Fun with Dick & Jane Review

In 1977, George Segal and Jane Fonda starred in the comedy Fun with Dick and Jane. In the 2005 remake, Jim Carey and Tea Leoni are the yuppies who lose everything when the company goes bung.Dick and Jane Harper have it all. The house, the car, the cute son and a second mortgage. After years of working like an ox for Globodyne, they hit the big time, when Dick's promoted to vice president. But the next day the company goes bust, Enron style. Their perfect life goes rapidly down the drain.Not prepared to abandon their kushy lifestyle, Dick and Jane resort to crime, in a Bonnie and Clyde style parody and take their revenge on the corrupt corporation, headed by Alec Baldwin. The film starts out brilliantly as a clever observation of suburban middle class desire. Tea Leoni and Jim Carey's perfect couple act is spot on, but when they turn to crime, the story gets silly, becoming a montage of funny costumes and robberies. Even a comedy needs real emotion and context to work - perhaps some introspection from the characters about their actions. As victims of extreme corporate greed, you’d think there’d be at least a moment of heartache. But the script never allows for anything more than sitcom sadness, so when the pay off finally comes, it doesn’t make much of an impact.