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WAITING
STARRING Ryan Reynolds, Justin Long and Anna Faris
DIRECTED BY Rob McKittrick
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A gross-out comedy geared towards twentysomethings suffering from career angst, Waiting will be remembered for years to come, not because it’s an overly significant piece of work, but because this stomach-churner could possibly put an end to the trend of catching dinner and a movie.
Set almost entirely in a TGI Fridays-style restaurant called Shenanigans, the title of Waiting plays double duty – the story revolves around the wacky wait staff, following them through a routinely disgusting day, but it also refers to their aspirations of waiting for something better to come along.
Headliner Ryan Reynolds is Monty (although you’d swear that, four years later, he’s still playing Van Wilder), the coolest guy at Shenanigans, although one fellow employee equals that to "being the smartest kid with Down Syndrome." Monty is asked by his dorky manager (David Koechner) to show a new hire named Mitch (John Francis Daley) the ropes. The plot consists of poor Mitch having to deal with the psychotic and seriously unhygienic staff, including gangsta busboys, a lesbian bartender and a twitching, cursing, stressed-out waitress (scene stealer Alanna Ubach). And then there’s the penis-showing game, an activity that pretty much speaks for itself.
Who is director and former restaurant employee Rob McKittrick trying to fool? Waiting is to McKittrick what Office Space was to Mike Judge – a chance to poke fun at his former vocation. Thus, we get to enjoy visuals of kitchen staff flashing their genitalia, booting around beef and poultry, and giving "special attention" to the meals of snotty customers.
They’re cheap laughs. But then, this is a cheap-looking movie. Reynolds uses his smarm to massage the material, but his wiseass smirk can’t carry this one. Not when nothing else is cooking. |
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