YOU, ME AND DUPREE

Have you ever had a house-guest before? You know what I mean. An acquaintance of yours who resides within your domicile for a short while; keeping you company in their own amiable way. No? Then you best have a look at this film Directed by Anthony Russo; and Starring: Kate Hudson, Owen Wilson, Matt Dillon, Michael Douglas, and Seth Rogen. It was made in 2006, and lasts for 109-minutes.


You, Me and Dupree


THE STORY:
Holy Goldie Hawn! Hasn't the square-jawed suburbanite, Carl Peterson (Matt Dillon), got it all? He's married the girl of his dreams, Molly (Kate Hudson). He's got a promotion in his father-in-laws construction company, Bob Thompson (Michael Douglas). Plus to top it all off, he's got his best friend sleeping on his couch.

No. Not the wife-beaten scallywag, Neil (Seth Rogen).  The job-less, home-less, and directions-less scallywag, Randy Dupree (Owen Wilson).

Yeah. Not the best person to live with, huh? Because -- as expected -- Dupree's singleton ways manages to rub up Molly and Carl the wrong way. He walks around half-naked half of the time. He messes around with their living arrangements. He has 'the guy's' round to watch a football match and causes a right mess. And worst still, is that when Molly tries to set Dupree up on a date -- so she can curb his alternate lifestyle -- Dupree inadvertently catches fire to their home in the process.

Ouch! So what do Molly and Carl do about this, huh? Kick him out? Hell yes! Damn straight they do! Dupree does leave for a short while. And when they let him back in again when he's sad and alone, Dupree does his utmost to make everything all right again.

Yeah! You name it, he does it. He cleans up their house. He helps Molly out at work. And he also befriends Molly on a personal level as well, opening up to her about how he sees the nature of existence.

Heck, even Molly's Dad, Bob, likes him too!

Still, do you honestly think Carl see's it like this? No. Afraid not. Which is most probably why what next transpires is a rather obligatory tale of beginnings and endings.  As friends fight - husbands take flight - father-in-laws are dismayed - and a trinity is finally made.  

THE REVIEW:

Now after reading what some of the other reviewers said about 'You, me and Dupree', I have to admit, I wasn't really going to watch this movie (lets just say they weren't too nice about it, OK?).  Still, me being the inquisitive person that I am, I thought that I should push these naysayer to one side, and then judge this comedy for myself.

And do you know what? I'm glad that I did.

You see, conceptually, this is what I would call a good-bad film -- because it has good actors in it, but has a very bi-polar story-line dragging in toe. So what do I normally do when I am presented with this type of ying-yang dilemma? Correct -- advantage / disadvantage time.

ADVANTAGE:

(1) Michael Douglas is his sinister best in this film. Honestly, I would have liked to have seen a lot more of him in it. He's really that good. In many ways the character he plays reminds me of the part he had in 'Wall Street' -- Gordon Gekko -- just a lot less of a b*stard. (2) Although the story is somewhat thin on the surface, it seems obvious to me that the actors involved did try their best to give it some more scope -- especially Owen and Matt. (3) Kate Hudson is distractingly pretty in this picture. And when she gets the chance to act 'for real' -- she does. (4) Some of my most favorite scenes in this film are the ones with Owen Wilson in them. I particularly liked his chase scene with the guard, plus his speech he gave to the class. Funny. Very funny. (5)  In a round about way this movie had a message in it about chasing your dreams, and never letting anybody putting them down. And I suppose any film with a message like that, is a good film in my book.

DISADVATAGE:

(1) The first half of this film is very 'yawn-some' to say the least. It presents a tried and tested formula of 'a wacky-pal' barging in on a newly-weds suburban home, and then... ZZZzzz. (2)  Certain aspects of this film didn't really work for me, because it was as though happenstance was overtly contrived and forced into the proceedings. For example, that whole segment where Dupree sends the children out into the streets to find Carl -- well -- it was unnecessarily within the confines of this story, due to its lack of scope. (3) I would have liked to have seen more of Seth Rogen's character in this movie -- he wasn't used that much -- and he comes across as 'filler' in hindsight. (4) As much as I like Matt Dillon as an actor, in this piece he didn't get to show that many dimensions to his character. Most of the time he just seemed depressed or pissed off. (5) Overall film does come across as a story of two-half's -- with one-half a 'zany house-guest' situation, and the other-half a 'bad father-in-law' situation. Nuff said. Zzzzzzzz.

Five a piece -- yeah -- seems about right. 'You, me and Dupree' is a film which had a good concept behind it, and had the promise it to be a great film. Unfortunately it was let down on the quality of the story-line though. Now this is by no mean the fault of the actors involved or the director of this movie -- Anthony Russo -- as they all did the best they could with what they had. Rather, it was due to a lacklustre script and a strained plot-line.

Still, better luck next time, huh? 

THE RATING: B-