Dinner for Schmucks and what makes it work, and it overshadows the film's many inconsistencies because it provides an easy laugh much of the time and that's all you could hope for.