…and then I saw Dinner for Schmucks! Which was actually a lot funnier than I thought it was going to be – I thought it looked fun from the previews, but good old Entertainment Weekly didn’t exactly rave about it, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But it was really funny!
Apparently it’s a remake of a French film called Le Diner de Cons (which the director of the remake apparently called very nearly perfect) and I think it would be really interesting to compare the two – I wonder how much of the humor they had to change to suit an American audience or if comedy translates easily (though the French love Jerry Lewis, right? So….). I think I read that they tried to make the two main characters more likable than they were in the original and by casting Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell, they’ve really done a lot right there to help with that. With the trend of the R-rated comedies lately, I was surprised that this one didn’t rely on gross-out humor (like I Love You, Man tended to) and it was actually ended quite sweetly! I mean that as a compliment, if you weren’t sure.
I only wish there’d been more of Kristen Schaal (Mel from Flight of the Conchords) who played Paul Rudd’s assistant – oh, and speaking of Flight of the Conchords, Jemaine Clement is here! And hilarious as a very self-involved artist. Hilarious!
Summer blockbuster tally: 5,010-1-0
p.s. – Also hilarious was the guy sitting in our row who laughed uproariously at the tiniest thing! And I’m not talking chuckles, I mean, full-on guffawing belly laughs – I think he may have slapped his knees at some point.
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