Copyright © 2003 by Tony Medley

 In the 1930s there appeared in Hollywood a new genre called the Screwball Comedy, created by people like writers Charles McArthur, Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, Directors Frank Capra, Preston Sturges, Leo McCarey, Howard Hawks, actors Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, William Powell, and others of their ilk.  These people all were, or became, Hollywood legends, as did their movies, which were cleverly written, brilliantly directed and acted.  They were subtle and funny.  There were lots of them and audiences adored them.  They are still brilliantly funny.  And they had taste.

 Fast forward to the present.  Now instead of clever scripts we get the toilet humor of stuff like There’s Something About With Mary (1998) and, now, My Boss’s Daughter. Although there are some funny lines that had me laughing out loud, most of the humor is based on the groin.  There are lots of urine shots.  The film itself has absolutely no coherence.  The concept is that Tom Stansfield (Ashton Kutcher) works for a dictator-like boss, Jack Taylor (Terrence Stamp) and has a crush on his daughter, Lisa (Tara Reid).  Tom gets finagled into housesitting while Jack and Lisa go out.  Jack gives him specific instructions that nobody is to set foot in the house.  Naturally, as soon as Jack leaves, the house is inundated with weird people, who cause nothing but trouble.  What follows is imbecilic.  The ending is moronic.

 The film starts out with ten very funny minutes.  Then the scatological humor starts and the movie tanks, as far as I’m concerned.  The film is obsessed with the male groin.  Not only does urine fall like rain, when someone pulls a gun, his victim pulls his male member. Call me crazy; I don’t find this funny.

 I don’t rate this at the bottom of the barrel because the film does have a few funny moments.  But I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone with the slightest inclination to good taste.

August 23, 2003

 The End

top