Movie Review: The Ugly Truth (2009)

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Whether they're deemed "chick flicks" or the now trendier "rom-coms," I think I understand one of the reasons that first men and now women have started to stay away from the genre in droves. And that is that aside from the smash success of Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds' hit The Proposal-- it's because whether they're titled Bride Wars, He's Just Not That Into You, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, or any number of variations, once you've seen one, you've usually seen 'em all.

And this is a shame since romantic comedies or in particular-- screwball romantic comedies-- where men and women speak a mile a minute equally matched in love and loathe throughout with fiery flirtation are one of my favorite genres and one of the most inspiring to me as a writer.

I catch glimpses of that wit now and again-- most recently evidenced in Magnolia's brilliant art-house festival favorite The Answer Man starring Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham which is also opening this weekend following a video on demand presentation. Additionally it's also around in a few other comedies like Adrienne Shelley's Waitress that have also broken the mold but it's pretty rare.

While The Ugly Truth doesn't even begin to break the mold or any new ground, what it does do is rework the same cardboard cut-outs or cliched male and female types we're typically presented with in these films. Namely in one corner we have the control-freak female looking for Mr. Right in a role beautifully played by the beaming yet guileless risk-taking girl-next-door Katherine Heigl. So out of necessity, in the other corner, there's the beyond stereotypical playboy cad who even Sean Connery's version of James Bond may have felt like punching in the face, nicely portrayed by Connery's fellow Scottish countrymen, Gerard Butler.

Thus these over-used characters from the-- "man, they hate each other so much that inevitably this passion will explode into red hot romantic lust" dynamic are used as a starting point. And it's achieved via Legally Blonde screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith (who owed us a good movie after last year's House Bunny debacle) by attempting to make Nicole Eastman's story idea and first draft much snappier by going for the same extremes we would've found in the screwball era and in doing so they're somewhat successful and somewhat completely off-the-mark.

Of course, it does "screwball" without the class of an Irene Dunne and Cary Grant picture. For Grant would never have told Dunne that the only way to snare a man is with two particular body parts and by utilizing one act for which a certain former president almost received impeachment. And while you have no doubts you know exactly where it's headed as it spirals into a long conclusion that should've ended in a hotel instead of a CGI hot air balloon (don't ask), it's a damn sight more fun than most by-the-numbers studio genre pictures we've seen so far this year. Moreover, it's light-years better than the shudder-inducing Ghosts of Girlfriends Past which was so bad it actually disturbs me more than ads for the new movie Orphan.

Employing the requisite simple yet illogical premise of a rom-com, we're introduced to Heigl's award-winning Sacramento television morning show producer Abby Richter who explains that the secret to her success is "looking chaos right in the eye and telling it to 'eff' off," using her same ultra prepared manner at the workplace as in her dating life. This is evident from the start wherein she prints off a man's dating profile and runs a background check, further providing him with talking points and urging that they just go directly to number three after the conversation inevitably gets off to a shocked start.

Following the lackluster date, Heigl returns to her solo apartment to find that her cat has tuned into The Ugly Truth, the local public access show hosted by Butler's Mike Chadway where he spouts his own brand of misogynistic, chauvinistic logic that all women need to get a man is a StairMaster. One of those guys who shoots outward for humor-- Mike further philosophizes that women should burn their self-help books (however, I do agree with this one), and if they aren't seeing anyone... well, then, they're just plain ugly. And while admittedly that's lame, you can't exactly pretend you've never heard some men say this a million times before in their "it's all women's fault" rant.

Provoked by both a bad date and Chadway's insistence in the idea that his ridiculous shock-jock opinions should be held-up as facts (in a society where-- let's face it-- people do consider the opinions of people like Lou Dobbs, the nuts on Fox News Channel, Howard Stern and everyone in between as factual sources), Abby calls in to prove him wrong and defend her idea of the perfect guy who does believe in love. However, when he calls her bluff that he's imaginary, he calls her "Lassie" and ends the conversation.

Obviously, in real life the exchange would've ended there since as a public access host, he's not on a network that can get sued... until Abby discovers that to boost her sagging ratings, they've decided to bring Chadway on board a few times a week as a commentator to spice things up. And horror of horrors, the audiences love the sensationalism-- especially when he turns his negative views on marriage directly on married co-anchors Cheryl Hines and John Michael Higgins (hilarious as always).

While inevitably, Mike realizes that Abby was the woman who phoned in and takes back his "ugly" comment when he harasses her in front of the rest of the station, the two get off on a bad start, only to discover that they have to work together despite their differences and move it into the personal arena when Abby does meet a new neighbor (Eric Winter) who may in fact be Mr. Right. In another illogical-- only in the movies turn of events-- she employs Mike's help as a sort of "deal" not to blow it the way she's ruined every other date.

Sure enough their animosity grows into friendship and attraction as we begin to see other sides to Mike including his unexpected (to anyone who hasn't seen a rom-com, that is) sensitive side where his nephew is concerned. And while they take some of the shocking antics of Mike's confrontational verbal style into the visual realm with women wrestling in jello and one hilarious if dubious technological update of Meg Ryan's Harry Met Sally restaurant orgasm scene featuring a helpless Heigl-- all in all, despite its contrivances there's still a lot to like about the film no matter how hard we want to resist.

Intriguingly though, it's only Mike who is at least given the opportunity to be at least a bit more unmasked as the movie goes on even though poor Butler slips in and out of his Scottish accent briefly throughout. To this end, there's still some lingering questions we have about Heigl's Abby and perhaps why her need to be perfect or in control reigns supreme that I felt were ignored in favor of just asking us to simply buy into the workaholic female stereotype as opposed to exploring her on the same level as Mike.

Still, in lieu of this flaw of managing to improve on one traditional cardboard cut-out at the sacrifice of another (more or less although Heigl's charm helps endear her to us)-- the script again is still far easier to accept and root for than other recent works. Namely, the more serious offenders would be the women written into Bride Wars as well as the passive heroine of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past who would've been much better off solo than with a leading man so unlikable I wouldn't have cared whether or not his character had been hit by a bus.

Following a reschedule from its previous April opening date and coming off the heels of the success of the more all-ages viewer friendly Proposal as well as hitting theatres post-Potter and coinciding with the expansion of the unorthodox romantic sleeper (500) Days of Summer, The Ugly Truth may well be affected attendance-wise. And while it isn't perfect, Ugly Truth at least will manage to keep men awake more them some of the recent studio made rom-coms that have come before it, if only because you'll be in constant shock at the ridiculous things Butler manages to say with a straight face.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.

DVD & Blu-ray Review: Henry Poole is Here (2008)

Overture Films & Anchor Bay Entertainment's
"Modern Day Fable"
Miraculously Materializes on
Blu-ray & DVD on 1/20/09

An Introduction

Although admittedly Henry Poole is Here was one of my least favorite films of 2008 as I didn't quite buy into the contrivances set forth, I definitely admired its intention and great heart in trying to craft a film that would provide hope and encouragement during a dark time, even if the result was less than stellar.

Despite its uneven result and mixed critical and audience reception, this sleeper work garnered enough support from its target demographic which was no doubt bolstered when the film received one of the year's Heartland Truly Moving Picture Awards.

While I still greatly prefer Overture Pictures' more subtle works of positivity and friendship including last year's magnificent The Visitor (one of the very best of '08) and the late '08 and early '09 (depending on your city) offering, Last Chance Harvey (which also received the Heartland Award), the most satisfying element that Poole has going for it is in its terrific portrayal by its leading actor, Luke Wilson.

Always underrated yet able to slip in and out of comedy and drama as he did in the works made with his brother Owen and friend Wes Anderson including Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums-- he keeps the film from sinking as Poole's true anchor and will hopefully impress future directors that there's much more to the handsome Texan than the endless roles as "the boyfriend" which he played in Charlie's Angels, Legally Blonde, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and countless others.

On behalf of the film's release to DVD and Blu-ray, Anchor Bay Entertainment was kind enough to send both formats my way for a second look. While my response to the film itself remains unchanged, I'll evaluate the technical aspects of the discs following a reprint of my original review below in this two-part post.

I. The Film

Original Theatrical Film Review:
Henry Poole is Here
8/15/08

Director:
Mark Pellington

If your house is made of stucco, run like the wind.

After getting his start directing some of the '90s most recognizable and lauded music videos, including Pearl Jam’s controversial MTV award-winning “Jeremy” and U2’s moving “One,” film critics took note of director Mark Pellington with his 1999 paranoid, terrorism chiller Arlington Road starring Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins. In fact, in retrospect it seems all the eerier for having been released just two years before 9/11.

Following up Road with the lukewarm new age thriller The Mothman Prophecies, which pegged him squarely in the same genre territory as M. Night Shyamalan, later Pellington was offered the cruelest twist of fate in his personal life when he unexpectedly lost his beloved wife in 2004.

Understandably driven to a deep depression and suffering post-trauma in trying to cope and raise his daughter at the same time, according to journalist John Horn, Pellington “started reexamining screenplays he had earlier considered making, looking for more humanistic stories.”

While it’s an admirable decision and indeed American audiences are hungry for more genuine “people movers” such as The Truman Show, Stranger Than Fiction, and Pleasantville, unfortunately Pellington made a poor choice in source material by committing to the overly preachy, heavy-handed, and condescending Henry Poole Is Here, penned by screenwriter Albert Torres.

Despite this, it benefits greatly from the emotionally effective performance of its lead Luke Wilson, working in a similar vein as his character in The Royal Tenenbaums. As the film opens, Wilson — who serves as Poole’s anchor as the misty-eyed, titular sad puppy — purchases a bland suburban home in Los Angeles from the perpetually sunny realtor played by Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) in an upbeat portrayal that seems modeled on a stereotypical combination of cheerleader, Avon lady, dental hygienist, and flight attendant.

However, in spite of her pesky perkiness, her brief presence is especially welcome, in stark contrast to the overwhelmingly depressed, unkempt, unshaven, heavy drinking and doughnut-eating Henry Poole who, due to easy to foreshadow circumstances, shares that he isn’t planning on living there long. And indeed Hines is desperately missed after her character vanishes and she’s replaced by Oscar nominated Babel star Adriana Barraza as his well-intentioned busybody neighbor Esperanza, who sets the ridiculous plot in motion when she catches a glimpse of a mysterious water stain amidst the stucco siding of Henry’s house and decides that it is the face of God.

Logically irritated, Poole who is adamant about living his life in solitude, is soon overwhelmed by not only Esperanza’s routine visits but other members of his community and her church (including her priest played by George Lopez) after a drop of what seems to be blood appears in the stucco. And the floodgates open even wider when miraculous events start occurring in his seemingly ordinary neighborhood after people touch his wall.

However, whatever one’s individual religious beliefs may be, the film quickly goes from intriguingly quirky to obnoxiously pious. In addition it ridicules those who believe in the importance of science with the incessant phrasing that everything that happens to you is within your control "if you believe" and likewise your misfortune is your own fault if you don't. (Oh yes, try telling that to someone with cancer or using that explanation to sum up the Holocaust or genocide happening around the world.) It's a cruel sentiment to both those who have suffered and a cruel stereotype of the "religious" depicted as Pellington's film gives a bad name to believers and non-believers alike.

This is especially evident as characters given obvious names such as Patience (played by a likable Rachel Seiferth) and Dawn (Melinda and Melinda's Radha Mitchell) along with the wearying Esperanza condescend to the audience repeatedly. And soon it’s hard to tell the characters apart due to the dialogue as they begin delivering their homily-styled speeches, quoting Noam Chomsky and citing Gorbachev. As written, the women all sound like dogmatically propagandist character cut-outs — or worse, door-to-door converters or airport preachers — rather than fully fleshed out human beings, sharing their own experiences about faith or spirituality in a way that seems at all believable, genuine, and/or admirable.

Although he hesitates to call Poole “a religious film,” correctly arguing that “there's a separation for me between religion and spirituality,” unfortunately as a film Poole is unable to convey Pellington’s assertion. Instead, it presents itself as a truly transparent morality tale that would even be a bit too contrived to play as an effective Sunday school lesson, let alone offering a compelling or intriguing enough arc to make a worthwhile, quality mainstream film.

In predictably going from one contrived plot point to the next, Poole manages to provoke shaking heads and unintentional giggles by its complete lack of respect for the audience’s intelligence. Additionally, it forgoes any attempt to legitimately and admirably inspire viewers by constantly telling us what to think and how to feel as if it’s a sermon, instead of the Capraesque work it’s aspiring to be.

A rambling mess of a movie — while it’s painful to criticize a work that came from such a personal place for the talented Pellington — ultimately by forcing us through “therapy” rather than leading us through a journey of humanity, he managed to make something one can’t label religious, spiritual or hopeful but just woefully ill-conceived and nearly unbearable, save for Luke Wilson.

II. The Blu-ray & DVD

As the film is predominantly set in what Henry Poole's press release describes as a "cookie cutter house in a drab, middle-class, L.A. neighborhood," the film's cinematographic color scheme is noticeably muted and dulled on both the DVD and Blu-ray but the Blu's quality is predictably superior, offering excellent flesh tone color (almost too close as we can see every single stubble of hair on Henry's face).

And, since the film's visual look is supposed to be bland overall, there isn't a very large difference between the formats but the sound clarity on the Blu-ray heightens the experience as we hear every subtle effect in the overly quiet film in crystal digital clarity.

While typically the special features offered on both are the same, there are some distinct differences with the two. Boasting a feature-length audio commentary with the director and screenwriter, a fifteen minute making of featurette (which serves as a near love letter to Wilson's blend of Jack Lemmon and Jimmy Stewart like aura), a music video for "All Roads Lead Home," and a theatrical trailer, the Blu-ray additionally offers a second audio commentary with Pellington and cinematographer Eric Schmidt as well as BD-live enabled features such as deleted scenes with optional commentary and more exclusives. However, the DVD does dish up one extra not found on the Blu in the "Henry Poole is Here" music video performed by the film's Myspace.com Song-Writing Contest Winner Ron Irizarry.

New on DVD for the Week of 11/23/08

DVD Pick of the Week:

Bottle Rocket

Bottle Rocket [Criterion Collection]

Composing the Beatles Songbook: Lennon & McCartney (1966-1970)

Fred Claus

Hancock

The Kingdom [Blu-ray]

Meet Dave

Space Chimps

Other New Arrivals

Henry Poole Is Here (2008)

If your house is made of stucco, run like the wind.

Director:
Mark Pellington

After getting his start directing some of the '90’s most recognizable and lauded music videos, including Pearl Jam’s controversial MTV award-winning “Jeremy” and U2’s moving “One,” film critics took note of director Mark Pellington with his 1999 paranoid, terrorism chiller Arlington Road starring Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins. In fact, in retrospect it seems all the eerier for having been released just two years before 9/11.

Following up Road with the lukewarm new age thriller The Mothman Prophecies, which pegged him squarely in the same genre territory as M. Night Shyamalan, later Pellington was offered the cruelest twist of fate in his personal life when he unexpectedly lost his beloved wife in 2004. Understandably driven to a deep depression and suffering post-trauma in trying to cope and raise his daughter at the same time, according to journalist John Horn, Pellington “started reexamining screenplays he had earlier considered making, looking for more humanistic stories.”

While it’s an admirable decision and indeed American audiences are hungry for more genuine “people movers” such as The Truman Show, Stranger Than Fiction, and Pleasantville, unfortunately Pellington made a poor choice in source material by committing to the overly preachy, heavy-handed, and condescending Henry Poole Is Here, penned by screenwriter Albert Torres.

Despite this, it benefits greatly from the emotionally effective performance of its lead Luke Wilson, working in a similar vein as his character in The Royal Tenenbaums. As the film opens, Wilson — who serves as Poole’s anchor as the misty-eyed, titular sad puppy — purchases a bland suburban home in Los Angeles from the perpetually sunny realtor played by Cheryl Hines in an upbeat portrayal that seems modeled on a stereotypical combination of cheerleader, Avon lady, dental hygienist, and flight attendant. However, in spite of her pesky perkiness, her brief presence is especially welcome, in stark contrast to the overwhelmingly depressed, unkempt, unshaven, heavy drinking and doughnut-eating Henry Poole who, due to easy to foreshadow circumstances, shares that he isn’t planning on living there long. And indeed Hines is desperately missed after her character vanishes and she’s replaced by Oscar nominated Babel star Adriana Barraza as his well-intentioned busybody neighbor Esperanza, who sets the ridiculous plot in motion when she catches a glimpse of a mysterious water stain amidst the stucco siding of Henry’s house and decides that it is the face of God.

Logically irritated, Poole who is adamant about living his life in solitude, is soon overwhelmed by not only Esperanza’s routine visits but other members of his community and her church (including her priest played by George Lopez) after a drop of what seems to be blood appears in the stucco. And the floodgates open even wider when miraculous events start occurring in his seemingly ordinary neighborhood after people touch his wall. However, whatever one’s individual religious beliefs may be, the film quickly goes from intriguingly quirky to obnoxiously pious. In addition it ridicules those who believe in the importance of science with the incessant phrasing that everything that happens to you is within your control "if you believe" and likewise your misfortune is your own fault if you don't. (Oh yes, try telling that to someone with cancer or using that explanation to sum up the Holocaust or genocide happening around the world.) It's a cruel sentiment to both those who have suffered and a cruel stereotype of the "religious" depicted as Pellington's film gives a bad name to believers and non-believers alike.

This is especially evident as characters given obvious names such as Patience (played by a likable Rachel Seiferth) and Dawn (Radha Mitchell) along with the wearying Esperanza condescend to the audience. And soon it’s hard to tell the characters apart due to the dialogue as they begin delivering their homily-styled speeches, quoting Noam Chomsky and citing Gorbachev. As written, the women all sound like dogmatically propagandist character cut-outs — or worse, door-to-door converters or airport preachers — rather than fully fleshed out human beings, sharing their own experiences about faith or spirituality in a way that seem at all believable, genuine, and/or admirable.

Although he hesitates to call Poole “a religious film,” correctly arguing that “there's a separation for me between religion and spirituality,” unfortunately as a film Poole is unable to convey Pellington’s assertion. Instead, it presents itself as a truly transparent morality tale that would even be a bit too contrived to play as an effective Sunday school lesson, let alone offering a compelling or intriguing enough arc to make a worthwhile, quality mainstream film.

In predictably going from one contrived plot point to the next, Poole manages to provoke shaking heads and unintentional giggles by its complete lack of respect for the audience’s intelligence. Additionally, it forgoes any attempt to legitimately and admirably inspire viewers by constantly telling us what to think and how to feel as if it’s a sermon, instead of the Capraesque work it’s aspiring to be.

A rambling mess of a movie — while it’s painful to criticize a work that came from such a personal place for the talented Pellington — ultimately by forcing us through “therapy” rather than leading us through a journey of humanity, he managed to make something one can’t label religious, spiritual or hopeful but just woefully ill-conceived and nearly unbearable, save for Wilson.

Space Chimps

Director: Kirk DeMicco

Every monkey dance now! I’m not sure when the trend started, but by now it’s nearly become a prerequisite for all animated children’s movies to contain at least one '70s or '80s-inspired dance party sequence. In addition, the mandates seem to be doubly serious when the animated characters are animals — whether they’re penguins partying in the snow with their Happy Feet or getting jiggy with Shark Tale. Let’s just say that in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion can’t sleep tonight because he’s breaking in his dancing shoes, much to the delight of audiences everywhere even if it only occupies a precious few moments of screen time.

And while “the few, the proud, the monkeys” in Space Chimps are a bit footloose and fancy free, they’re more preoccupied with being chosen by a slightly shady Senator (voiced to delicious effect by Stanley Tucci) to “straighten up and fly right.” In this throwback to the days when NASA utilized primates in their earliest space missions, they are being sent on a risky quest to retrieve an unmanned lost ship that has journeyed through a black hole. While the no-nonsense, NASA-trained Titan (Seinfeld’s Patrick Warburton) and Luna (Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Cheryl Hines) take their assignment seriously, they find their rank challenged when the cynical, circus-performing grandson of the first ape in space, Ham III (Andy Samberg), is recruited to join the flight by the publicity hungry senator hoping to up the mission’s coolness factor.

With his career in mind, realizing that by now NASA and scientists in general are so nerdy that if this assignment is unsuccessful, the Senator has devised a fall-back plan to turn the center into a “Paint Your Own Plate” arts and crafts emporium. His motives seem to be unapparent to everyone except Samberg’s rebellious Ham, who says he doesn’t “want to be the warm-up act for human astronauts.” Tricking Ham into believing he’s taking part in a simulated mission, the three monkeys blast off for the great beyond, sliding through the black hole to arrive alongside the missing pod only to discover an inhabited planet where an egomaniacal and tyrannical leader is threatening to sacrifice the occupants in a hubris-driven ode for supreme reign.

Although on strictly entertainment value, it’s infinitely preferable to another animals in space children’s film due out this summer (the review of which will be forthcoming), Space Chimps pales in comparison to the more polished Pixar offering WALL-E (incidentally also involving the solar system) as well as my two favorite children’s films this year so far, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who and Kung Fu Panda. Despite this, younger kids will find Space Chimps’ skies far friendlier than the darkness of WALL-E, even if adults may find themselves looking at their watch several times throughout.

Refreshingly, keeping in mind the adults who must tow along the children in their lives, Chimps does make a genuine effort to insert clever intellect and mature humor such as a terrific sequence wherein Ham finds himself in a Freudian conflict between his Superego and Id, while chatting with Luna upon the cloud of Id as she continually asks, “How does that make you feel?” In addition references are made to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album, modern technology in the form of “banana-berries” as well as sky-travel classics such as Airplane, as one character notes that he’s picked the wrong day to quit eating bananas as a salute to the iconic Lloyd Bridges character.

Harmless and light — although it’s certain to vanish in the wake of The Dark Knight in its opening weekend — the lackluster but mildly entertaining interstellar Chimps will be sure to garner a bigger family friendly audience when it arrives in the DVD galaxy and can be savored in living rooms where toddlers can dance along whenever the chimps feel the obligatory need to turn the beat around.

The Grand

Director:
Zak Penn

In The Grand, Woody Harrelson’s character Jack Faro is proof that for addicts, sometimes admitting you have a problem is not the first step. In fact, in his case, it seems to have been the gateway that perhaps just having only one, two, or eight addictions weren’t enough as—cheaper by the dozen—it’s Jack’s policy to “bring ‘em on” becoming addicted to every possible drug known to man. And while we’re at it, he threw marriage into the mix, making Elizabeth Taylor look like a blushing amateur, having walked down the aisle exactly 74 times and although he tells the camera in Zak Penn’s hilarious Christopher Guest-like mockumentary that he loved each and every one of his wives, within minutes we realize that he can’t exactly place them all.

Soon, true to form, Jack completely forgets the fact that he’d once wed the lovely, Shannon Elizabeth who works as an employee of the casino he’d inherited from his grandfather. Incidentally, it's the same place he’s darn near run into the ground with disastrous theme choices for its reconstruction including renovating the classic old school Rabbit’s Foot Casino so that it resembles a nuclear reactor or pays homage to the great Chicago Fire. Obviously, the drugs have affected his mental state and rock bottom for Jack came when he was kicked out of his own casino and-- although he can’t honestly remember-- he believes he’d given the order himself.

Needless to say he’s got a lot of work to do and fittingly we first encounter Jack where he’s resided for two years at rehab where he’s up to his Casanova like old ways, wooing his doctor with a song about the twelve steps, although he’s only on the first one. Promising his lovesick doctor that he’ll write, he’s convinced to leave rehab to try and save his family’s Rabbit’s Foot Casino by playing for a place in the final round of the six person North American Indoor Poker League winner take all tournament, complete with a ten million dollar prize.

Harrelson’s hilarious performance serves as the film’s anchor and coming off the heels of his impressive work in the somber No Country for Old Men and The Walker, it's a nice stepping stone to an even funnier ensemble piece than his work alongside Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro. In order to give Harrelson more to work with, Zak Penn invites numerous veteran comedians to the cinematic party as well. Although IMDb reports the script was a mere twenty-nine pages, in the hands of improvisational pros and versatile entertainers like Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Ray Romano, Jason Alexander, Richard Kind, Judy Greer, and countless others, they elevate what should have been a lackluster forgettable rental into one of the most surprisingly entertaining DVD sleepers of 2008.

One of the first and incidentally least likable competitors we meet is Chris Parnell’s angry, anal-retentive, mathematically obsessed Harold who not only lives with his mother but makes her life a living hell ensuring she’s always preparing his nutritious brain food, complete with supplements. Moving the action to Massapequa, we meet one of the competition’s likeliest frontrunners, Lainie (Cheryl Hines), who given the rarity of her gender in the finals is merely dubbed “The Woman” instead of being served up one of the memorable, alternately cheesy, and hip nicknames. Having been raised by a hyper masculine, challenge hungry, dysfunctional father (Gabe Kaplan) alongside her fellow aggressive and obnoxious player and brother Larry (David Cross), Lainie is used to dealing with difficult men. However, her main preoccupation away from cards seems to be tirelessly supporting her husband Ray Romano who hasn’t been the same since he survived a lightning strike. Now filling his time by inventing new ideas such as “the round beach towel,” nonsensical sayings, and odd handshakes, Romano’s biggest concern seems to be in negotiating with his wife over who has to look after their children if her shot at the championship conflicts with his Yahoo Fantasy Football draft time slot.

Of course, Vegas isn’t Vegas without veteran old-timers and they arrive in the form of an odd turn from legendary director Werner Herzog as a surprisingly hilarious and frightening man simply dubbed “The German” who shares that he feels most alive and ensures maximum human energy by killing an animal everyday. We also meet Dennis Farina’s cowboy-hat-and-boot-wearing Deuce Fairbanks who, when he isn’t threatening to whack those who annoy him, bemoans the downfall of Sin City when they began letting people wearing culottes into the casinos.

Ordinarily with that many players, one would think they’d have their work cut out for them already, but the biggest question mark arrives later on. The players don't know exactly what to think when the laughably amateurish and earnestly friendly, successful online party poker winner Andy Andrews (Richard Kind) abandons the icy temperatures of Wisconsin, complete with his supportive wife (Judy Greer) in tow, hoping they’ll be the ones to capture the ten million dollar booty in order to flee the cold weather and Greer’s self-owned Ribbon Store to move somewhere warm.

One of the perils of releasing a mockumentary after Spinal Tap performer turned director Christopher Guest has basically perfected the art and turned it into a science with his brilliant classics Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, is that one will never be able to reach the astronomically high bar set by those films. However, as mock-docs go, I’ve seen far worse, and I was quite surprised by the freewheeling, rapid-fire humor of The Grand which seemed to belong to the vintage Woody Allen and Steve Martin school of a gag-a-minute approach (with only half being successful). I’d even go as far as to say I’d watch this one again in a heartbeat before I popped Guest’s sharp but largely melancholy A Mighty Wind back into my disc player.

Predictably most critics employed a “party” analogy to utilize in their critiques in describing The Grand’s overwhelmingly large cast that’s nearly bursting at the seams, thus pointing out that with that many “attendees” it’s hard for viewers to become attentive hosts, giving each an adequate amount of attention. This being said, Penn knows which individuals are worth spending more time with and which cameos are best left trimmed for by the editors (for example: only a few moments of Brett Ratner and much more Jason Alexander). And with the one exception of wanting to see more of the scene stealing Herzog as we’ve never seen him before—amazed that this tyrannical, mad Dr. Strangelove like character is embodied by the same person who brought us the masterful Rescue Dawn-- when our attention is largely directed at veteran performers like Harrelson and Hines, we know we’re in good hands.

So when Incredible Hulk writer Zak Penn is the one holding The Grand’s deck of cards, the audience can lean back and say, as Shirley MacLaine famously quipped at the end of The Apartment, “shut up and deal.”