BEFORE: We went out to play bingo last night in Queens, something we've never done, but we figured we're not too many years away from being seniors, so we'd better get used to the activities involved. There were a couple challenges in learning when to use the boards and the chips, and when to switch to the paper grids and ink markers (for the special jackpot rounds) but we managed by just doing what everyone else in the bingo hall was doing. I was surprised to see some older ladies playing about 20 boards at a time, and not using any chips - so they either memorized the boards, or they memorized the called numbers and could just see the bingos in their heads - either way, the feat was impressive.
On the last round, the man in charge came on the microphone to talk about next week's jackpots, and the caller probably should have paused the game while he spoke, but instead she kept drawing numbers, and this led to a number appearing on the board without being called out loud, and as a result there was almost a riot in the bingo hall. I can't remember when I've seen so many angry senior citizens, but the more they yelled at the man on the microphone, the more he refused to admit that his announcement had caused a mistake, so things got ugly.
Back to comedies tonight, and reaching back closer to the start of Robin Williams' movie career.
THE PLOT: A car salesman has two days to sell 12 cars or he loses his job. This would be a difficult task at the best of times but he has to contend with his girlfriends, a missing teenage daughter, an ex-wife, and a crazy jealous husband with a machine gun.
AFTER: You'd think that after so many serious films this week, anything even remotely funny would seem hilarious by comparison, but apparently that's not how it works, because I'm having trouble finding the funny in this one. The way I see it, you can't put a bunch of elements that aren't funny together and expect the combined result to somehow be funny. Divorce? Not funny, unless it's in a slice-of-life kind of way. A missing daughter? Definitely not funny, even if she's just rebelling and spending time with her boyfriend. Adultery? Nope. And a guy taking over the car dealership with a gun and holding people hostage? How did someone determine that this would be a good situation to mine some comedy from?
Yeah, I get it - he's a salesman, he's supposed to be good at talking people into buying cars, and he has to put that skill to use to talk the gunman out of killing people. But that doesn't make into a funny situation. When was the last time you heard on the news about someone entering a business with a rifle, and that story had anything but a very tragic ending? It's just a bad idea all around. Or you never hear, "Hey, remember that time the guy with an assault rifle held us hostage? Yeah, that was hilarious, plus I think we all learned something from the experience."
On top of that, why create a character whose life is a mess, probably by his own design, and based on what we know about car salesman, probably tells lies for a living? Why would I root for this guy to succeed, or to be in a situation where he gets a chance to turn his life around, when from the start I may not feel like this guy even deserves redemption?
Maybe I missed something here, after watching this I didn't feel like it added anything to my experience, I could have gone forward without this one and not regretted it - of course, I can't possibly predict that will happen. So I sort of just have to watch it to clear it off the books.
Also starring Tim Robbins (last seen in "Zathura: A Space Adventure"), Fran Drescher (last heard in "Hotel Transylvania"), Pamela Reed (last seen in "Melvin and Howard"), Annabella Sciorra (last seen in "The Hard Way"), Paul Guilfoyle (last seen in "Random Hearts"), Lori Petty, Zack Norman, Bill Nelson, Lauren Tom, Paul Herman, with cameos from Bill Nunn, Elaine Stritch (last seen in "A Farewell to Arms").
RATING: 3 out of 10 business cards
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