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Peter Bart - Thursday 1st May 2008 at Palm Springs Convention Center California USA

Fun With Dick And Jane (2005) Review

By David Levine

Before you even step foot in the theater, the film's bold title -- Fun With Dick and Jane -- tells you that it's a can't miss film. Who doesn't like fun? That depends. How you take your comedy will largely determine the degree of fun you'll actually have with Dick and Jane. If you're a fan of the whimsical original 1977 film staring George Segal and Jane Fonda, prepare to be disappointed. This remake has replaced the original's charm with a slapstick free-for-all that generates only marginal laughs.

This is Dick (Jim Carrey): a well-paid executive at the Globodyne Corporation. Like everyone else on his block, Dick drives a brand new BMW from his brand new tract house in the suburbs to work at Globodyne. This is Jane (Téa Leoni): the loving wife of Dick who abruptly quits her menial job as a travel agent when Dick gets promoted to VP of Communication at Globodyne. Life is good for all in suburbia until the company goes belly-up in a corporate accounting scandal engineered by its top executives (Alec Baldwin and Richard Jenkins). This is bad news for Dick and Jane.

Continue reading: Fun With Dick And Jane (2005) Review

Fun With Dick And Jane (1977) Review

By Christopher Null

Excellent

Never mind the silly title, Fun with Dick and Jane is fun indeed but it's not for kids. George Segal loses his job, and his domineering wife (Jane Fonda) pushes him to get a new job immediately, seeing as they're crushed by debt. Jane tries to land something too, but fails miserably, and in one of the most dryly pointed moments in the film, Dick notes that the only job she's qualified for is as a prostitute. After giving welfare a try, Dick and Jane's fun really begins: they turn to armed robbery. Very lighthearted and surprisingly witty, it's not just a caper comedy, it's also an indictment of the 1970s class struggle. Poor director Ted Kotcheff would end up directing mostly TV and Red Shoe Diaries installments later in his career. Watch for the remake with Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz in 2005.