I want to preface this blog by saying that the past two weeks I’ve felt like shit. My allergies are curb stomping me and I’m struggling to get sleep. Today, I went to the movies to see Charlie Day’s directorial debut film, Fools Paradise, and it’s an ABOMINATION. Honestly, the mix of me feeling terrible and seeing a horrific movie have sent me over the edge to the point where I walked out of the Regal Cinemas seething.
Before I delve into the meat and potatoes of the film, I must state that my biggest takeaway from Fools Paradise was that I was baffled by the fact that Charlie Day is a hilarious person, but constructed a magnificently unfunny and vapid movie. He wrote and directed this film with absolutely no redeeming value. Let’s get into it.
High Expectations Were Killed Early On
Going into Fools Paradise, I was actually excited. I find Charlie Day to be a hilarious individual on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia along with being great in Horrible Bosses. The thing is, I did not get anything close to either of those projects. Day took away his best quality which is quick and played up moronic whit by making his character mute. Charlie Day tells great jokes and delivers masterful rebuttals, but we didn’t get that and that left me disappointed.
I personally just expected more from the guy who wrote the lyrics “Dayman, fighter of the Nightman, champion of the Sun” and eats milk steaks in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
The (Little Bit) Of Good
While the film was atrocious, there was a tad bit of good. One of those few shining moments was being able to see Ray Liotta. I thought that Cocaine Bear (which is The Godfather compared to Fools Paradise) was his last acting role, but seeing him one more time in an original project was fun despite him only being in a small portion of the film.
Another decent aspect of the film was its runtime. It’s only an hour and a half, which I do think is optimal for a comedy, if that’s what we’re going to call this disaster. While it did feel like it droned on for too long, it could have been a lot worse. The final note I’ll make about the good in this film was one performance and it came from Hank Schrader Dean Norris. In his limited screen time as a studio executive, he was pretty funny. That was the only time I found myself laughing though.
The Lots And Lots Of Bad
There was a lot of bad that I want to touch on in this blog. It strays from the performances to the plot to even the usage of the star studded cast along with the complete and utter miss of a satirical flick.
The Performances
Like I mentioned prior, the only performance I found to be funny and worthwhile was a two minute (if that) cameo from Dean Norris.
The rest of the performances were abysmal. Ken Jeong, who is the film’s second lead, brought nothing but over the top bad acting to the table and I realized as I left the theater that he is a terrible actor. He’s funny in The Hangover movies, but that’s because he’s not a lead. He’s just not a funny person when he has to actually act.
Then there was Adrien Brody who is usually a delightful actor and he fell flat. I understand that the film was supposed to be satirical and was meant to poke fun at celebrities, but his performance became redundant. After the second time he came on the screen I rolled my eyes; “Oh great, he’s going to talk about life as an actor and he’ll do something outrageous like shoot a gun or piss on a trash can. Oh we’re doing it again. Great.”
Kate Beckinsale was fine. Not good and not really bad. More bland than anything. Eddie Falco was far too animated, but me not liking her performance is a bit tainted because every time I see her in a film, I just think “That’s Carmela Soprano“, so I can’t really blame her for me thinking she stunk in Fools Paradise.
With Charlie Day as the lead, I wanted more. I don’t want to reiterate points from earlier, but his delivery is comedic gold and to make it where your character won’t be able to deliver hilarious lines is a whiff. He needed to put himself front and center for his directorial debut. I can’t even call his performance bad because the entire film is him making facial expressions.
A Swing And A Miss At Satire
What Charlie Day was attempting to do was make a satirical picture that pokes fun at actors and celebrities and also shows how quickly famous people can be chewed up and spit out by the cog that is Hollywood. Here’s the thing. He completely whiffed.
Satirical films over time have worked, especially comedies like Airplane, Team America, and Tropic Thunder, but Fools Paradise had no identity. The characters I was supposed to root for were unlikable and the ones that I’m not supposed to like were vanilla. It bounced between these insipid celebrities to trying to be a sob story for Ken Jeong’s character. Jeong’s character was a deadbeat publicist with no clients and was made to be this empathetic character.
Along with the major miss at satire, there was no cohesion. It went from Charlie Days character being released from a mental hospital to him being an actor to not being an actor to going back to being an actor. It felt like it moved way too quickly, yet also droned on.
I’d say that Fools Paradise is in contention for the worst movie I’ve seen this year.
Where Does This Leave Charlie Day?
Now directorial debuts are difficult to judge. Some directors come in weak and then go onto have legendary careers like David Fincher, who directed Alien 3 as his first feature film and followed it up with bangers like Se7en, The Game, and Fight Club. But you also get those who come in like a speeding bullet and sputter. That’d be Dan Gilroy with Nightcrawler or Richard Kelly with Donnie Darko.
In the case of Charlie Day, I’m not sure where he stands. On one hand, there didn’t seem to be that spark of genius that you could decipher in a disaster. On the other hand though, Day is a smart, funny, and talented individual. He co-created, acts, and writes on one of the funniest television shows ever with It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia so that spark of genius is there. I’m just not sure that directing feature films is his bag and that’s okay. He’s already an established and hilarious actor and writer on television, but movies might not work when it comes to him being the director.
Whatever he directs or writes next I’ll definitely see, but I’ll go in very cautiously. I don’t think we’ll see a Fincher like turnaround, but it could be a step in the right direction. Or at least I hope it’ll be.