Run away! Run as fast as you can!

Rating: 5/10 (3 September 2006)

First off, I was told this was one of Will Ferrel's better movies. If so, all I can wonder is, how does he keep getting parts? Everyone (and I really mean everyone) in this film is funnier than he is. He's like that annoying guy who shows up at parties and repeatedly tells boring anecdotes that everyone else smiles politely at whilst secretly wishing he'd go away.
The first 45 minutes are sheer torture...non-funny gags that rely almost entirely on a stereotypical 70's male vs. female routine that gets old so fast it's almost frightening. In fact, the movie has something of a split-personality. the first half is where they try to be funny using words and simple gags. It fails pretty abysmally. The last half things seem to go a bit whacko....fights to the death among news-crews, severed limbs, feces eating....you get the idea. It's almost as if the crew realised it wasn't funny and grew increasingly desperate to salvage something from the movie.
Every cameo role that turns up in this movie - and there are lots - steals any scene that they are in. In fact, it's only the procession of well-known faces that keeps the interest, if only to see how utterly they bury Ferrel's supposed comic genius.
Ironically, it's only the desperation of the second half of the film that saves it in any way at all. You watch only to see how bad it will get - and trust me it gets pretty awful - before the end.
I'm still utterly amazed by how completely devoid of comic talent Wil Ferrel can be, but I'm sure that won't stop him from making more dire pieces of celluloid garbage in the future.
Recommended viewing only for prisoners undergoing psychological torture.