This movie definitely has its moments. Although the tone was very inconsistent throughout–sometimes even annoyingly. It has a lot of moments where it gets deep and meaningful, but it is also tries to be too irreverent by forcing jokes that are easy, but not necessarily warranted. The film is a borderline dark comedy. I’m not sure if that’s what the filmmakers were going for, but they somewhat succeeded. However, there are too many off-the-wall jokes (a la Happy Madison) that keep pulling it away from that consistency which would make it a solid dark comedy. The kind that requires an acquired taste. It’s not easy to love like Bad Santa. The 3rd act is actually brilliant though. It really makes you forget that the first 2 acts were all over the place. Probably because now it doesn’t even seem like they set that much story up to begin with.
It’s a good character study but Ronnie is a bit challenging to relate and warm up to at first. Seth Rogen was great. It was a bit of a different character than he’s ever played before, and also one of the deepest. Although the other characters aren’t quite as deep, it’s alright because they aren’t really the main focus. I wish we could’ve seen more of Aziz Ansari’s character though. And a follow-up with the gang that Ronnie beat up after he got ditched by the cop.
Also, it has a killer soundtrack!
Twizard Rating: 73
The Twizard 