Absolute Trash

Rating: 1/10 (14 December 2005)

Here's the deal...if I were to truly write a spoiler for this movie, I would mention the f-word, a derogatory comment describing a woman's anatomy, and be as far from funny as I could possibly be...in EVERY sentence of this review! All while acting completely oblivious to what I'm saying is amazingly profane. That's how pervasively nasty this movie turned out.
Why is it that this movie, with such incredible promise for great laughs in it's plot and cast, just failed completely? I honestly was dumbfounded about midway through the movie by the non-stop vulgarity, that my wife and I had to shut off the DVD player. Let me tell you, that's not easy to make us give up on a movie, especially after we paid money for the rental. I'm utterly shocked that reviewers have said this is a good date movie. I guess if who you're dating doesn't mind being completely degraded by the movie's screenplay from start to finish.
In a nutshell, this scene describes my disappointment: Steve Carell's buddies have him wax his chest at a salon so he will be more attractive to the ladies. The hot wax is administered with tissue paper strips to his extremely hairy chest. When the woman administering the wax strips rips them off, (whoa here come's the funny memorable comedy!), he lets his feelings be known as to how bad it hurts. (This scene was shown in previews a few months ago, showing him blurt out Kelly Clarkson's name randomly - pretty funny) Here's the disappointment - before he says the Clarkson comment, his response to roughly 6 of the strips being removed is nothing other than the f-word. Ha ha, very funny. Real original. By the time he said her name, the moment was completely gone. Wasted.
Bottom line for this reviewer - I was a HUGE fan of Steve Carell before this movie ("Bruce Almighty" and "Anchorman"). In the span of watching half of this movie, I went from eagerly awaiting release of a movie starring him as the lead to, honestly, complete disinterest in his next project (no matter the reviews). This movie stunk.