I didn't watch this movie over the years until yesterday and I laughed a lot when I was watching it. I remember seeing parts of it years ago and thinking it was dumb but when I watched it last night something was different: I was high off of a space cake that a friend of mine had given me. That kind of changes everything as far as humor was concerned and I though the movie was great.
Released in 2004, another reason that I haven't seen this movie up until now is probably because that is the year that I left the United States and moved to Asia. At that point in my life I had decided to abandon most technology in lieu of regaining appreciation for life. I had a room and a computer but I did not have internet, a television, or a DVD player. Plus the city I had just moved to did not have a movie theater and if it did a movie like this would have been very unlikely to come to it anyway.
The film is a mostly slapstick comedy about three friends named Tom, Jerry, and Dan (Dax Shepard, Matthew Lillard, and Seth Green) who were best pals in college who meet back up at a mutual friend's funeral after 12 years apart. Upon visiting his their friend's childhood treehouse that they all enjoyed as kids, they discover a treasure map and decide to take off as a team to find this downed airplane containing some stolen money from a bank heist or something - it isn't really important.
What makes the film funny is that the 3 of them are not nature types and even though they are quite intelligent, especially one character that is a medical doctor, they are terrible at outdoors stuff. This has already been done with City Slickers and many other films like it, but these guys are YOUNGER!
Like I said, it is stupid but if you are high you'll laugh a bit just like I did.
Back in 2004 none of these guys were big box-office draws and while things improved for Dax Shepard's marketability, he was a relative unknown at the time. Matthew Lillard was still searching for a way to capitalize on a legendary horror film he was in nearly a decade prior, and Seth Green was Seth Green, that is to say, someone that I have never really found amusing outside of his voiceover work on Family Guy.
It's basically a movie about the power of friendship and a "coming of age" film of sorts but for people in their 30's.
Like I said, my enjoyment of this comedy probably has more to do with the space cake than it does with the actual greatness of the film but I laughed a lot and my dog was probably wondering what was so funny.
It ended up making a pretty decent amount of money at the box office as it nearly quadrupled its relatively small budget of $19 million. It of course is ranked very low on RT and IMDB but any slapstick movie ends up that way almost without exception.
I wouldn't bet that this film has much rewatch value, but if you are among the millions and millions of people that haven't seen this movie it might make you laugh a bit as well, especially if you have access to some edibles.
My overall rating? 6/ 10
