- Overview
-
Reviews
- Compare Prices
User ReviewRead All Reviews »
Pre-"Earl" Jason Lee Has A Guy Thing
Pros
Lee's talent and determination keep this farce afloat. He drives a Kia Rio.
Cons
Second act too long and uninspired. Familiar romantic comedy pitfalls.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
If you were to set a dollar value on frequency-of-coincidence, the viewer could well afford their very own Kia by the time the closing credits roll.
The contemporary romantic comedy occupies a genre rife with abuse. Countless rudderless scripts follow predictable patterns of tasteless humor mined from everyday life. And when you think about it - who wants to spend ten bucks to embrace a world you're paying good money and two hours of your time trying to escape?
An exceptional cast can often overcome such writer's cramp with the help of 1.) a good editor and 2.) direction with a pace swift enough to provide little time for critical retrospection. A Guy Thing benefits from all-of-the-above; though as a third-act wedding march, the rock-and-roll version of the Oscar-winning song Born Free is the "something old and borrowed" in lieu of the film's own award aspirations. If the Motion Picture Academy has a history of treating comedies the way millionaires treat their gardeners, their overall acceptance of movies with a much better pedigree than A Guy Thing is akin to treating the gardener as if he were the tax man arriving unannounced.
Jason Lee (not to be confused with actress Jennifer Jason Leigh) currently appears as the physical and intellectual unmade bed in the hit NBC series My Name is Earl. Shave-off a few years and his 1970s porn-star moustache and he cleans-up well as the handsome leading man whose pending nuptials are the subject of frequent sight-gags and verbal misadventure. The opening credits are the best part of act one; a bachelor party where groom Paul Morse (Lee) gets the traditional send-off to the wacky world of marriage. When the morning after finds Becky, one of the party's hired dancers, in his bed where his prospective bride should be, there's comedy a-plenty as misunderstandings mount and cover-ups combine to comfortably fit the genre formula; with little evidence of heavy-lifting or undue levels of ribald literary craftsmanship.
Rather than shun recurring bouts of coincidence, screenwriter Greg Glienna (Meet the Parents) embraces them with an inevitability that fits the pace of director Chris Koch. Accidental bedmate and Blonde bombshell Becky (Julia Stiles) pops-up throughout the film in totally unbelievable ways more suited to psychic fantasy than situation comedy. Likewise, Paul's attempt to dispose of incriminating photos taken by Becky's cop-psycho boyfriend Ray (Lochlyn Monro) finds them in the hands of the minister next door and his teenage son on two separate occasions. Paul's bride-to-be Karen (Selma Blair) sustains a similar treatment while tracking-down the owner of an unidentified pair of ladies underwear she finds hidden in the toilet tank in Paul's bathroom.
The second act drags-on with rehearsal dinner hi-jinks, relatively-humorous drunken relative humor and Paul's chronic disappearance to the bathroom for reasons of aforementioned coincidental overindulgence. The lonely highlight of this no-exit stretch of road is the unexpected comedic value provided by an unknown caterer/pharmacist hired by the bride's mother on Paul's misguided recommendation.
Of negative note is the well-tanned but lackluster presence of James Brolin as the groom's boss and future father-in-law, whose leaden delivery seems out-of-synch with the film's brisk pace - like a wood chipper repeatedly asked to chow-down an entire tree rather than snacking on a few fallen limbs. However, his small role with the occasional line or two serves more as an oddity than a readily-perceptible storyline liability.
For me, Lee is the key - he's a goofball with the proper timing and talent to put a funny spin-by-inflection on an otherwise ordinary line of dialogue. With his lanky physique and penchant for slapstick, he also excels at the physical comedy necessary to prop-up scenes where he's abandoned by the screenwriter. Whether by economic restraint or comedic design, the producers have placed him in a Kia Rio throughout the film. All 6 feet 2 inches of him. When not jumping curbs or becoming airborne, his disposable Korean car dents more readily and frequently than aluminum siding in a Texas hailstorm; thereby enhancing his "loser" status beyond the mere piling-on of predicament.
Unlike similar comedies I've recently endured such as Kiss the Bride and No Small Affair, A Guy Thing breezily presents the talents of Jason Lee along with the beauty of Julia Stiles and Selma Blair. The thumb-your-nose ending may be fashioned out of pure corn, but Lee is able to husk it, pop it and serve-it-up with a credence few actors in his situation can. By no means an epic achievement, at least I didn't feel scorned and swindled upon its conclusion - rather high regard, considering what the genre as a whole has had to offer of late.
A Guy Thing (2003)
Screenplay: Greg Glienna
Director: Chris Koch
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
DVD: M-G-M Home Entertainment (2003)
An exceptional cast can often overcome such writer's cramp with the help of 1.) a good editor and 2.) direction with a pace swift enough to provide little time for critical retrospection. A Guy Thing benefits from all-of-the-above; though as a third-act wedding march, the rock-and-roll version of the Oscar-winning song Born Free is the "something old and borrowed" in lieu of the film's own award aspirations. If the Motion Picture Academy has a history of treating comedies the way millionaires treat their gardeners, their overall acceptance of movies with a much better pedigree than A Guy Thing is akin to treating the gardener as if he were the tax man arriving unannounced.
Jason Lee (not to be confused with actress Jennifer Jason Leigh) currently appears as the physical and intellectual unmade bed in the hit NBC series My Name is Earl. Shave-off a few years and his 1970s porn-star moustache and he cleans-up well as the handsome leading man whose pending nuptials are the subject of frequent sight-gags and verbal misadventure. The opening credits are the best part of act one; a bachelor party where groom Paul Morse (Lee) gets the traditional send-off to the wacky world of marriage. When the morning after finds Becky, one of the party's hired dancers, in his bed where his prospective bride should be, there's comedy a-plenty as misunderstandings mount and cover-ups combine to comfortably fit the genre formula; with little evidence of heavy-lifting or undue levels of ribald literary craftsmanship.
Rather than shun recurring bouts of coincidence, screenwriter Greg Glienna (Meet the Parents) embraces them with an inevitability that fits the pace of director Chris Koch. Accidental bedmate and Blonde bombshell Becky (Julia Stiles) pops-up throughout the film in totally unbelievable ways more suited to psychic fantasy than situation comedy. Likewise, Paul's attempt to dispose of incriminating photos taken by Becky's cop-psycho boyfriend Ray (Lochlyn Monro) finds them in the hands of the minister next door and his teenage son on two separate occasions. Paul's bride-to-be Karen (Selma Blair) sustains a similar treatment while tracking-down the owner of an unidentified pair of ladies underwear she finds hidden in the toilet tank in Paul's bathroom.
The second act drags-on with rehearsal dinner hi-jinks, relatively-humorous drunken relative humor and Paul's chronic disappearance to the bathroom for reasons of aforementioned coincidental overindulgence. The lonely highlight of this no-exit stretch of road is the unexpected comedic value provided by an unknown caterer/pharmacist hired by the bride's mother on Paul's misguided recommendation.
Of negative note is the well-tanned but lackluster presence of James Brolin as the groom's boss and future father-in-law, whose leaden delivery seems out-of-synch with the film's brisk pace - like a wood chipper repeatedly asked to chow-down an entire tree rather than snacking on a few fallen limbs. However, his small role with the occasional line or two serves more as an oddity than a readily-perceptible storyline liability.
For me, Lee is the key - he's a goofball with the proper timing and talent to put a funny spin-by-inflection on an otherwise ordinary line of dialogue. With his lanky physique and penchant for slapstick, he also excels at the physical comedy necessary to prop-up scenes where he's abandoned by the screenwriter. Whether by economic restraint or comedic design, the producers have placed him in a Kia Rio throughout the film. All 6 feet 2 inches of him. When not jumping curbs or becoming airborne, his disposable Korean car dents more readily and frequently than aluminum siding in a Texas hailstorm; thereby enhancing his "loser" status beyond the mere piling-on of predicament.
Unlike similar comedies I've recently endured such as Kiss the Bride and No Small Affair, A Guy Thing breezily presents the talents of Jason Lee along with the beauty of Julia Stiles and Selma Blair. The thumb-your-nose ending may be fashioned out of pure corn, but Lee is able to husk it, pop it and serve-it-up with a credence few actors in his situation can. By no means an epic achievement, at least I didn't feel scorned and swindled upon its conclusion - rather high regard, considering what the genre as a whole has had to offer of late.
A Guy Thing (2003)
Screenplay: Greg Glienna
Director: Chris Koch
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
DVD: M-G-M Home Entertainment (2003)
