Starring Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni, Alec Baldwin, Richard Burgi, Angie Harmon, John Michael Higgins, Carlos Jacott, Richard Jenkins
Written By:
Directed By: Dean Parisot
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Buy on Amazon.com link

Fun with Dick And Jane is a remake, and from what I gathered from movie critics, the original is way better. Since I never saw the original, I can’t really base it on anything except the film by itself. The movie has a lot of funny scenes but eventually runs out of steam towards the end of the flick. Jim Carrey still gives a fun performance, along with Tea Leoni.

Fun with Dick and Jane is about Dick & Jane Harper going through an emotional roller coaster with their careers. Dick is promoted in an executive position at some corporation. Jane quits her job because Dick told her to and because his job was going to pay for everything. Well if you didn’t see what comes next, then you’re dumb. Dick’s company is behind some corrupt scandals (think Enron), and the company folds while the president of the company walks away unscathed by everything. Meanwhile, Dick becomes a scapegoat for the company and has a very hard time finding a new job. He tells Jane everything is going to be okay and he’ll find another job soon. Well the job market isn’t what Dick expects it to be and it’s quite crazy & very competitive. When all else fails, Dick & Jane start robbing smaller places and work their way up to bigger places like banks. It’s almost like a turn off for them and gives them a rush. At first they aren’t very good at armed robbery, actually they are pretty bad at it. But they get better and try to pull off a huge scam with a former employee of Dick’s, if you don’t know who they target…well then you never been to a movie before.

I liked Fun with Dick And Jane but it just left me unsatisfied. It started out funny, and then at the end it just lost focus when they were plotting to go after Alec Baldwin’s character. The movie doesn’t really get funny for me until the company starts to go into panic mode and everything turns to chaos. The highlights of the movie were when Dick was trying to find a job and then when he starts robbing places. It’s hysterical because Dick & Jane aren’t pros at it and they take awhile to get into their roles. But I like when they get creative with it and start dressing up into costumes. I think the reason why I might have been disappointed with the movie was because I thought it was going to be a straight up comedy. It sort of felt like there was some social commentary in there and made the movie somewhat serious in places. Now that I think about it, it’s kind of scary how things turned out for them concerning their jobs. On top of the world with a nice house, car and all those fancy things. Then you lose your job and end up trying to find work with a bunch of illegal immigrants. I’ve been in the unemployed circuit, and pardon my French, but it fucking sucks! So when I was watching Dick trying to go for interviews, it took me back when I was trying to find a job. But of course this is just a movie and some things are supposed to be laughed at, even though it’s a reality for a lot of people. I found it amusing when Dick was racing with all the job interviewees; it’s probably one of the funniest scenes in the movie. Other funny scenes I like was when Dick & Jane do various minimum wage jobs, like Dick working at a home improvement place and Jane working as an aerobics instructor.

I really like Jim Carrey movies and glad to see he went back to do a comedy film. It seems like he was doing some serious/drama films lately and glad to see him go back to his roots. There are two type of people in this world, the ones who like Jim Carrey movies, and the ones who can’t stand him. I love his movies and liked him all the way back with Once Bitten. Yes, THAT movie. I think Jim Carrey is capable of more and he could have been a lot funnier in this movie. But then again, maybe it was the content of the movie that made Carrey limited with what he usually does. Or maybe he’s just trying to tone it down a bit. I don’t know, just felt like something was missing from this movie. I felt the other performances were all right. Alec Baldwin played a slime ball really well, and Tea Leoni was actually pretty good in this movie. Sometimes I can’t stand her in some roles but I didn’t mind her in this movie.

The extras include deleted scenes, gag reel, publicity outtakes, and an audio commentary with the filmmakers. The first thing I watched was the gag reel and those are always funny, especially when they involve Jim Carrey. The gags are almost as funny as the movie and I loved when Carrey just kept improvising with those black ninja costumes with the robotic voice. He had Jeff Garlin on his stomach, laughing into the couch. One scenes shows Jim climbing to the vents of a room, then hanging onto the ceiling and falling right on his face. He got right up and continued the scene and the crew were in shock of what they just saw. The outtakes were all right, the last one was the most notable one. Dick & Jane are robbing the toy store and the old security guard starts opening a can of whoop ass on Dick. Dick eventually gets a paint ball gun and starts to shoot the guy like he’s a zombie. It’s funny because you can see safety goggles on the old man (the old guy Brooks in Shawshank Redemption) so obviously the scene wasn’t totally finished. If you thought the gag reel was funny, wait ’til you see the publicity highlights with Jim Carrey & Tea Leoni. I thought it was great how Carrey said he only had one more hour to go so he doesn’t have to pretend he’s full of shit. But the best part was when Jim and Tea start talking about working with each other, and then jump on each other kissing & humping. At least they can make a bunch of boring, endless PR days exciting with stuff like that.

Overall, Fun with Dick And Jane is a funny movie with some okay performances. It could have been a lot funnier & a better storyline but it’s a decent comedy to watch on a Sunday afternoon.

Features:
Filmmakers Audio Commentary
6 Deleted Scenes
Blooper Reel
Press Junket Highlights
Previews

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1

Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Standard 1.33:1 Color

Subtitles:
English, French

Favorite Scenes: Racing to the job interview, illegal alien scene, all the robbing scenes, Dick going crazy and ripping up his neighbor’s lawn
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 90 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: