I feel really bad for Jon Cryer and Will Sasso. Both are very funny men who get wrongly underestimated for different reasons. While Cryer too often gets stereotyped as "that guy from "Two And A Half Men,"" Sasso never gets any work that's on par with proving his true comedic talent. It's weird to think a film as awful as Hit By Lightning is the closest thing that's come out to breaking these two talents from their respective molds. I have a theory that they get to prove more here than usual because the film is so bad. If the film were simply mediocre, their hard work and endless dedication to getting laughs from the audience would go unnoticed. However, the film is so horribly written and dreadfully non-eventfully that they show how great they can be even when given no good material. Both men are great here but the film only proves to be a detriment to them.
The film stars Cryer as Ricky, a manager at restaurant Debby's (it's Denny's spelled with B's instead of N's...and that's one of the less cringe worthy jokes in the film.) Ricky is having trouble in love while his buddy Seth (Sasso) tries to take him out every Saturday night simply for carnal pleasures. However, neither man knows how to pick up a woman despite Seth's confidence that they'll just keep trying. Ricky signs up for E-Happily (yeah, apparently no one wanted to use this film for product placement) and meets Danita (Stephanie Szostak.) Ricky and Danita fall in love instantly and Ricky sees hope for his future. One problem---Danita is married to Ben (Jed Rees,) a successful mystery author whom Danita wants Ricky to kill.
After I saw the film, I was interested to see who was behind this film. It came as no shock to me that the writer and director is Ricky Blitt, a former "Family Guy" writer who has since left the show. On the basis of this film, it's no wonder why. Unlike that show, whose random non-eventfulness and multiple pop culture references are genuinely funny in context, this film falls flat with all of that. The non-eventfulness of this film proves to be more boring than anything and every joke that doesn't involve a fake version of a large company is an awkward, unfunny pop culture reference. "Ricky's wearing a baseball cap so let's make a joke where he randomly mentions how good John C McGinley was in 42." "Seth brings over a copy of Body Heat so let's have him awkwardly point out that this film was made back when Kathleen Turner looked like a woman." This is the level of joke etiquette within this film.
This perhaps could have worked if there was dark comedy to balance it out as there should be in a film about a man trying to murder another woman's husband but Blitt obviously has no clue how to go dark. His very few attempts to go dark end up being clumsy and feeling weirdly unjustified. Also, the whole film wants the audience to root for Ricky and Danita when they are both horrible people to begin with. Before even bringing up the idea of the murder (which happens 45 minutes into the 85 minute film,) they're both such despicable people that there's no reason to root for them. Ricky even fills his balding head with shoe polish when he first goes out with Danita and continues to do so. Why should the audience root for two people who need to hide what they are from one another? Sasso's Seth is the only likable character in the film and that's only because Sasso has mastered the art of lovable goofball the same way his "MadTV" co-star Ike Barinholtz has on TV's "The Mindy Project." Rees, an actor who always shows up randomly and never disappoints, is quite good here but isn't given a lick of anything to do with his character.
With a different writer/director, Hit By Lighnting may have worked. The cast (excluding the awful performance of Szostak) deserve much better and should aspire to be in more high quality, worthy of their talent productions. Writer/director Blitt doesn't know what to do with these funny people and ends up making a film that feels as long as Shoah, even at 85 minutes. There is literally one mild chuckle I got from the film itself and not from the actors. It's the last line and shot of the film. Until that last five seconds, however, sitting through this so called comedy felt like a prison sentence of the worst kind.
(1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is Not Rated but contains adult language and situations)
Note: Although the three male actors were great, I can not give this film any more than half a star. There are plenty of great performances in film and, although these actors deserve better, they can not overcome the film's terribleness. In fact, the fact that Cryer, Sasso and Rees were so good made the overall horrible nature of the film all the more unpleasant to sit through.
No comments:
Post a Comment