Dinner for Schmucks Trailer | Lost In Translation

Lost In Translation

By Steven Lloyd Wilson | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (17)

It’s all about perspective. These actors headlining a comedy make it look like gold:

Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Zach Galifianakis, Ron Livingston.

But then toss in this little detail advertised right there in the trailer:

“From the Director of Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers”

Well shit, if that’s not the Adam’s apple bobbing above the cleavage I don’t know what is. This script looks like it came out of a book of MadLibs: Paul Rudd will be the straight man generic career climber, Steve Carell will be a weird guy who makes dioramas out of stuffed mice, Zach Galifianakis thinks that he can control minds, Larry Wilmore and Kristen Schaal will act like they do on the Daily Show. Hilarity will ensue at a dinner party. A valuable lesson is learned by everyone about firing your agent for not screening the scripts more closely.

Sick of trailers giving away all the funny bits of the comedy? This is just the trailer for you! There’s not a single funny bit in the whole thing! Really the only funny thing about this trailer is the fact that Larry Wilmore and Kristen Schaal are in a good third of the trailer but don’t appear anywhere on the IMDB page for the film. So either they both worked under noms de guerre for this masterpiece, they didn’t want their name attached to the final train wreck, or they actually only have about two minutes of screen time each but represented 90% of the good parts of the movie and so had to be stitched into the trailer disproportionately. And if these are the good parts … whoa doggies.

The film is based on the French film Le Diner de Cons and has this PR summary:

“Dinner for Schmucks” tells the story of Tim (Paul Rudd), a guy on the verge of having it all. The only thing standing between him and total career success is finding the perfect guest to bring to his boss’ annual Dinner for Extraordinary People, an event where the winner of the evening brings the most eccentric character as his guest. Enter Barry (Steve Carell), a guy with a passion for dressing mice up in tiny outfits to recreate great works of art. From Jay Roach, director of “Meet the Parents” and “Meet the Fockers” comes an unforgettable feast about two unlikely friends and one very memorable dinner.

I’m guessing something got lost in translation from French to moron.

(source: SlashFilm)

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Comments

Well shit, if that’s not the Adam’s apple bobbing above the cleavage I don’t know what is.

________________

I will now be using this phrase at every opportunity. Thank you.

Posted by: Kballs at April 7, 2010 10:43 AM

I loved Le Diner de Cons and was weirded out when I heard it was being remade. It's such an odd film to try and redo, but it worked. It looks like they took out all the sweetness and humor and just smooshed it with their Americanness.

But if I'm being completely honest, sight gags with dickies will always make me laugh.

That statement is in your hands, Internet.

Posted by: Kayanne at April 7, 2010 10:49 AM

OK, I've seen the French original movie, "The Dinner Game," and the American version bears NO resemblance to it. "The Dinner Game" is basically a two person play that takes place entirely in the normal guy's apartment, because he throws his back out and the weird guy hangs around to "help" him out. They never go to the dinner party because the normal guy is in too much pain. It's a very funny movie where every good deed does not go unpunished.

The weird guy is not a slapstick disaster. He's just a shlimazel. Everything he tries to do to help, just backfires. The American movie is just looks too too over the top idiotic.

Yiddish lesson for the day:

Shlemiel: Someone who is a clutz.
Shlimazel: Someone who bad things happen to.

The shlemiel spilled the soup in the shlimazel's lap.

Posted by: BWeaves at April 7, 2010 10:54 AM

BWeaves: Ron just taught us that lesson on "Parks & Rec" a couple of weeks ago. The More You Know!

Posted by: TylerDFC at April 7, 2010 11:00 AM

Thanks Tyler. I didn't watch that. I learned my Yiddish from my Grandpops. Then I veganized his chopped liver recipe and life hasn't been the same since.

Posted by: BWeaves at April 7, 2010 11:07 AM

Ehh, that wasn't so terrible. Not nearly as good as the cast, but not terrible.

Posted by: trippdup at April 7, 2010 11:09 AM

Yes Tyler! Jerry manages to be both the schlemiel and the shlimazel.

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at April 7, 2010 11:15 AM

But I like seeing Steve Carrell do some different character work. It's much better than seeing him just play Michael Scott in everything.
Plus did I catch a glimpse of Nick Kroll? That dude is quickly becoming one of my favorite comedy/improv guys.

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at April 7, 2010 11:17 AM

The thing with Le Diner de Cons, is that, as BWeaves said so, it is not made for slapstik and action. It was adapted from a play, and the play well, takes place entirely in the guy's apartment. So maybe it's funny how it can play out in the actual diner. I'm curious.

It's weird that I'm the French one who has to defend the Americanization of a French "classic" (it airs often on french Tv, I must have seen it five times) but maybe they edited the movie so that Americans can relate to it as an American comedy. And maybe they remade it well. Because the french one wasn't really about the laughs you could get from the theatrical trailer. You have to see it and fall for the characters and the story.

ok that's a lot of maybes, but hey, I'm just saying.

Posted by: rg at April 7, 2010 11:28 AM

DAMMIT!
Kballs beat me to it. THAT is some funny shit right there.

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at April 7, 2010 11:49 AM

This looks super meh, but I will inevitably see it, because I love all things Paul Rudd. Even "I Could Never Be Your Woman."

And that Adam's apple line is sheer fucking poetry.

Posted by: MelBivDevoe at April 7, 2010 12:59 PM

I must have been way too optimistic when I heard about this remake of Le Dîner de Cons, because that trailer is garbage. I actually kind of like the change of the idiot guy to making dioramas with mice (he made replicas of monuments in the original film) since it is so bizarre, but it just ruins the tone of the original. And, why isn't the protagonist a jerk? The American version seems to make him, and the film really, too nice and PC. At least the title is a pretty decent translation.

Posted by: Jessica at April 7, 2010 1:21 PM

Zach Ghoweverthefuckyouspellhisname is absolutely my favorite person in a "don't even try to have sex to a movie he's in because he is the biggest turnoff ever to exist in human form" way.

Posted by: esme at April 7, 2010 1:44 PM

Oh, yeah, I forgot that in the French version, the "normal" guy is a real jerk, who really deserves all the crap that happens to him via the shlimazel.

Posted by: BWeaves at April 7, 2010 2:27 PM

I don't know, this trailer was pretty hilarious. You know who, as a group of people, is particular not funny? The French.

Posted by: k.b. smith at April 7, 2010 9:40 PM

I think it looks funny. Why would I not like this? I love everyone involved.

Posted by: Mebe at April 8, 2010 9:32 AM

Le Diner de Cons has been one of my favorite movies for years and yes, I'm American. Though I love Carrell and Rudd, I'm already disappointed in the remake and it's not even out yet. The fact that in the original, the guy was a total jerk then had a moment of remorse in the end which ended as soon as the "idiot" finally messes up his life for good, is golden! I'm ashamed that the American version has to commercialize the film in order to make it accessible to us. Clearly, we're the idiots.

Posted by: Ash at July 20, 2010 1:22 AM

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