Overrated

Rating: 3/10 (25 February 2009)

I won't give this film 1 star. There was some good acting and it was professionally made. That said, when the central character Ozzy (John Malkovich) has been given lines literally no more than repetition of the F-word, and when we're expected to take this as a group of stupid people doing stupid things, but they all seem to be smart actors' campy portrayals of stupid, you have to wonder what you're doing watching this film. Dilbert does things so lame that Dogbert can't have fun mocking them. That's how this film felt to me.
I might as well point out some of the fun bits. The exchanges between the CIA people (David Rasche and J.K. Simmons) are the only truly clever comic bits with good acting combined. Get a few laughs from that and over Linda's (Frances McDormand) body obsession, but the rest of the film is a waste of time.
Brad Pitt's attempt to be a hunky, but stupid, protagonist fail. I felt like I was watching the worst of Charlie Chaplain, Forrest Gump and Jethro Bodean rolled together. Could Brad do it? I suppose. But in this film, he didn't. He's dumb as a box of rocks, but can probe a CD and clarify the difference between Mac and Windows formatted CDs. Bad writing; bad acting.
Find something better to watch.