Tea Leoni Curse strikes again - the trouble with Dick and Jane
Filed under: Comedy, New Releases, RumorMonger, Remakes and Sequels
Has the budget of Fun With Dick and Jane soared past $100 million? Is star/producer demanding up to 40 takes? Were 30 pages reshot over the course of two, frantic last-minute weeks? Yes, yes, and yes, but guess what? According to a long piece in today's LA Times, test screenings suggest that this already-legendary debacle isn't actually that bad. Yep, word on the street is that Dick sees Carrey in vintage, over-the-top, highly bankable top form – which is bad news for those of us who like Carrey best when he's playing against type, in films such as The Cable Guy, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Despite the fact that the script is the work of Judd Apatow, who also wrote Guy and directed the not-at-all-terrible 40 Year-Old Virgin earlier this year, wrangles a handful of quotes that indicate that the material is total crap. Examples:
- Director Dean Parisot: "At the last second, my prop guy had these voice boxes that are a kid's toy ... I showed it to Jim and immediately he takes the voice box [and begins improvising]. Literally, there are two hours of footage from that scene where he is going on with that."
- Carrey explaining why his comedy requires 40 takes: "Because you are looking for something spontaneous, you will do a lot of takes."
- Ennumerating the piles of rewrites: "[O]ne scene that came in late has Dick and Jane and their son soaping up and bathing in a neighbor's sprinkler."
- "The movie's central conceit is that Dick and Jane aren't really bad people. They just go a little bonkers, causing all sorts of mayhem yet suffering no consequences for their crimes."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-02-2005 @ 8:35PM
nilblogette said...
Couldn't drag me to it.
Reply
12-03-2005 @ 5:24AM
Finished.Law.School said...
I hate seeing anything with Leoni in it. She is one of the most annoying actresses in Hollywood.
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12-03-2005 @ 12:02PM
Nathan said...
Hear hear. Tea Leoni is one of these actors who seem to have been selected for stardom by some secret cabal that controls the film industry, and, despite the public's never giving a damn about her, she keeps getting forced down our throats. She's blond, she's thin, she always acts as if she's recovering from an asthma attack. Absolutely boring, and ancient rumors of her having a slight gift for comic timing were grossly exaggerated. She and Duchovny need to take a hint and start "focusing on their production company."
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12-04-2005 @ 1:11AM
Deb said...
Why does this woman keep getting parts in "big" movies?
Please don't start bringing Duchovny into this, he only married it. (God knows why) Leoni and her curse is what's holding him back and bringing him down.
You know I usually enjoy Jim Carrey, but I wouldn't be able to sit through this movie and listening to her man voice.
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12-04-2005 @ 1:49AM
Finished.Law.School said...
She sounds as if she has been smoking since she was 2 years old...
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12-08-2005 @ 2:23PM
Eva said...
Yeah,
Her voice is scary. I'm in the same boat with you people. I saw her in Spanglish and it was AGONY!
For some reason casting directors that hire her are are confusing the fact that she over-dramaticizes without any form of technique with genuine acting ability. For such a beautiful woman she's painful to watch on film.
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12-06-2005 @ 7:34PM
stardoom1000 said...
I love T?Leoni. She is one of the most wonderful actress in the world.
I loved her in Jurassic Park III, The Family Man and Spanglish.
She is intelligent, fun, beautiful and has a very good taste in men.
Go T?!!T?Rules.
Reply
12-29-2005 @ 2:15PM
Jessica said...
YOu people are all crazy. I recently saw "Fun with Dick and Jane" and it is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a VERY long time. If you people don't like comedies, don't start trashing this movie, or any other movie. You think its easy acting? Well I know from experience that its not. Just because you have nothing better to do than trash movies you probably haven't seen all day then I pity you, because thats just sad. And if you have seen this movie and didn't like it, you have no sense of humor what-so-ever. Grow up. And later in your pathetic pity-me the world's so bad, prissy lives, just remember you just got told to grow up by a thirteen year old. Now what?
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