At
what point does the goodwill of Luke Wilson being an affable, good-looking
Wilson brother cease to compensate enough for the incessant string of box
office bombs this guy stars in each year? Sure, he was in Old School way back in
2003, but you probably didn’t remember so until I just reminded you despite him
being the ostensible star of the film. Since then, it’s been Disaster Alley for
the kid with Blockbuster cutout bin favorites like My Super Ex-Girlfriend, The
Wendell Baker Story, The Family Stone, and Idiocracy
(which, to be fair, I will take Devin at his word that it’s actually good). And
I could understand if these were rancid movies that he excelled in, but he’s
never been able to bring anything more than a wan, safe presence to any film he’s
ever been in. It’s especially painful to watch him try to tread water amongst
more able comedians when he cameos in stuff like Anchorman and Blades
of Glory. It’s like going to a guitar shred-a-thon consisting of Eddie
Van Halen, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, and….who’s that bringing up the
rear?…it’s C.C. DeVille from Poison?!?!
Aaaaanyway,
he just grabbed yet another comedy-drama entitled Henry Poole Is Here,
which follows the eponymous gent after he gets news that he has but six weeks
to live. He decides to live on a crappy diet and slack off all day. Ah, the
chuckles we’ll have. This side-splitter is being helmed by Mark Pellington, who’s
probably still best known amongst our generation for doing Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy”
video. Of course, he managed to turn out a couple of average thrillers (Arlington
Road, The Mothman Prophecies) at the box office , but his dormant CV
since then should clue you in on how well those turned out.
The
premise of this movie is certainly a handicap but a smidgen of imagination,
which I doubt will come from either fellow, could add a little spark. Hell, rip
it from the headlines. I just heard about some guy who was told he had 6 months
to live due to pancreatic cancer or something, so he decided to live life crazy
and stop paying his bills. Several months after his checkout date, he was still
breathing, so he checked back with the docs, who revised their estimate to
simple pancreatitis and gave him a hearty “Whoops” and a smile. See? That is fucking funny.