Monday, December 15, 2008

Moderately Amused Movie Review: "Yes Man"

If you've seen even a hint of a preview, you already know what this movie is about.

Stodgy guy who never does anything interesting commits to saying 'yes' to every opportunity that arises, and wacky hijinks ensue.

So the question you have is, were the wacky hijinks funny enough to be worth watching? 

There were funny moments. If you dislike Jim Carrey, you'll want to stay away: he does his standard crazy-face-making stuff, and it's occasionally amusing and occasionally feels kind of forced. Also, he looks a little old for it in this particular film. 

His two best pals in the movie really look like they're his kid brother's pals who happen to be hanging out with him for reasons unknown. I mean, I'm all for people of different ages being friends. Absolutely. It's good to hang out with people at different stages of life--you get the benefit of different viewpoints and experiences and takes on things.

But here the friendship was sort of presented as being one of those college-buddy things, and unless Jim Carrey's character (Carl Allen, if you want to know) took a long time to get through college, that doesn't really work.

Nevertheless, there are some funny scenes as Carl takes on all sorts of strange challenges and engages with quirky people, and some possibly-heartwarming scenes (I am too grouchy to have my heart warmed, but someone might) as he meets and falls for Zooey Deschanel's character (Allison something).

Allison is a bit of Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but, in a twist for the type, is not called upon to draw the hero from his shell and add whimsy to his life, since he's already doing that with the 'yes' thing. She actually kind of becomes the voice of reason.

Also, there's Terence Stamp. I will say no more. It's just, he's Terence Stamp

So yeah, not the most hilarious movie I've ever seen, but good for some laughs of a Monday evening. It felt basically good-natured, and most of the jokes did not make me cringe. It was all right, you know?

I did not percieve any very profound health or library tie-ins. But cell phones were prominently featured, so there's a technology hook. The characters could all have been Twittering a lot without mentioning it. 

Plus, Allison's band has a song that talks about a hacker friend who's deleted someone's MySpace and Facebook pages. Topical!

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