The Only Schmucks At This Dinner Are The Filmmakers: A Dinner for Schmucks Review

Film Rating ⭐

Released by Paramount Picutres

Release Date July 30th, 2010

Starring: Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell,

Written by David Guion and Michael Handelman

Directed by Jay Roach

Rated PG-13 (sequences of crude and sexual content, some partial nudity and language) 

Holy crap. That is what I first thought when I turned off the tv after watching Dinner for Schmucks. This has to be one of the worst comedies I have seen in recent memory. Its not as bad as MacGruber or that supposed spoof of the Apatow movies, but it is pretty bad.

The movie stars Paul Rudd, who is usually very funny, as a financial analyst who wants to get a promotion. Before he can have his promotion he must attend a dinner called The Dinner for Winners, where each of the big moneymakers has to bring an idiot for the other big moneymakers to make fun of. The one voted the biggest idiot gets a trophy.

Rudd has to bring someone in order to get his promotion and literally runs into Steve Carrell, who works for the IRS and makes scenery pieces out of dead mice. Rudd decides to bring Carrell to dinner and wackiness ensues.

I don't know where to start with my hatred for this movie. The first mistake that the filmmakers make is making the Carrell character really dumb. He isn't Forrest Gump dumb, but he is pretty close. All of the funny sitcom style situations happen because of the stupid things that Carrell does.

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Take for example the fact that this guy is in his 40's, has been married, and works for the IRS, yet he doesn't know what a clitoris is. I mean, come on. This guy has no idea what a clit is and says that he thought he found it under the couch but it turned out to be some used gum. I don't know about you, but I bet I could walk up to any man on the street and ask him if he at least knows what a clit is and nine times out of ten they would know.

Of course the big attraction to this movie is the dinner itself and I can tell you now it is very disappointing. None of the so called "idiots" here are really that dumb. Maybe the guy thinks he possesses mind control is, but the rest of them are just weird. There is a ventriloquist, played the always unfunny Jeff Dunham, who has married his puppet. There is a blind french guy who thinks he is Blind Fury. There is a guy with a hawk and so on and so on.

Each big moneymaker asshole presents there "idiot" and hopes to win. I wasn't quite sure what they win, but their "idiot" gets a crappy trophy.

I know that this is one of those movies where the hero grows a heart and finds respect for someone he feels is beneath him, but none of these characters are likable. Everyone in this movie is one of two extremes: either they are assholes or they are "idiots". There is no in between. The movie offers no laughs whatsoever and I only chuckled a few times. I would have had a better time watching a reality show, which I hate as well.

Jay Roach, the director of this movie, turned down directing the third Fockers movie to do this movie. The Fockers movies are by no way great art, but they have made me laugh. This movie did not make laugh. It made me groan.