'Why Him?' Movie: Near-Total Thumbs Down In Critics' Market [VIDEO]
Why Him? has bombed in the critics' market, at least. The holiday comedy opening Friday has got everyone almost retching over the bathroom humor.
Rotten Tomatoes says that the Bryan Cranston and James Franco delivery from Meet the Parents writer is 40% rotten. Most critics have slammed it.
It does not have Meet the Parents' "patience with building comedic tension," said Darren Franich in Entertainment Weekly. "The film wants to be a comedy of excess, but it just feels excessive ... You want toilet jokes? You got them. Dozens!"
Almost all the reviews are thumbs down. Richard Roeper at the Chicago Sun Times said that the movie is among the worst he had ever seen. It's "not funny, not funny, not funny, not funny, not funny" even though it has "two of the most gifted and versatile actors on the planet."
The New York Times critic, Jeannette Catsoulis, indicates that it is "trite, crass and insultingly moronic." It seems to prove "definitively that slapping Mr. Franco's scenery-eating grin on any old drivel doesn't guarantee entertainment." The script is "shoveling expletives into the holes where jokes ought to be."
Andrew Lapin at Vulture calls it a "disgustingly unfunny piece of Silicon Valley worship." Lapin dismisses the title and says it should be credited to Cranston. "The actor, who once brilliantly crafted the slow-burning tragedy of Walter White, is forced to mug helplessly through scenes where he's sprayed in the face with toilet water. Why him?"
Bruce DeMara of the Toronto Star has given it the rare positive review. He said the movie is a "wildly entertaining jaunt" if you are only "looking for light seasonal fare", but which is completely filled with "ribald, gross-out humor."
Another positive review was given by John Serba at M Live, who said that he would recommend the movie "with reservations" as well as an asterisk. He is sure that he is "reserving the right to feel, someday, probably sooner rather than later, embarrassed for laughing at it as much as I did."
Do any of the reviews make you feel like going? The critics' list seems almost funny, by themselves.
