Just finished watching "Dinner for Schmucks". To me it's a typical rom-com, but there's this weird guy in it that steals the show. I really liked the "mice"-en-scenes, the ones at the dinner were lame, but the scenes Barry recreated from his marriage were beautiful in an odd way. I liked Steve Carell, as Barry, because surprisingly of all the over the top characters in this movie, he was the most believable and lovable and I'm not a fan. It took me a lot of time to like him in "The Office", but thanks to Comedy Central over here in Holland and after a lot of sleepless nights with absolutely nothing else to watch, he kind of grew on me. Zach Galifianakis character was great too, but the only things that had me laughing out loud was some of the slapstick. S o was it a good movie? Yes, enjoyable enough for a Sunday afternoon. I tried to watch the original "Le dinner du cons" before I saw this remake but I couldn't stand it, because of the slow pace. Now I have seen the remake and was pleasantly surprised, I just had to watch the original, because everyone keeps saying it's so much better. I used to love Louis de Funes and the Pink Panther movies when I was a boy (and yes I know Clouseau wasn't really French!), so I gave it another go. I was happy to see Jacques Villeret, the sidekick of Louis de Funes in a couple of movies, but I guess that's also the problem. He needs someone else to shine and he didn't really on his own. The dialogs were more tongue in cheek than laugh out loud funny and I really feel sorry for people who think this is the funniest movie ever
I was also very disappointed that the actual dinner wasn't in the movie, because I expected the French to outshine the remake in it. So if you like Steve Carell you'll love this movie and as a remake I think it did improve on the original even though they gave it a typical Hollywood ending. If you really want to see a train wreck of a remake, I still think Louis de Funes' "Oscar" by Sly Stallone is the worst remake ever!
