A terminal man with cancer(Bateman) goes on a road trip with his two estranged friends (Howell and Silverman) who vow to go separate ways afterwards only to meet a quirky waitress (Potts) along the way before truths are exchanged, bonds are rebuild and hijinks ensue. This movie is really something else, utterly ridiculous and painfully written. Breaking The Rules (in which no rules are broken) features really good acting from the four leads, indeed Jason Bateman and C. Thomas Howell are highly underrated actors, but this material gives them nothing to work with. The biggest problem is how terrible the comedy scenes are, like nothing here is funny, but even worse is how terribly directed these scenes are. The stuff that deals with Bateman's cancer are admittedly sort of moving, and at times we are invested in the plight of Bateman. One great set piece in a very poorly written scene finds C. Thonas Howell getting angry at Bateman for being sick and giving his cancer drugs angrily. You hope this they turn this into something honest, but just when the scene builds momentum, it is half heartedly resolved and dropped for the comedy angle. This movie is godawful as a comedy because it's just not funny, but you sort of see the vision in the drama. One figures this movie would be far better had they gone the drama route, but because much of the comedy is jarring it totally kills the actual dramatic element. In the end this movie should be less funny and more dramatic, but the director has no conviction in his material, you have good actors who sell the drama, but the comedy is so stupid and so lame it cheapens everything else. In such terms, it's like asking out a woman, and then saying 'Just Kidding' before she says yes or no. It indicates a level of having so little faith in your product, that you labor for a cheap laugh and in doing so make the drama irrelevant and make the experience pathetic.
* Out Of 4-(Bad)
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