If you are watching a movie and nothing much happens by the 30 minute mark, then I think you can guarantee that not much else is going to catch your attention in the latter part. Never has this been more true than here, a movie that starts off with a brief monster sighting in Korea, a drunken break up, and endless scenes of time-filling dialogue that has all the wit of a student film gone bad. Our heroine is Anne Hathaway in a wig, her name not being so important. She's a functioning alcoholic that gets kicked out of her boyfriend's place and is forced to move back into a 2-story home previously owned by her parents in the burbs. Along the way, she encounters an old childhood friend played by Jason Sudeikis who owns a bar and only works to feed her addictions. Did I mention she wears a bad wig?
By this point in the film, we are baffled to even remember than inexplicable monster from the beginning. Was that the same movie? Suddenly, the news is filled with terror from the city of Seoul: a giant monster is roaming the city every night, destroying everything in it's path. It appears and disappears in a cloud of electricity, and no one can explain why. Hathaway does some thinking and comes to the logical conclusion that she is the monster, activating it every time she walks through a nearby playground on her drunken walks home. The monster copies her actions. This might sound dumb if she didn't turn out to be dead on.
The logical thing would be to just avoid the playground altogether and the movie is solved. Not so fast. Sudeikis, who's character is designed to be the charming boyfriend-type suddenly turns in the last 30 minutes into a villain with no rhyme or reason. He inexplicably forms a large robot whenever he enters the playground, and he's suddenly set on destroying Seoul just to spite Hathaway. The script, which is oftentimes littered with some clever ideas, shows no respect for its characters and switches hats in ways that made my eyes roll to the back of my head. Sudeikis as a villain is about as laughable as anything I have seen this year. Coupled with Hathaway's wide-eyed tearful scenery chewing at every turn, we have two strong candidates for some Razzie Awards next year. I can't think of two more over-the-top performances.
The movie is weighted down by some absurdly intense scenes in the back half of the film where Sudeikis threatens his patrons with a large firework and repeatedly punches Hathaway in attempts to do something bad, probably. Another scene shows a sobbing Hathaway watching as Sudeikis stomps through a playground in slow motion (implying that hundreds of Koreans are being killed by this monster). Even common logic is thrown out the window: if a monster appears downtown every night, then why haven't citizens been evacuated and the city abandoned?
Watch the trailer for this movie. Not only does it fail to show the tone of the actual film, but it's actually a hilarious and off-the-wall peak at a screwball comedy that could have been. If I missed something that audiences liked, then I don't want to know. I once read a critic who states it best: "one of the worst movies you'll see this year, but it's still worth not seeing."
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