This is a remake of a 1977 comedy of the same name, an update of the same premise of your happily married couple who found themselves in debt and having to rob in order to pay the bills.
Starring Jim Carrey (who produced this movie) and Tea Leoni, they're Dick and Jane Harper, who are living the American dream, with nice house, nice car, nice kid, nice housekeeper, and nice family dog too. A promotion to Vice President of Communications in a conglomerate makes Dick Harper arrive. But only for a day as his first task is to make the televised announcement of his company's finances, and found out that the company is in dire straits.
So begins the barrage of comedic situations where Dick and Jane struggle to sustain their livelihood with the minimal amount of resources, with situations even as absurd as getting deported. The jokes are not laugh-a-minute, and at times seemed too contrived, even for a Jim Carrey movie. We know what he's capable of, but in this movie, he's somewhat restrained in his delivery, perhaps having to share screen time with a partner in Leoni made him cut down the antics?
But the movie's obvious jab is on the recent spate of corporate scandals, and in that it does quite well, working them into the movie with no holds barred. It even had the cheek to give special thanks in its credits to the executives at Enron, WorldCom, and had a direct reference to the shredding episode of now-defunct auditing firm Arthur Andersen.
Alec Baldwin certainly had a field day as the villain of the movie, the CEO of the conglomerate Globodyne who siphoned off every penny from the company before it collapsed. Is he going on the decline, having to play supporting roles, and the "bad guy" as well, the latest in recent memory being another CEO in Elizabethtown? Hmm.
Is this comedy memorable? Sadly no. It's ok for the occasional laughs, but absolutely nothing to make you laugh in tears. Fans of Jim Carrey, you'll lament the good old days. Bring them back!
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