Film review: “Why Him?” (2016)
Perhaps the reason all ages are exploring deep into cinema’s history and discovering the work of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd is because of what screen comedy has now become. John Hamburg, directing his third theatrical feature film (“Along Came Polly,” “I Love You, Man”) works from a screenplay by himself and Ian Hefler, from a story they co-wrote with Jonah Hill. It is a lot of boorish humor without the finesse of The Three Stooges or the situational mastery of The Bowery Boys. In fact, comedy filmmakers could likely learn a great deal from the creators of those films. But I digress.
Award winning actor Bryan Cranston reaches a career low point as an angry, grimacing father who, with his family, goes to meet his college-aged daughter’s fiancée. He is played by James Franco as a foul mouthed, oversexed multi-millionaire who made his fortune by creating popular video games. As a result, he never had to move past his base childish behavior. It is between these two men that the conflict and the resolution rests. The daughter, Zoey Deutch, is given far too little to do, while the mother (Megan Mullaley) struggles to be noticed while a younger son (Griffin Gluck) is saddled with lame wisecracks.
The film could have done something with this premise. Cranston’s character runs a printing company, while Franco’s character lives in a paper-free environment, save for some “edible paper” served by a celebrity chef. This shows how the father’s company is becoming obsolete due to progressive technology. But in the Franco character we see how the current culture of wretched excess allows for his wealth and defines his lifestyle. His interests are all about the latest, most immediate, technological gadgetry, without seeing if it survives the test of time. There is a good movie lurking in their somewhere.
Instead we get a series of mechanical gags, including a running one where a houseboy (Keegan-Michael Key) attacks Franco’s character randomly to help hone his martial arts awareness skills – a routine lifted from the old Pink Panther series, which the Cranston character acknowledges on screen to a dumbfounded reaction from the others.
The film futher extends into “Love Boat” status by offering pointless cameos by everyone from Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS to the voice of Kaley Cuoco. There is no sharp, witty dialog, appealing characters, or comic depth to be had anywhere in this film’s running time. It is just another loud, insubstantial mainstream release with success measured solely at the box office. Made for 38 million and grossing 60 million, a sequel to this aesthetically incompetent mess is likely.