Not One of Will Ferrell's Best

Rating: 1/10 (3 March 2005)

I just saw this film last night and I was pretty disappointed. I love Will Ferrell and I've enjoyed almost everything else he's previously done (off the top of my head); this film was just sorely lacking, in every department, so much so that I almost can't put my finger on it because I don't have that many and I don't feel like using my toes today. I think the story had a lot of promise, but it felt like they stopped writing it after the outline; as if an outline for the movie was presented to the studio, but when it came time to flesh it out with a screenplay, everyone called in sick that day.
The shining stars of the production (if there were any), would have to be Christina Applegate and Fred Willard; their acting and dialogue was well done and acceptable, and Fred Willard is great as always, even though he didn't have much of anything to work with. Unfortunately, they just seemed to be flailing about on a high wire with no net, and the end result is simply UGLY.
There's just nothing really funny at all about the movie; it bored the crap out of me, but I didn't turn it off because I kept hoping it would get better, and I kept praying that Will Ferrell would have made a better movie than what I was watching ... but then it was over, and it never got any better, and suddenly I was at the place that all moviegoers hate to be at: the place when you realize you've just lost 90 to 120 minutes of your life that you'll never get back, and there's nothing you can do about it. I never though I'd hear myself say this about a Will Ferrell movie, but avoid this puppy AT ALL COSTS.