Failure to Launch

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Review #59 of 365
Film: Failure to Launch [PG-13] 97 minutes
WIP: $8.00
When 1st Seen: 10 March 2006
Where Viewed: United Artists Twin Peak Mall 10, Longmont, CO
Time: 4:30 p.m.

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Early advertisements had Failure to Launch being released in February 2006. For some reason, the film ‘failed to launch’ and was delayed or rescheduled to March. Given the theme of love and blah, blah, blah, combined with the lack-luster releases in February, I think this film would have been better suited for its original release date closer to Valentine’s Day. March is the month of spring break releases where Hollywood generally starts to float some ‘great’ movies for college kids on spring break, so it might be easy for this light-hearted comedy / semi-date movie to get lost in the shuffle, and some would say that is ok, but the marketing director for the film might have thought about this a bit more. People who saw How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (which also starred Matthew McConaughey as a hapless guy ‘trying’ or ‘not trying’ to find love) may feel there are some similarities between the two films and get the idea, therefore, that this too is more of a ‘chick flick’ or ‘date movie’. It’s very hard to say which gender will like this movie more, perhaps neither. Let me play this out a little for you. A few years ago, MTV aired a show called “Undressed” which utilized multi-episodic plot arcs intertwined over a few weeks that dealt with various relationships of every size and shape. I recall seeing one of these arcs that involved a kid known as the Trashman whose job it was to break up couples so that guys wouldn’t have to officially dump their girlfriends. Instead, they would become involved with Trashman and he would then dump them. Trashman made quite a living out of this, until, one day, he actually fell in love with the girl he was supposed to ‘trash’. Well, this concept bears a striking resemblance to the idea behind Failure to Launch where Sarah Jessica Parker plays Paula, a woman who discovers a lucrative business in helping parents get their 30+ year old sons to finally leave the nest by coaxing them to fall for her and then breaking up with them. Her ‘patented’ formula for success has earned her rave reviews that eventually reach the ears of Al (Terry ‘forced to see way, way, way too much of him naked in this film’ Bradshaw) and Sue (Kathy ‘seemed like she was in a state of utter misery the entire film’ Bates) parents of 30+ year old Tripp (Matthew ‘born in 1969--so no more making fun of Jason Priestly for playing 6 years younger that he was on BH90210’ McConaughey). Needless to say, they decide to contract Paula to work her magic on Tripp. Based on what I have alluded, you can guess what happens to their plan. Ironically, the supporting cast was a blast including Tripp’s buddies Ace (Justin Bartha) and Demo (Bradley ‘bad guy from Wedding Crashers’ Cooper) who do everything they can to coax Tripp to find real love and move out of his parent’s house despite the fact that they too still live at home. They know he isn’t really happy because, as it happens, Tripp suffered a terrible loss six years ago—are you intrigued—well, you’ll have to read a different review or see the movie to find out what it was that has emotionally frozen him. Also, Paula has a love-deprived roommate, Kit (Zooey ‘you might remember her from her cute performance as Jovie in the Will Ferrell comedy, Elf’ Deschanel) who is pestered throughout the film by a mockingbird that won’t stop singing. Kit, Demo, and Ace, provide much of the comic relief needed to distract us from the perfectly ugly stuff going on in the Paula/Tripp relationship. Yet, the fact that we end up knowing more about these three than the main two characters begins to reveal the source of the problems with this film in general. This film is what I call a Jack La Lanne’s Juicer movie. Surely, you’ve seen the infomercials for Jack’s Power Juicer? If not, here is an uncompensated link to his web site which you have to see to believe. Anyway, the juicer is this crazy device that lets you put any fruit or vegetable you want into it, and it pumps out ‘refreshing’, ‘all-natural’, ‘delicious’ juice. ‘Delicious’? Don’t combine beets, bananas, and asparagus! (I’m guessing, I don’t actually own one of these juicers.) If you took that episode of MTV’s “Undressed” I mentioned earlier, a sappy episode each of “Flipper” and “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”, the ‘High Treason parts 1 & 2’ episodes of the 1994 tv series “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.”, the movies: The Family Stone, Down with Love, Fried Green Tomatoes, and a few deleted scenes from “Animals Gone Wild” and shoved them into Jack’s Juicer, out would come Failure to Launch. Doesn’t sound too pretty does it?

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Failure To Launch [DVD](2006) DVD

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