As I’ve gotten into in past reviews, there is something
rather irksome about how older actors are treated in recent films. For every
film willing to show that these old dogs still got some bite, there’s something
close to a dozen that use ‘old = funny’ as its sole blueprint and burn away
dignity for the sake of cheap yuks. Not to say that this is a one-sided aspect,
since there is definitely some ‘stopped giving a fuck’ behind why certain
actors choose those particular scripts (either that or they’re raising money
for the grandkids), or that there isn’t any comedy to be mined out of the older
generation, same as any other generation; just that the approach for the most
part leaves a lot to be desired.
Enter this film, which has a more creatively conservative
approach; sticking to their guns and doing what they do best. And honestly, at
least on the actor side of things, that approach works very well. After the
one-two punch of Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and Vacation back in 2015, I honestly
had written off Chevy Chase entirely as past his prime. This film may not
entirely reverse the damage done, but it shows him at the legit nicest and
warmest he’s been in a very long time, doing nicely as a retired talent agent
who wants to bring one of his former clients back on the stand-up circuit.
Said former client is Richard Dreyfuss, who really helps
sell the old-school brand of comedy that the film at large banks on. His
in-disguise introduction is more than a little bizarre, and his quip about how
calling someone ‘old’ is offensive and the politically-correct term is actually
‘pre-dead’ gives initial worry about the targets that will be painted, but
overall, he channels some real Rodney Dangerfield energy in his
mostly-one-liner performance scenes.
On the note of those performances, tastes will always vary
when it comes to comedy, but as far as reviving the post-vaudeville style of
stand-up, Greg Pritikin’s scripting along with the ad-libs from the cast help
sell the implied timelessness of the material. Certainly works better than the
last time I saw his writing in action as part of Movie 43. From riffing on
hecklers to mini-stories about things noticed in life, it ends up making the
‘politically correct’ quip from before feel even more conspicuous because
there’s no real axe to grind about how comedy looks nowadays. And in the
process, by focusing more on actually being funny than constantly complaining
why people aren’t laughing, it makes for quite entertaining stuff.
However, while the resuscitation of classic humour is nice
and its extrapolation into older comedians enjoying life again is cool, this
film still has some issues. For one, while it’s funny, it doesn’t really hold a
candle to stuff Chase was doing in his prime. Might be unfair to make that kind
of comparison, but when you’re in a film all about remembering the old guard of
comedy (not to mention a scene showing Road To Bali on a TV, making me wish
this was good as Chase’s earlier tribute to Crosby and Hope with Spies Like
Us), stuff like that will happen. There’s only so many old jokes I can hear
before realising that I’ve likely heard every one of them before, and I didn’t
particularly like them the first time round.
That is a minor point, however, compared to the more glaring
issues surrounding the technical side of things. Some of Steve Gainer’s
camera framing can get really jarring, something ends up exacerbated by
Michael Palmerio’s editing to help highlight that Chase and Dreyfuss apparently
keep teleporting inches away and towards each other over the course of a single
scene.
Of course, while the visuals are only occasionally annoying,
the sound is almost-entirely annoying. Some of that is the result of the lip-sync, which ranges from obvious in the singing moments to distracting
when characters are just talking, but largely, it’s Jay Weigel’s grating big
jazz band soundtrack. They could have replaced all of the instruments with
kazoos and it would’ve been less awkward than what we get here.
And thus, we end up with a film that sits squarely in the
middle. As a means to give Richard Dreyfuss and Chevy Chase a chance to shine
again on-screen, and make some worthy statements about comedy and getting older
in the process, it works very nicely. As an actual film, save for the
mushroom-trip grand musical moment in the third act, it’s too sloppy to
recommend too highly. For those who want to see Chase be in something
good this side of Community’s cancellation, it’s worth checking out, but try to
keep any expectations in check.
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