Painfully unfunny; boring; stupid

Rating: 2/10 (25 May 2006)

Will Ferrell never seemed to do much on SNL so it was interesting to see the rave reviews of this movie when it came out.
Why? It's abysmal in every respect: there are at most 2-3 good lines; only a couple of characters even start to develop and they choke after a short time; and maybe 1 funny scene.
Ferrell spends the movie acting as adults act when they want to mimic childish behavior. He never hits any kind of stride. He is just never funny. Is it as bad as watching Jim Carrey? It's a toss-up.
Jon Favreau's movies lean towards slapstick. This holds back on that in favor of letting Ferrell overact.
Caan does a nice job, as always. But so what?
As it happened, I saw this with The Wrong Guy. That film is clever, funny (hilarous in parts), sharp, inventive. Everything that Elf is not.