This is the third entry in Jim Carrey's Trilogy of Generic Ethical Comedies, after Liar Liar and Fun with Dick & Jane, and if it is at all possible, Yes Man far out-blands the others. Here is the premise, loosely based on a memoir with the same name: Carrey's character decides, with the nudging of a self-help guru played by a slumming Terence Stamp (who provides the only 15 seconds of the film actually worth watching), that he will say yes to everything. So he binge drinks, takes flying lessons, responds to spam about penile enhancement, and gets a blowjob from a toothless old lady. This dilemma completely lacks drama. Carrey could say no whenever he wants to and thereby resolve the situation, he just chooses not to. All the perfunctory plot elements get trotted out, and the ending happens when it should. Everything's so apathetic that the movie feels like a shrug, and even Flight of the Conchords' Rhys Darby, phoning in a sad Ricky Gervais impersonation, can't get a laugh out of this dreck.
It doesn't help that Carrey is experiencing the Robin Williams
Effect in full force: His sense of humor has been cuddlied up and
plasticized to the point where the sight of him invokes a weird
melancholia. He's become a too-tan creep, like those guys back in the
mid-'90s who used to do unfunny Jim Carrey impersonations when they got
drunk at parties. And pairing him with Zooey Deschanel (as the world's
most adorablest hipster art-tard who isn't currently a character in a
Michel Gondry film) is a tragic mistake. Deschanel seems genuine and
flirty; Carrey seems phony, tired, and about 20 years too old for her.
But even Carrey's intrinsic creepiness shouldn't be notable enough to
inspire anyone to watch this movie. Like drunken sex, it just happens
to you, and then you forget about it. 
RSS
Twitter
Comments (3) RSS