Listen, I love me The State. It was the first sketch comedy group that I really liked, since Kids in the Hall was a little over my head and Upright Citizens Brigade seemed a little pointless. I also loved me some Wet Hot American Summer (WHAS), the summer camp satire set in 1981 and produced by the State crew and directed by David Wain. Yeah, and I mostly like Reno 911 but don’t go out of my way to watch it, and I bought the Stella Season One DVD and liked it.
Credibility established? Okay, let’s begin then.
I was disappointed in The Ten, the latest film by the same crew. The film follows ten somewhat-related storylines, loosely tied to the ten commandments.
You see, WHAS introduced some big non-State names like Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce and Molly Shannon but doesn’t focus too much attention on them, mainly playing off the always-entertaining Michael Showalter and Ken Marino. This film is drug down by the fact that I spent most of my time watching Paul Rudd, Wynona Rider, Jessica Alba and Famke Janssen strut their stuff while I kept my eye out for State cameos. For a film directed by David Wain and co-written by Ken Marino, I was expecting more of my homies.
That, and it’s not all that funny, or original, or cohesive. I will say that the movie was entertaining, but I don’t expect to want to watch it again for several more years, and even then it’ll be that obligatory, “hey, maybe it wasn’t so bad…” kind of thing.
Review: 2 out of 5 commandments (yes, I know there are ten of them)
Russ Crandall:
Tyler Miller:
Steve McKay:
Giang Cao:
Janeane Garofalo is movie poison.