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'Dick and Jane' lacks the fun factor
By L. KENT WOLGAMOTT
Thursday, Dec 22, 2005 - 08:35:52 pm CST

From the needless remake department comes “Fun With Dick and Jane.”

The update of the 1977 suburban heist comedy with Jane Fonda and George Segal stars Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni and takes a shot at Enron-style corporate greed in its seen-it-before storyline.

Carrey, who is back to his rubber-limbed comedy after a number of more serious roles, plays Dick Harper, a junior communications executive at Globodyne, a giant, apparently successful, corporation. Promoted to vice president by CEO Jack McAlister (Alec Baldwin), Dick encourages his wife, Jane (Tea Leoni), to quit her job at a travel agency and start the home improvements they’ve been dreaming about.

Disaster strikes, however. Globodyne goes into an Enron-style meltdown and Dick is left holding the bag, trying to explain the company’s downfall on television as its stock heads into the tank. Left jobless and with pension and savings in now worthless stock, Dick is confident he’ll get another job soon.

But with dozens of out-of-work executives fighting for a place in line to get an interview, Dick soon figures out that he’s not going to be a high roller again. A job as a greeter at a Wal-Mart-like retailer doesn’t work out. Neither do Jane’s efforts to make money, first as a Tae-bo instructor, then as a guinea pig in a botox test.

Desperate, Dick picks up their son’s squirt gun and heads out to the nearest convenience store to make some money the easy, illegal way. Before long, he and Jane are a top-flight criminal team, masters of disguise who make thousands hitting and running.

There are some laughs in the heists. And there’s a very funny scene in which Dick, having been in a fight and then deported as an illegal alien, and Jane, with reaction to the botox treatments, try to kiss with swollen lips and faces. But that’s the high point of the movie, which should tell you something.

There’s nothing offensive about “Fun With Dick and Jane,” which has a PG-13 rating, making it yet another holiday film that’s desperately trying to land the family audience. And it does channel our national disgust with corporate greed into a vengeance-is-ours subplot.

But it’s just not that funny and certainly far from original. Memo to Hollywood: Come up with some new ideas and stories and maybe people will come back to the movies.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.

Fun With Dick and Jane

Director: Dean Parisot

Stars: Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni, Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins

Rated: PG-13 (for brief language, some sexual humor and occasional humorous drug references)

Now Showing: Grand, Edgewood

The Reel Story: Carrey and Leoni are a suburban couple forced to become robbers because of a corporate collapse in this so-so remake of the 1977 George Segal/Jane Fonda comedy.

Note: L. Kent Wolgamott’s review was in Wednesday’s paper.