Incoherent mess with a few little laughs

Rating: 1/10 (29 July 2004)

I love dry humor. I'm a big fan of the Christopher Guest "mockumentaries" and Monty Python films. I went to this movie with high expectations, given that BOTH Roger Ebert and Michael Medved (opposite ends of the political spectrum) gave it 3 of 4 stars. This movie started with a bang...I was laughing a lot at the opening; but then it just started to fizzle. So many of its jokes just do not work. The dog was cute, I suppose, but even that part of the story got to be just stupid at the end of the movie. SPOILER...and what the heck was the rumble scene about? The Monty Python-esquire chopping off limb scene didn't work all! What a waste of talent! And speaking of waste of talent...I kept waiting for Fred Willard to have a little screen time...and that's what he got; A LITTLE screen time. Too bad. The TV news industry is SUCH an easy target! There are lots of opportunities for smart and witty dialog. This movie digressed into banal sexual humor fairly early in the film and never dug itself out of that pit. "Broadcast News" is a MUCH better film satire on the TV news industry. I came home after this mess and watched my BN DVD.