Starts off brilliant, but dries up

Rating: 6/10 (8 January 2008)

Yeah, I really loved its absurdist humour a lot of the time, but it really dries up by the end and I really didn't find myself laughing as much as I did at the beginning of the film. About the time the film starts jumping ahead in time really dramatically, it starts losing its funny, and the end jokes nearly all fall flat. The musical numbers are terrific, though, simultaneously being hilarious while also being honest-to-goodness great songs in their own right. The Let's Duet montage is brill. And, of course, there's the wonderfully random stuff, like John C. Reilly playing himself at age 14, or the mockingly melodramatic acting of Tim Meadows and Jenna Fischer, or the shocking full-frontal male nudity, which is so obviously an attempt to receive surprise laughter that it's a pretty fantastic joke. If only the film had sustained its momentum, it could have been one of the best comedies of the year.