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>> STUCK ON YOU

Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Cher, Merryl Street, and more ...
Director: The Farrelly Brothers
Genre: Comedy




bob (matt damon) and walt (greg kinnear) are joined at the hip ... literally. as conjoined twins (they prefer this term than siamese), they happily do everything together, even though they're different in every way. bob's a jock, and walt's a show-off. bob's shy with the ladies, while walt gets them in bed in minutes. when walt gets a chance at fame and fortune in hollywood, bob's right by his side, for better or worse.

the farrely brothers do it again. a comedy with none of the gross-out humor in some of their other films, they continue to show people with handicaps in a positive light without trying to embarass the characters or the audience. matt damon and greg kinear do a very good job as conjoined twins, and although they only share nine inches worth of real estate at the hip, the characters are portrayed as exceptional teamates, including some preposterous situations in team sports (they would still count as two players, right?), working in a kitchen (nine burgers in under three minutes?) and separate and unequal sex lives (a flimsy curtain doesn’t provide much privacy). meryl streep has one of the best natured cameos, cher pokes some fun at her diva image and there are no evil villains to be vanquished.

this is an amiable little comedy that really showcases the talents of its stars. this is no "dumb and dumber", this is smart and in a way touching! however, the subtle comedy scenes makes us think that the farrelly boys may be losing their touch! stuck on you, while somewhat entertaining and more than a little touching, is even less of a farrelly brothers movie than shallow hal was. sure, you've got the usual story of the main characters leaving the north east (in this case, martha's vineyard instead of rhode island) for seemingly greener pastures, and you've got your song-a-minute farrelly brothers soundtrack, which really adds nothing to this movie, but there are no gross-out gags whatsoever. that's fine, no one said a movie had to be nauseatingly revolting to be funny, but unfortunately, there are also no jokes that will make you collapse off your chair, clutching your sides, begging for a respite from a laughing fit that won't seem to stop.

well, i'm not saying that the movie has to be over-the-wall funny. i mean it is a good movie with good message. it's more of a drama with a subtle hint of comedy in it. but my point was that the farrellys made their mark in hollywood with "dumb & dumber", a movie that would not have been half as funny as it was without jim carrey's goofy antics. "kingpin" was a gross-out based disappointment, but then they came back with their second best effort, "there's something about mary", a secretion-filled laughfest that somehow managed to snag the female portion of the movie-going world almost as effectively as james cameron did with "titanic" (well, maybe not!). "shallow hal" was the first step in a maturing process for the boys, offering a sentimental, yet warped love story. but "shallow hal" beats out "stuck on you" because, while the jokes don't exactly flow like wine, at least the characters were funny unto themselves. "stuck on you" offers no one interesting other than greg kinnear's and matt damon's jolly siamese twins (oops, i mean "conjoined"). the other characters are as dull as out-of-costume power rangers (note:one of these co-stars IS an honest-to-goodness power ranger!): eva mendes plays a buxom, dimwitted neighbour whose only funny lines come from a few rare display of ignorance, cher plays herself as a real snooch, but not to the extent she should have for pure comedic value, and matt damon's romantic co-star, the beautiful (?) mighty morphin wen yann shih, is about as good an actress as one could expect from someone whose greatest claim to fame so far was a role in a children's action movie; she goes through the film with her eyes on the floor, trying to look timid and shy with her mouth wide open half the time. couldn't they have found lucy liu or someone else?

rhe rest of the cast is your usual assortment of wacky supporters, about half of whom look to be handicapped in some way or another in real life, a commendable farrelly trademark, but a little overdone here. it's at the point now where it looks like they are running a charity for handicapable actors and extras. while the story is a definite original and does raise some interesting points regarding conjoined twins, the movie just isn't THAT funny. i never once found that I couldn't stop myself from laughing. there were absolutely no scenes that caused the audience to break out into such riotous laughter as to cause me to miss the next 30 seconds of dialogue (see there's something about mary's "hair gel") and every joke about the conjoinedness of our two leads that could have been truly funny is delivered with the intention to make us boo the person making the joke instead of truly laughing at the comment. nope, it's sad to say that the farrellys are losing what made them great: their genuine sense of tastelessness and politically incorrect humour.

while the story is a smart yet, touchy light drama, unfortunately, it fails as a comedy movie.


>> rated by :: sLesTa | [ ]

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