Saturday, July 23, 2016

Movie Review: "You, Me, and Dupree" (2006)

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Movie"You, Me and Dupree"
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
Year: 2006
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Newlyweds Carl & Molly (Matt Dillon & Kate Hudson) get an extra dose of early marital stress when Carl lets his homeless, unemployed best friend Dupree (Owen Wilson) stay with them until he can get back on his feet. While Dupree makes a mess of their house, Carl faces even more stress at work as his boss/father-in-law (Michael Douglas) does everything he can to undermine Carl and make every workday a living hell.

Before The Russo brothers made the critical and financial gargantuan smash hits "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Captain America: Civil War," their beginnings resided in the much different type of film called "You, Me and Dupree." You've got to start somewhere, we guess. It stars Owen Wilson as the titular Dupree, as well as Matt Dillon as Dupree's best friend Carl, Kate Hudson as Carl's wife Molly, and Michael Douglas as Molly's father/Carl's boss Mr. Thompson. This is one of those comedies that is extremely frustrating to watch. Every ounce of humor and conflict revolves around a lack of communication between the characters. In order to fuel these conflicts, when people *do* actually talk to each other, they make sure to do so in the most vague, generalized terms possible, never offering any specifics as to what a problem might actually be until it boils over and becomes an even bigger issue for everyone involved. With one or two lines of dialogue, we wouldn't have had to endure this film. Because our characters exist in the year 2006, it also reinforces the notion and trite old movie cliche that men refuse to talk to their friends and wives about their feelings and problems, opting instead to let things stew and make things worse for everyone, including themselves. It's so tiresome, and it's also not funny, either.

Owen Wilson's Dupree does the typical obtrusive house guest routine that we've seen time and time again and will continue to see time and time again because it's just that, a cliche. Dupree does nearly everything possible to be a pain in the ass, but is simultaneously oblivious to how much of an inconvenience he actually is. The filmmakers hope the character of Dupree is charming enough and endearing enough for us to tolerate his shenanigans, but he's really not. There might be one instance where we thought, "okay, we could get behind this guy," but other than this one instance, he's a total loser and an idiot to boot. The filmmakers and writers would like you to think he is the greatest person walking on the earth, which is how every other character besides his best friend Carl seems to feel about him, which begs the question, why be friends with this jackass at all? At first, Molly seems to hate Dupree, while Carl champions for him early on, until the script flips and Dupree becomes so pathetic that Molly starts to pity him and starts to act like he can do no wrong while treating her husband as if he's bullying the poor helpless Dupree. It's just so stupid! Meanwhile, on the job front, Carl is getting overrun by Mr. Thompson, his boss and father-in-law. Mr. Thompson does everything he can to "emasculate" Carl, which again, could be fixed with just one honest conversation and telling his father-in-law to screw off. None of what Mr. Thompson does is funny in the slightest, it makes him looks like a stalkerish prick of a father-in-law who is obsessed with not letting his very grown, very capable daughter live her own life to the point of obsession, and how Carl reacts makes him look like a petulant pushover. Meanwhile, whenever Carl comes home, he has to deal with Molly fawning all over the hapless Dupree. Even though it's painfully obvious that's something's wrong with him, Molly either ignores Carl or gets mad at him for no reason. Seth Rogen is also in this film as one of Carl's friends, but his screen time is limited and he keeps within his usual shtick.

"You, Me and Dupree" is just too stupid to tolerate. Even with low expectations, you'll still be surprised how bad this it. Not one thing about this movie says "worthwhile," so don't waste your time.

My Rating: 3.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 3/10
IMDB's Rating: 5.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 21%
Do we recommend this movie: AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!
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One year ago, we were watching: "Max"

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