1996 bromantic comedyRating: 11/20
Plot: Mike is a comedian who recently moved to L.A. to from New York to make it big. He becomes despondent after his long-time girlfriend breaks up with him, and his friends drag him from party to party and bar to bar in an attempt to cheer him up.
Is it just me or is Vince Vaughn actually funnier the Psycho remake than he is in this movie? This movie's just not for me. There's too much Big Voodoo Daddy, and too many allusions to things in the 1990s, a decade I don't really like that much anyway. Seriously, these references are going to firmly lock this comedy in that decade, and it seems dated to me watching it fifteen or so years later. My biggest problem with Swingers is that I either can't connect to characters like this or I just don't buy that characters like this actually exist. First, you've got Jon Favreau's dopey protagonist, a comedian who doesn't say a single funny thing in this movie. Vaughn's character is annoying, and I think I broke a finger or two punching my television after I'd finally had enough of the deluge of "baby's" and "money's" that smother the dialogue. Baby? Money? Did I hibernate in the mid-90s and somehow miss a time when people used these terms? Was it a West Coast thing? Whatever the case, it was grating here. I laughed during a scene where the characters were playing a hockey video game and smiled during a rendition of "Stayin' Alive," but other than that, I can't say I'm happy that I watched this.
Swingers trivia: At the 1:16:29 mark, an extra looks into the camera.
I liked Vince more than you, but I really loathed the John Favraeiou (However the hell you spell that.) character. Completely and utterly unlikable. Oh look, an hour of watching him sit around his house and feel sorry for himself.
ReplyDeleteThe Vegas scenes are okay, but they are done after a half hour. The rest of this movie is completely dull. Not a single interesting thing happens to this most annoying of characters. I was just hoping that someone would walk into his little apartment and kick his ass until he got up and did something...ANYTHING.
A ten for me. Or as I like to call it, a "Goonie".
Like the "goonie" thing. That should catch on. I went into this expecting more than I got. I don't remember much beyond the movie being kind of full of itself with unlikeable characters (not just Favre...). By the way, I just found out you can spell Unlikable with or without an e. Why is that? It's a word that I can never keep straight, and now I know why. An 11 for the movie, and a 3 for the word.
ReplyDeleteSo a 10/20 is officially a "Goonie"? I can roll with that.
ReplyDelete"Unlikable" is an unlikeable word.