rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2006
Directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo; produced by Mary Parent, Scott Stuber, Owen Wilson; written by Michael LeSieur
Starring Owen Wilson, Matt Dillon, Kate Hudson, Michael Douglas, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
This is probably one of the first times I did not enjoy Owen Wilson. For the
first time I really had the feeling Wilson was caught in a script, not being
able to do the thing he does best: improvise. There are scenes where he can
do that, and probably does, and there is some real joy there, but other than
that we are left with close to nothing. But wait, halfway the movie it is
realizing the thing I mentioned above, turns the character Wilson is playing
into a different kind of man, changes the focus on another character and
finds a little more funny moments.
Let me explain. Carl (Matt Dillon) marries Molly (Kate Hudson). His best man
is Dupree (Wilson), a bachelor soon to be without a job, a house and a car.
He asks Carl if he can stay at their place for a while and messes things up
big time. In the meanwhile Carl, who is working with Molly's father (Michael
Douglas) as his boss, has a hard time at work. At home Dupree is so annoying
he and most of Molly want him gone. This is the first part I was talking
about, where Wilson is caught in the script, being the annoying person. Then
the change. Dupree wants to make everything good, but Carl goes slowly crazy
since Molly's father does not like him and shows that in any way possible.
This gives Wilson some space to do his magic, although not enough to really
make something out of it, and gives the annoying part to Dillon. Even though
this second part is a lot better than the first, the only reason to really
like it is to keep that first part in mind. Yes, I laughed from time to
time, but everything was too predictable and un-original. Close to every
joke will be foreseen by audience members. On top of that the movie searches
for some excuses to show the different talents the stars have. Not only the
space for Wilson I mentioned, the makers even thought of a scene where
Hudson is able to show a lot of he flesh.
The makers by the way are Anthony and Joe Russo, who brought us a small but
pretty entertaining heist movie named 'Welcome to Collinwood'. That was the
kind of movie where you would expect something promising for their next
project. Unfortunately 'Me, You and Dupree' comes not even close. It belongs
in a genre that really has to be done good to please most audiences. Things
going wrong to keep a plot moving is last done good somewhere around 'Meet
the Parents'; this films belongs to the group of failures that followed it.