Quite a feat, huh? Casting Matthau and still bombing. But really that is what happens when you have two lame sitcom writers and a director who are far more concerned with being "socially conscious" (read: subservient to their Overlords) than funny. This is why we have a hooded Caucasian robber who imitates a blac$ man, then later says "we always blame the bla$k guys for everything anyway". Which is in hindsight the dumbest line of all times, considering that since this movie had been made literally every societal ill has been pinned on the other side, the scapegoats. Wealthy Caucasian people... such as Ritchie? Nah, of course not him: he's a do-gooder. He doesn't count: it's all those evil Christ-fearing gun-totting Reps we need to smear and make pariahs out of, scapegoats. $oviets had taught Hollywood the ropes, and since then it's been cop-paste ad nauseam, plus a few imaginative touches by the West's own loony fringe.
That robber character makes zero sense. He chooses to impersonate a bl**k man... why exactly? (I mean, other than to satisfy Ritchie's need for political posturing.) If he is wearing a mask nobody will recognize him anyway so who CARES which race he belongs to? It's not as if him NOT impersonating someone else would drastically increase the chances of the police finding him, what with tens of millions of adult white men roaming the States... (most of them "evil raci$ts" by definition).
Much dumber though is that the robber is a high-end hit man who is "forced to rob diners because of the economy". What? First rule of comedy: "if it isn't based in reality, it isn't funny". Absurdist comedy is a whole other story, but we're talking about a regular formula satire, like this one here, which is supposedly rooted in reality. Especially one that wants to tackle social issues.
Except that it isn't rooted in reality. The way the cop station is portrayed... complete and utter nonsense. Or the fact that a hardened career criminal from a "famous armed robbery" gets out on bail - AFTER robbing a store at gunpoint, wounding a man, and AFTER doing home invasion in order to execute a witness.
In what America was Ritchie residing? Beverly Hills, probably... That explains a lot, why he was so out of touch.
How is any of this even remotely rooted in reality? And that's why most of the humor bombs. The reason why Matthau is actually less funny than Williams (which is another anti-feat) is because Williams is reacting to the situations with anger - logically and naturally, whereas Matthau is behaving basically like Gandhi. I mean, Ritchie may as well have given a shirt for Matthau to wear, saying "I'm a pacifist: peace and love, y'all". That's how subtle all of this is.
Of course, as always, whenever Reds preach they contradict themselves; they get entangled in the webs of nonsense of their own laughably illogical ideology. They want to mock the gun users, yet by allowing the killer to get out on bail - isn't that only confirming the need of civilians to bear arms? When the killer hunts down Matthau for the THIRD time (including the robbery), the movie is basically saying "yes, we all need to carry guns because the state is too soft on crime", and yet we know this can't be Ritchie's stance. Instead, the message is "guns never brought anything good, let's ban them".
That's why Reds should never mix comedy and politics, because they invariably get confused: the gags bomb and the "message" becomes contradictory hence stupid.
From beginning to end the film is full of absurd plot-devices that make it impossible to laugh at anything. One of many such examples is Williams mentioning Matthau's full name on TV, as if he could be such a total plankton that he wouldn't know this would endanger Matthau. Or the way he burns down Matthau's gas station, just like that. Or the way Williams aims the gun at Matthau and another car driver, by mistake, as if he were a total child, literally dumb. Yet he worked in upper management of a company, and has a pretty fiancée and a nice home, so how can he be such a plankton?
It gets dumber. After that third encounter, the killer actually lets Matthau go. Why? Makes zero sense, and that's why none of this is funny. Besides, the script doesn't even make a sufficient number of attempts to be funny, because the situations aren't exploited for their comedic potential as much as for opportunities to preach. Which is why Matthau rarely gets anything funny to say or do; he is a boring character. Why would anyone hire Matthau, in a comedy, then give him so few funny things to say or do?
That robber character makes zero sense. He chooses to impersonate a bl**k man... why exactly? (I mean, other than to satisfy Ritchie's need for political posturing.) If he is wearing a mask nobody will recognize him anyway so who CARES which race he belongs to? It's not as if him NOT impersonating someone else would drastically increase the chances of the police finding him, what with tens of millions of adult white men roaming the States... (most of them "evil raci$ts" by definition).
Much dumber though is that the robber is a high-end hit man who is "forced to rob diners because of the economy". What? First rule of comedy: "if it isn't based in reality, it isn't funny". Absurdist comedy is a whole other story, but we're talking about a regular formula satire, like this one here, which is supposedly rooted in reality. Especially one that wants to tackle social issues.
Except that it isn't rooted in reality. The way the cop station is portrayed... complete and utter nonsense. Or the fact that a hardened career criminal from a "famous armed robbery" gets out on bail - AFTER robbing a store at gunpoint, wounding a man, and AFTER doing home invasion in order to execute a witness.
In what America was Ritchie residing? Beverly Hills, probably... That explains a lot, why he was so out of touch.
How is any of this even remotely rooted in reality? And that's why most of the humor bombs. The reason why Matthau is actually less funny than Williams (which is another anti-feat) is because Williams is reacting to the situations with anger - logically and naturally, whereas Matthau is behaving basically like Gandhi. I mean, Ritchie may as well have given a shirt for Matthau to wear, saying "I'm a pacifist: peace and love, y'all". That's how subtle all of this is.
Of course, as always, whenever Reds preach they contradict themselves; they get entangled in the webs of nonsense of their own laughably illogical ideology. They want to mock the gun users, yet by allowing the killer to get out on bail - isn't that only confirming the need of civilians to bear arms? When the killer hunts down Matthau for the THIRD time (including the robbery), the movie is basically saying "yes, we all need to carry guns because the state is too soft on crime", and yet we know this can't be Ritchie's stance. Instead, the message is "guns never brought anything good, let's ban them".
That's why Reds should never mix comedy and politics, because they invariably get confused: the gags bomb and the "message" becomes contradictory hence stupid.
From beginning to end the film is full of absurd plot-devices that make it impossible to laugh at anything. One of many such examples is Williams mentioning Matthau's full name on TV, as if he could be such a total plankton that he wouldn't know this would endanger Matthau. Or the way he burns down Matthau's gas station, just like that. Or the way Williams aims the gun at Matthau and another car driver, by mistake, as if he were a total child, literally dumb. Yet he worked in upper management of a company, and has a pretty fiancée and a nice home, so how can he be such a plankton?
It gets dumber. After that third encounter, the killer actually lets Matthau go. Why? Makes zero sense, and that's why none of this is funny. Besides, the script doesn't even make a sufficient number of attempts to be funny, because the situations aren't exploited for their comedic potential as much as for opportunities to preach. Which is why Matthau rarely gets anything funny to say or do; he is a boring character. Why would anyone hire Matthau, in a comedy, then give him so few funny things to say or do?