Movie Review Sol Goode

Sol Goode (2001) 

Directed by Danny Comden

Written by Danny Comden

Starring Balthazar Getty, Jamie Kennedy, Jason Bateman, Cheri Oteri

Release Date March 11th, 2003 

Published March 11th, 2003 

When we were kids, my sister had a huge crush on Balthazar Getty. It was based on Getty's one big role in Young Guns 2. Since Young Guns 2, Getty has seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth, save for a cameo in Natural Born Killers and his supporting role in the dopey 50's gang flick Deuces Wild. Well as it turns out Getty has actually had quite a lucrative career starring in a few direct-to-video movies. His latest non-theatrical movie is called Sol Goode, a comedy about a slacker actor who skates on his looks while awaiting his next acting job. One wonders if there isn't an element of self-parody.

Sol Goode is a good-looking young wannabe actor living off the good will of friends and family. The film's opening credit sequence includes a montage of bimbos who are asked what they think of Sol, some like him, some loathe him. It doesn't do the picture much good that the women who loathe him come off better than the ones who like him. As we meet Sol for the first time, he turns to the camera to talk to the audience about what he likes to call P.O.D, or post orgasmic disgust. P.O.D, describes a man's feelings when he wakes up next to a woman he wishes weren't there. Charming.

What does one do when suffering from P.O.D, well of course you do the classy thing. You call a friend, in Sol's case his narcissist best friend Cooper (Danny Comden), and have that friend come over and make you believe your house is on fire and run the girl out of the house quickly. Once again, charming.

Sol has other problems, rent is due and he hasn't worked in a couple of months. His roommate Justin (Jamie Kennedy) can't afford to cover him again and Sol's unemployment benefits have run out. With no other options, Sol is forced to once again ask his parents for money. In a scene that I wish I had never seen, Sol accidentally catches his parents (Robert Wagner & Christina Pickles) having sex with his Dad dressed as a baseball umpire. Eeewwww.

From there we move from there into the film's plot which involves Sol realizing that his womanizing ways are unfulfilling as is not having a real job. So Sol decides to change and figures he is in love with his other best friend Chloe (Katherine Towne). Unfortunately for Sol, she has a crush on his cousin Happy (Jonathan Schaech). Whether Sol will convince Chloe he's changed and win her heart is the center of the plot.

From beginning to end, Sol Goode is a picture that is desperate to be considered cool. Director Danny Comden, who also wrote the screenplay and plays Cooper in the film, throws in catchphrases and gross out humor in an attempt to make the film seem edgy and hip. Unfortunately, every decision he makes is wrong.

None of the catchphrases, like P.OD, or Cooper referring to his hair as his salad(?), none of it is funny. Throw in an extremely slow, glacier-like pace and an extremely unfunny Tori Spelling and you have a painfully dull movie. And as for the film's gross out humor, if you think irritable bowel syndrome is hysterically funny then maybe Sol Goode is for you. It's certainly not for me.

Movie Review: Dumb and Dumberer When Harry Met Lloyd

Dumb and Dumberer When Harry Met Lloyd (2003) 

Directed by Troy Miller 

Written by Troy Miller 

Starring Eric Christian Olsen, Derek Richardson, Cheri Oteri, Luis Guzman, Eugene Levy

Release Date June 13th, 2003 

Published June 13th, 2003 

Last week there were debates as to whether 2 Fast 2 Furious suffered for not having star Vin Diesel and Director Rob Cohen. One could very well argue that indeed it did lack for not having them. No such debate is necessary for Dumb and Dumberer. Even the most obstinate viewer can't argue that this film suffers the loss of stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels and writer-directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly. But moreover, it's the audience that really suffers.

Without Carrey and Daniels the money grubbing, greedy executives at New Line reposition the story as a prequel that goes back to the characters as High School students. Eric Christian Olson is Lloyd Christmas and Derek Richardson is Harry Dunne. Friend from their first meeting, Harry and Lloyd are placed into a class for special needs children. This is no benevolent gesture to help the kids learn however. The schools principal played by Eugene Levy (slumming desperately) has setup the class to scam the government out of $100 grand that the school gets for having the class. The principal’s goal is to steal the money and run off with the school lunch lady played by Cheri Oteri.

Of course their scheme is foiled by Harry and Lloyd, although unknowingly, with the help of an investigative reporter for the school newspaper played by Rachel Nichols. Of course Dumb and Dumberer is not about having a plot but rather setting up one relentlessly stupid joke to get the next relentlessly stupid joke.

I know, I can't criticize Dumb and Dumberer for being stupid, because that is the point of the film. However I can criticize it for being tremendously unfunny. I can criticize it for lacking any redeeming value. I can criticize it for stealing 80 some-odd minutes of my life from me. What I don't want to do too much of is rip the film’s young stars. Eric Christian Olson is a game performer. The kid gives everything he's got and he does a pretty good impression of Carrey. Rachel Nichols, as the boy’s love interest, is a beautiful girl who deserves better than this.

Director Troy Miller is also not entirely to blame for this film. Though it is his name on the film, he is merely in place to transfer a knockoff script to the screen. Imagine directing a high school production of the original Dumb and Dumber and you can understand what it must have been like for Miller.

The real blame goes to New Line for allowing their greed to get the best of them. They cynically shoved this film into production with the sole purpose of making money. It is this kind of assembly line filmmaking that is destroying Hollywood. Films are not mass produced product you buy off the rack at K-Mart, but that seems to have been New Line's approach in making the dreadful Dumb and Dumberer.