Well-intentioned...but severely flawed

Rating: 5/10 (1 November 2014)

Well-intentioned...but severely flawed.
The original Secret Life of Walter Mitty, released in 1947, was brilliant. Whimsical, bitter-sweet and hilariously funny. Danny Kaye almost single-handedly made the movie, with an incredible over- the- top comedic performance.
The 2013 is nothing like the 1947 version, unfortunately. It has more of an attempt at a message and thus greater ambitions but is not that funny. Ben Stiller is certainly no Danny Kaye, even when he is trying to be funny, and here he isn't trying.
Moreover, the whole "get out there and live life" message is delivered in such a clumsy and contrived way, you wish he had just tried to make a straight comedy (it worked in 1947!). The message is obvious from the start, but director Ben Stiller takes us on this long, protracted, silly journey to draw it out. From a point (that point being where WM meets the bogan helicopter pilot in Greenland) the movie is incredibly farcical, and not in a good way.
About the only good part to the latter 50-70% of the movie is the scenery: National Geographic would be proud!
Nice, sweet ending, though quite predictable and not a little bit trite.
Performances are so-so. Ben Stiller overdoes the shy and retiring shtick and Adam Scott is incredibly stereotypical as the bad guy. Kristen Wiig's is probably the only engaging performance in the movie.
See the 1947 version instead.