Waiting (2005)
 |
Director: Cast: Country: Year: 2005 Score: * MPAA Rating: |
In Mike Judge’s seminal comedy OFFICE SPACE, Peter and his Initech cronies usually chill at a theme restaurant that is staffed by overly perky waiters who push jalapeno poppers and fill their suspenders with flair, much to the chagrin of the customers. It was an amusing scene in that film, and WAITING, a very OFFICE SPACE-like comedy, stretches that idea out to a brisk nineties minutes, and while it never reaches the comedic highs of OFFICE SPACE, the perversely low-brow WAITING is a funny little diversion in it’s own right that while never too clever, is filled with enough dick-and-fart jokes to keep a constant chuckle going.
And believe me, that’s not a bad thing.
At a TGIFriday’s-type eatery called Shananaganz, a group of twenty-somethings with no future, led by the incredibly amusing Monty (Ryan Reynolds) go about their business day, training a new kid, arguing over promotions, getting high, hocking loogies in mash potatoes to bitchy customers and playing a little thing called “the penis game”, the object of which is to get another staff member to unwittingly look at you penis, upon which, when they do, you kick them in the ***censored*** and call them a derogatory expletive for homosexuality. (Coincidentally, this game leads to one of the most unpleasant displays of female pubic hair ever to be flashed across the silver screen, in a scene that is both gut-bustingly funny and incredibly stomach churning. You have been warned.)
Written by first-time director Rob McKittrick, Waiting takes pride in being a truly repugnant gross-out comedy of the highest order, but there is, incredibly, also an underlying sense of wistfulness for those days where I’m sure many of us may have worked in the food-service industry, possibly at a ***censored*** Chili’s-type restaurant, just waiting for your life to go somewhere, while simultaneously knowing that right now you’re stuck where you are.
Sadly, there may be some of you reading this who are still there. You probably won’t find it too funny or wistful.
But even more than that, somehow what could have been just another stupid cheap yuks comedy morphs into a great little coming of age piece abut realizing when it’s time to, to use a cliché, put away childish things, like bongs and what not, away and grow up. The scene where Dean (Justin Long) is given a fat tip by a former classmate who has made the big time is so well written, that it become strangely poignant and so very true. It’s frightening how true it actually is.
The cast is a pretty nice comedy coup: first off, Ryan Reynolds. I have a total and complete hetero-man-crush on him and will pretty much see anything he’s in, just to get a taste of his what-should-be-patented smarm. Anytime he’s playing the Chevy Chase-esque smart-***censored***, you know that there’s going to be quite a few laughs, even if it’s just from his perfect comic delivery alone.
Besides Reynolds, comedian Dane Cook, MTV man-child Andy Milonakis, ANCHORMAN’s David Koechner, SCARY MOVIE’s Anna Faris and the always-a-pleasure Luis Guzman round out the cast, pretty much filling every scene they’re in with enough laughs to justify the ticket price. The cast really looks like they are having a great time and it rubs off on the audience, making us wish that we worked with characters like these. If only more comedies could get casts like this.
Director McKittrick’s script moves fast and is filled with one laugh after another and, much like OFFICE SPACE, which didn’t do so hot in it’s original theatrical release, is destined to become a DVD must-own, dominating the shelves of many a twenty-something. Seriously—it’s gonna one of those movies that you pull out and watch with friends, when you’re bored late-night or loan out a million times after asking, “Hey man—have you ever seen WAITING?”
Much like a rubber steak from one of these restaurants, WAITING is a made-to-order exercise in tastelessness, hot off the grill with a side of rice pilaf and a baked potato. It’s not a classic outing, but it’ll fill you up good enough tonight.
And possibly tomorrow night, because I don’t feel like cooking.
Review by: Louis Fowler
Recent News
I thought “Waiting” sucked. I literally did not laugh out loud once. I probably chuckled twice throughout the whole movie. I don’t know what movie you were watching, but Ryan Reynolds was awful as the lead. Every line in the movie was so contrived. What I didn’t get was that if people were so miserable working at Shananaganz why didn’t they quit. Especially the female waiter who was described as working their way to long by Ryan Reynolds. If she was so miserable why didn’t she quit. I mean the actors never mentioned on perk they recieved while working there. In fact there is a scene when they are all counting their tips, and they all seem disappointed. Ryan Reynold’s tone of voice really got on my nerves, none of his lines had any weight to them. There was this one scene where Justin Long is having dinner with Ryan Reynolds and his mother. Throughout the whole scene Ryan Reynolds and his mother were talking about his Sex life. At one point his mother asked him if he uses protection, he says yeah “by pulling out”. His mother then says your “father tried that, but look what I ended up with.” Reynold’s ends the conversation by saying that why stick to ***censored*** sex.” I guess its supposed to be funny since he is talking to his mother that way, but the whole scene fell flat on its face. By the end of that movie I was wondering what was the point of that movie. Why did a company put up the money to make such a pointless movie. I know I was not the only one in the theater that thought this movie sucked, because for about 100 minutes there was no laughter. If I had to describe this movie in one word it would be: Pathetic!
this is the greatest movie ever ive been in the restaraunt buisness for 20 plus years and this hits it right on the head