Thursday 8 May 2014

Walk Of Shame Movie Review

Walk Of Shame Review


Director: Steve Brill
Starring: Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Gillian Jacobs, Sarah Wright

All title and director surname puns aside and all anguish let go of with the rolling of the credits; it is no surprise that ‘weak sauce’ comedy-caper WALK OF SHAME is living up to it’s name at the US box office. With scantily even a good thing to say about Elizabeth Banks, who lets face it – we ALL love to love, it’s obvious that writer/director Steve Brill hasn’t put pen to paper in 14 years. I’m assuming he hasn’t been on a date in as much time either, at least not to the pictures.
It should be doing all right as a date movie shouldn’t it? After all that’s exactly what it is. Don’t get me wrong; I know there is absolutely, positively a place for trashy, easy-watching comedies. I love a good cabbagy movie. Forget DRILLBIT TAYLOR but Mr. Deeds, which is another old Brill one, is believe it or not one of my favourite Sandler flicks! But just like in the vegetable world, there is ‘savoy’ (good) cabbage and then there’s crap cabbage. WALK OF SHAME is not a savoy cabbage! The oh-so thin plot, which boils away to literally nothing, goes like this…
Meghan (Elizabeth Banks) is dragged out drinking at a club in downtown LA by her two annoying besties Rose (Gillian Jacobs) and Denis (Sarah Wright). After being dumped by her fiancée and losing out on a huge promotion at her job as a news anchor, it’s pretty much exactly what she needs. In a heartbeat, she meets Gordon (James Marsden), the guy of her dreams who drives them back to his place in Meghan’s car to get it on. Short story short – she prepares to tip toe out early to go home but luckily hears a voicemail informing her that the job could once more be hers, IF she makes it into work on time and delivers a final convincing news reading. My oh my. She must be so excited because she somehow ends up out on the street moneyless, carless and cellphoneless. Hmm. [Insert hole here] With nothing but a strangely undermining look at her skills as an independent woman to employ, she is a babe in the woods. ‘Lost in the hood’, she is naïve and innocent in an attention grabbing canary yellow dress.
It could just be me, but I think a sense of what is an acceptable standard in comedy is fading. In all seriousness, that yellow dress is about the only bright thing about this film. With a lot of forced narrative and few very forced laughs for a comedy; the shapely dress and the poster image of the girl in it are about the only honest elements on offer that actually feature in the film. They will no doubt contribute to a large portion of what tickets do sell; each participant a moth to the proverbial flame that is fatal patterned conformity. I suppose the template can result in success, but this relies wholly on plot developments that include interesting character and scenario coming together to form the opportunity for good humour. In this instance, like so many disposable films before it; I felt completely exhausted before the pointless journey had even begun. I recently turned off WE’RE THE MILLERS only thirty minutes in and THIS was even worse. Go back to 1994 and BABY’S DAY OUT offered more childish high points.
I can’t help hoping that Banks jumped unknowingly on the offering of a lead role following her delightful casting in the ongoing THE HUNGER GAMES franchise. A momentary gem in THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN and a total diamond in ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO (Smith Knows how to work her); she also works overtime in many a successful TV show too, like 30 Rock and Modern Family. I’m not sure what Marsden’s excuse is but in my opinion this project is completely beneath the both of them. I really dismay to think of so many worthy independents struggling so hard to gain recognition and cinema release, when such pathetic and lazy productions are polished up into glossy products and spoon fed to the masses. WALK OF SHAME might look attractive tonight and you may wanna be spoon fed our little bird, but trust me you will regret it. Take my advice and do what the filmmakers seemingly did at every turn. Don’t give yourself any grief. Take the easy way out.

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