filmcritic.com presents a review from staff member James Brundage. You can find the review with full credits at http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/2a460f93626cd4678625624c007f2b46/00749ece25ab063e882568de001da736?OpenDocument
SCREWED A film review by James Brundage Copyright 2000 filmcritic.com filmcritic.com
Rarely does a film like Screwed come across my desk: a film so utterly easy to insult, from its title on in, that writing the review is an absolute piece of cake. Somehow, the producers of this film chose the title Screwed over such options as Ballbusted, Foolproof, and Pittsburgh, probably hoping to attract a teenage crowd with its would-been-risque-if-not-for-the-likes-of-S.F.W. title and its screwball Norm-MacDonald-needs-better-work antics. Sadly, this marketing technique will probably succeed and result in, well, a lot of people feeling screwed.
Screwed concerns a butler (Norm MacDonald) and a chicken wing vendor (David Chapelle) who team up to try to, well, screw a bitter old hag out of five million dollars. Needless to say, the plan goes south, and the two have to run all over Pittsburgh (which is obviously not really Pittsburgh) to get away with their perfect crime. Norm sleeps with some girl in a bit part that should have been bigger, David convinces good old Norm to fake his death with the help of a mortician (Danny DeVito), and all the while we watch the hag bitch and gripe, not really caring
The antics in Screwed are childish, the humor pandering to a sub-human chord that will resonate with no one with an IQ over 80. Norm MacDonald once again shows that the pinnacle of his career will most likely be doing the Weekend Update on SNL (a shtick which has been stolen and improved upon by `The Daily Show' on Comedy Central, a job Norm MacDonald should campaign for vigorously). David Chapelle shows that his comedic talents lie in stand up and not physical antics. The pleasure that Screwed offers is in the supporting role of DeVito, which is pretty much only a pleasure because watching DeVito in such a darkly comic role is so very different from the average part you see him pigeonholed into.
Screwed is the perfect title for this movie if only because, after watching it, you feel screwed six ways from Sunday by virtue of how absolutely wretched this pitiful excuse for a film is. Writer-directors Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski, the writing team behind Milos Forman's last two flicks, Man on the Moon and The People vs. Larry Flynt, should probably stick to writing other peoples' movies. Behind the camera, they prove that directing is not their strong suit, and that the input that others add to the script proves invaluable to the end product. Letting them direct, it seems, just gets a lot of people screwed.
RATING: *1/2
|----------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
|--------------------------------------|
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski Writer: Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski Starring: Norm MacDonald, David Chapelle, and Danny DeVito
www.screwedmovie.com -- Christopher Null - cnull@mindspring.com - http://www.filmcritic.com
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