I was a surprised fan of director Ruben Fleischer’s first film Zombieland, so this comedy landed on my queue, despite the feelings of one-trick pony-ism. Jesse Eisenberg is a loser pizza delivery guy who gets attacked by losers Danny McBride and Nick Swardson. They attach a bomb to him and force him to rob a bank for them. Cue 80 minutes of crazy antics! Two huge problems with the film. First, the script (if there was one) by Michael Diliberti is nothing but a concept wrapped in juvenile vulgarity (according to IMDB, he’s attached to write the remake of, god help me, Brewster’s Millions). The reason I wonder if there was a script at all is the unhinged feel of the whole thing, like Fleischer just let everyone improv how they like. And people like McBride and Swardson tend to improv with constant gross-out swearing, like how they’d fuck Jason Voorhies and how things are “gay” and opening up a tanning salon/prostitute ring (that’s the main problem I have with McBride’s HBO show Eastbound and Down). I’m no prude, I like an f-bomb and titty jokes as much as the next guy, but they need to come from somewhere other than just letting the camera roll for 5 full minutes and letting the actors throw stuff out and see what sticks in the edit room. The concept of the film definitely has some potential for fun, but the whole thing starts with a low bar and slowly devolves into teenaged silliness. There are a few funny moments (most involving Aziz Ansari), but overall it was just crude.
