The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monrday, October 8, 2007 -- 5A

Tales ofKid Rock
and motorbikes

h bArom-com flop from
the fraternal minds

'Heartbreak'

behind 'Dumb and
Dumber'

By Sheri Jankelovitz I Daily Arts Writer

Expectations can't help but be
high when you read the cred-
its: The Farrelly brothers.
Ben Stiller. An R-rated comedy. It's
almost like it's 1998 and Cameron
Diaz is slicking
back her hair with
that infamous gel.
Then "The Heart-
break Kid" actually The
begins, and with Heartbreak
each passing mm-
ute, our expecta- Kid
tions slide lower
and lower. At Quality16
Eddie Can- and Showcase
trow (Ben Stiller, Paramount
"Dodgeball") is a
single 40-some-
thing who can't
seem to commit to any one woman.
Then along comes Lila (Malin Aker-
man, "Harold and Kumar Go to
White Castle"), who seems too good
to be true. Turns out she is, and on
their disastrous honeymoon,, Eddie
meets and falls in love with Miran-
da (Michelle Monaghan, "Mission:
Impossible III").
Naturally, because it's Stiller and
this is a romantic comedy, awkward
meetings abound, mostly involving
body parts. Each situation resonates
uncomfortably, though, because the

filmmakers try to coat the entire dis-
gusting spectacle with sweetness.
It's not very often that a film actually
features a scene involving a donkey
having sex with a woman and tries
to play it off as a romantic-date mon-
tage. Not too surprisingly, it doesn't
work.
And it's not just the comedy that
doesn't come together - theromance
is shaky at best. OK, let's suspend
all disbelief here and pretend two
people can actually fall in love in
two days without knowing anything
about each other. Fine, but shouldn't
the chemistry between Miranda
and Eddie at least be believable? Not
only does she look and act 20 years
younger than him, their interactions
are totally contrived.
The film's other major hang-up
lies in the fact that Eddie just isn't
likeable enough for us to care about
whether or not he gets the girl. His
arrogance and complete lack of
regard for anyone's feelings but his
own would send any self-respect-
ing woman running for the hills. If
you like him at all in the beginning,
it's totally gone by the time it sinks
in that he's seeing another woman
while on a honeymoon with his new
wife. Let's not mince words here:
This guy's an asshole.

The romancing of another woman
on his honeymoon is supposed to be
forgivable because his wife is such a
loon. But what makes her so crazy?
So she likes to sing along to the radio
and is into really kinky sex - most
guys would probably be able to move
past that. It's really Stiller's charac-
ter with the problem.
The film isn't helped by its so-
called wacky supporting charac-
ters - Eddie's father (Jerry Stiller,
"Zoolander") and the loony Mexican
hotel worker (the self-hating Mexi-
can comedian Carlos Mencia) - that
only serve to drag the film down even
more with their increasingly unnec-
essary scenes. Unless you think
hearing Jerry Stiller use the phrase
"crushing pussy" more than three
times (or even once) is necessary.
It's a shame really that a film with
so much potential falls so flat. It's all
there - the vulgarity, the gross-out
humor, Stiller acting flustered - but
the material just never connects.
This thin film stretches even thinner
when the Farrellys throw in disgust-
ing images to disguise the lack of
actual comedy. You can't substitute
genitals for heart, a lesson the broth-
ers seriously need to learn. Focus on
actually making your audience laugh
before you gross them out.

By KIMBERLY CHOU
Associate Arts Editor
So this house on Oakland
Avenue throws a party Friday.
It's a good time, lots of people
spilling out onto the lawn,
including two - how else do
I put this?. - dope addicts that
wandered in. ("They were nice
enough people," reasons one of
the housemates.)
One of the hosts runs down
to the corner store with one of
the new strangers, the latter
declaring that he's "carrying H
and cocaine" on him. (This is a
pretty bad sign.) The guy parks
in the middle of the street,
police start approaching, and
our humble host books it afraid
the no-longer-welcome guest is
goingto be arrested. But he's not
- instead Questionable Guest
returns to the house to pick up
his lady friend, and, apparently,
one of the hosts' laptops. Won-
derful.
Thankfully, the one good
thing that comes out of that
bizarre initial jaunt with the
dope fiend is that the hosts
found the car and retrieve the
laptop just before the couple
took off. Scare over and elec-
tronics saves, the party goes on
well into the night.
But this isn't a police report
- so let's get back to something
much more silly and superficial.
Continuing with the theme
of semi-nude bathing at 3 a.m.,
a few High Society readers
started the weekend early with
Wednesday-night karaoke at the
Heidelberg and ended up swim-
ming in the fountain outside
the MLB. Orientation leaders
tell you to take off your shoes
and wade with Poseidon, but
they forget about further advice
- you know, for when you end
up biking home across campus
in your (wet) underwear.
On to the weekend proper, a
friend and I drop by a colleague's
house party early Friday. Our
host shows us around, then dis-
appears to find us drinks. We're
waiting for him in his bedroom
- the friend rolling cigarettes,
me judging the room's choice
of posters - when someone
throws open the door.
"Oh my god - sorry!" she
says, inordinately flustered. "I
was just looking for the bath-
room. Sorry!" I.look over at the
friend. He's sitting at the desk,
several feet away from me.
There is not even the slightest
illusion ofcoupling. The girl dis-
appears, then cautiously pokes
her head through a crack in the
door two minutes later: "Sorry,
but where is the bathroom? Just

so, you know, this doesn't hap-
pen again." I make sonic gen-
eral directional hand gestures.
"Thanks" she says and disap-
pears, still looking sheepish. I
look down to see if my dress has
fallen down, or if the bed I'm
sitting on is questionably rum-
pled. "Weird," the friend says.
But the host reappears, bearing
beverages - and, we all know,
those fix any situation.
On Saturday, several of
our neighbors down the road
came in from Ypsilanti for the
Eastern Michigan game ,and
quite a few stayed for the par-
ties. Someone keeping an eye
out for High Society ran into a
couple of Eastern dudes trying
to impress at a party on South
Forest Avenue. "Me and my
friends stole the 'D' from Kid
Not everyone is
getting it on-
at a party.
Rock's house!" one claimed, ref-
erencing the giant Olde English
"D" for Detroit fastened on the
gated entrance to Rock's Orton-
ville, Mich., estate. This brought
up questions of how one would
manage to remove a giant brass
marker - blowtorch versus
power-sander - and of whether
these guys realize that Kid Rock
is over. (But relevant enough to
mention in this column.)
Also seen and overheard this
week:
* A pack of 100 motorbikes
honking down South Division
Street at 8 p.m. One hundred
motorbikes. Critical Mass with
motorcycles?
* Most literate theme party:
"Dress as an author," at a co-
op north of Huron (henceforth
known as NoHu) Saturday.
Reports a friend: "There were a
lot of Sylvia Plaths." Sigh.
* Other advice: When some-
one comes up to you outside
your house and says "Hey, I just
found this girl laying on the
cement. I am from Kansas City,
and I thought this shouldn't
happen. Can she crash on your
porch?" there's a good chance
he's not from Kansas City and
the girl is actually a younger
sister of someone your friends
once knew.
- Tell us about your own
debauched anjst bizarre night
E-mail highsocietyaumich.edu

' Will 'Chuck' revive
NBC's Mondays?


By ALEX ERIKSON
Daily Arts Writer
Throw in one part nerdy com-
puter repairman, one part quirky
friend, two parts awkward house-
mates(sisterandsister'sboyfriend)
and one part super-hot-secret-
agent woman,
blend on high for
an hour and out
comes "Chuck,"
NBC's best hope Chuck
for a new hit this Mondays
season. at8m
Chuck (Zach- at 8p.m.
ary Levi, "Less NBC
Than Perfect")
is a computer
repairman at Nerd Herd, a divi-
sion of Buy More, two cheap but
funny jabs at Best Buy and its
technology-repair center. Chuck is
a normal guy stuck in a job he likes
but doesn't want to do until retire-
ment. Then his ex-roommate -
the same one who got him kicked
out of Stanford (and became a
rogue CIA agent) - sends him a
mysterious e-mail with a slew of
pictures vital to national security.
This happens just before the old
roomie's death and is the begin-
ning of the adventure of Chuck's
monotonous life.

Enter the National Security
Agency and its merry band of
henchmen, notably Agent John
Casey (Adam Baldwin, "Firefly").
Throughout the pilot, Agent Casey
is portrayed exclusively as "the
dark agent," while in the second
episode his character deepens, as
we find out that he is also there
to "help" Chuck. Also among
the henchmen - on the CIA side
- is the very fine Sarah Walker
(the Australian actress Yvonne
Strzechowski), who Chuck even-
tually dates. For her, it's mostly
business, but for Chuck, it's a long-

He's wearing Chucks.Ilrony! (The computer bard background? Weird.)


awaite
But
from o
ev
h(
more tI
exactly
withou
expect
writers

d opportunity. ing the audience. "Chuck's" genius
what sets "Chuck" apart is actually that the plot leans
ther shows are its nuances on clich4, almost to the point of
ridiculousness, just so it can turn
around and make fun of itself.
Consider when Chuck defuses a
W orking the' bomb by flooding the timer's com-
puter with Internet-porn viruses.
_lym an-cum- The N.S.A. is also portrayed in a
particularly relaxed light, without
ero formula, being so unrealistic that the show
loses credibility. When the guns
come out, the drama rises, and the
audience realizes how important
ban its setup. The show goes Chuck really is to national securi-
'where the viewer expects ty. Still, the writers quickly pull us
tgrowingdull. Goingto the back to comedy with subtle jokes
ed can be dangerous - the and awkward moments, like when
run a very real risk of los- Agent Casey gets shot with a tran-

quilizer dart. He suffers the con-
sequences at unexpected times,
falling when least expected, only
to rise again and curse the dart.
His hard-ass attitude coupled with
physical comedy is unbeatable.
The comedy of the typically domi-
neering security agencies makes
the show particularly accessible.
NBC might have found the hit
it needs to fill the long-standing
void of "Friends." The show is a
triumph for now, but after just
two episodes, you begin to wonder
how long the writers can make the
chase after Chuck's national-secu-
rity knowledge last. The fate of
the nation - along with NBC's fall
lineup - is in Chuck's hands.


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