Last year, between the two of us, we watched an average of 317 movies.
This year our goal is to top that by watching at least one a day.
And as an extra special torture, we've decided to write about all of them.

06 May 2008

The Ex, dir. Jesse Peretz (2006)

NIKKI says:
This one has been on my highly anticipated list ever since we saw the trailer back at the old place. Reason? Jason Bateman is just so funny. While that remains an obvious and indisputable, the movie wasn't as drop-dead funny as I had assumed it would be. The old colleague sabotage gag, turns out, was too old and crusty for even Bateman to breathe life into it.

Zach Braff and Amanda Peet have themselves a new baby, and decide to move to the suburbs. Zach takes a job at Amanda's dad's ad company, where he is forced to work under Bateman, a wheelchair-bound former cheerleading partner of Amanda's. They compete at work, and we find out that Bateman is deliberately sabotaging Zach at every turn in the hopes that he will win over Amanda. Zach is on to him early, and goes about trying to catch him out.

And, at 78 minutes, that's about it. I liked Bateman more when I thought his character was a dick, but he actually becomes quite evil in this. That wasn't really fun. The movie took on a really mean spirit towards the end, and really lost its zing.

So, lots of funny bits with Bateman, Charles Grodin says "Ah, fuck!" at one hilarious moment, and that's about it. Enjoyable, but no classic.

2.5/5