So here we go - the first genuine stinker of the year. I'm not particularly inclined to spend that much time reviewing it either, seeing as it's taken an unnecessarily-long two hours of my life already.
The dilemma is this: bloke (Vince Vaughn) sees wife of best mate (Kevin James, his wife being somewhat implausibly played by the ever-radiant Winona Ryder) in a romantic clinch with a tattooed Other Man (Channing Tatum) and spends the rest of the film wrangling over whether or not to spill the beans. In the background is a misplaced subplot involving car engine design.
Plus points: Winona Ryder's in it
Minus points: pretty much everything else. Vaughn is all saggy self-parody, James and Jennifer Connolly (as Vaughan's wife) tread water, Queen Latifah flails in a redundant role. The story is unbalanced, the dialogue is stupid (all of the jokes fall flat) and the tone is just a mess. Ron Howard, normally a reliable director, has made a complete pig's breakfast of this - is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Nobody knows, least of all the cast and crew.
Avoid.
*1/10 (and would have been 0/10 were it not for Winona)
Screening notes:
Relatively empty, nobody laughed. Hi-vis security guy provided a welcome distraction by walking up and down the stairs a bit.
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