A Little Bit Of Potential Lost In A Whole Lot Of Muddle

Rating: 2/10 (26 January 2010)

"What did we learn, Palmer?" "I don't know, sir." "I don't f...'in know either. I guess we learned not to do it again." That exchange between the head of the CIA (I guess) and one of his agents closes out this movie and about sums up my reaction to this movie. After more than an hour and a half, I don't really have a clue what happened, and I sure hope it doesn't lead to anything else!
There was some potential, and I confess that I really did chuckle a few times at some of the ridiculous situations that were portrayed, but overall this whole thing was a muddle of those ridiculous situations. The basic premise seemed to be promising. An ex-intelligence officer leaves a disc with what appears to be classified information on it at the gym after a workout. It's found and two employees - Linda and Chad (Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt) - decide to use it to make some money to help Linda pay for some cosmetic surgery she wants. It almost sounds like it could have been a slapstick sort of semi-spy caper, but it just didn't seem to work. The attempts to get laughs out of the viewer seemed too forced - everyone seemed to be trying too hard to be funny, but humour needs to flow more naturally to be truly funny. Of all the cast, the only one I really enjoyed watching was Brad Pitt, who was cast a bit against type. He's a sort of gay-like (because that was never really spelled out but seemed implied) fitness coach. Other than that, I was quite underwhelmed by everyone and everything. 2/10