‘Dinner for Schmucks’ lacks taste

The comedy genre has been going through some knocks lately in the cinema market.

Between every inspiring, original, laugh-out-loud classic that gets made in some risky endeavor, there are at least 20 cookie-cutter comedies that get spat out on the screen. One of these is, of course, "Dinner for Schmucks."

The story centers on a moderately despicable businessman, Tim (Paul Rudd). Tim lives out the impossibly dull plot-life of being slightly rich and wanting a better job from a mysteriously successful business.

The one glimmer of creativity is a moral gem. Tim can only gain a promotion by essentially selling his soul for the sake of the entertainment of his superiors.

In what they mockingly call "Dinner For Winners," the higher-ups search the city for socially embarrassing individuals to show off to their friends for the pure sake of delicious evil.

As you can easily expect, Tim takes issue with this – but not really.

Beyond this point, the plot becomes pretty stale.

Tim picks up a social reject, Barry (Steve Carell), and decides he's just pathetic enough to exploit. So that's just what he does.

The entire time, Tim's life is strained by Barry and the prospect of the dinner, as well as the possibility of an affair between Tim's girlfriend and an artist she's promoting. As I said earlier, this comedy falls flat.

The plot constantly shifts its focus and its grip on the real world, pretending to be serious one moment and then hyper-farcical the next, which might work with more complex – or funny – comedies, but unfortunately this isn't a sophisticated idea. This is 114 minutes of Paul Rudd whining about his tragically comfortable life while Steve Carell plays with stuffed rats and wears a stupid wig.

The movie has very little interesting comedy. The scenes all rely on stilted awkwardness in lieu of consistent humor. The characters are only interesting because the actors who play them just act like themselves.

For example, Zach Galifianakis stars in this movie as Barry's clinically insane boss, Therman. However, you don't see Therman up on the screen – you see Zach Galifianakis jumping around in a cape yelling, "Pew! Pew!" as he shoots psychic bullets across the room from his fingers.

Ladies and gentlemen, that kind of blatant celebrity-reliance is a crutch, and from the looks of it, this movie is crippled.

In summation, the characters are dryly written, the jokes aren't close to being consistently funny, the plot structure is beyond cliche and the humor that is funny is only funny because of the celebrities. Don't waste your money.

2.5 out of 5 stars

A Paramount Pictures production

Directed by Jay Roach

Starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Zach Galifianakis

Rated PG-13 for sequences of crude and sexual content, some partial nudity and language.