True stories
are always great simply because they’re true. For the most part, no matter how
outlandish and random a scene might seem, it’s exciting to sit in a theater
amazed at the fact that you know these events actually took place. Now over
time studios have changed a few things here and there to make the story flow
smoothly for a wider audience, but on the surface it has always appeared to not
drift too far away from the material and still make it all believable. So what
can you do when the film is based off of a true story, but treated like an
unfinished Saturday Night Live skit? Accept it, sit back, and enjoy the
ride.
I say sit
back and enjoy the ride, because that’s exactly what it is. It’s a ride, not a
movie even if the opening credits says so. I went into this film doing
something I’ve never done before, and that’s going in without seeing any
trailers at all. I’m not sure if that’s the best way to approach the film or
not, but it did bring forth a ton of laughs. During the setup of the first act,
there’s so many jokes you’ll miss the next one, because you’re still laughing
at the previous joke. There’s so many situations of things going absolutely the
wrong way for the characters that’s so hilarious the whole auditorium is
engaged as if you’re all one big family.
After a while
you stop laughing completely, and start to get a headache from confusion. You
start to ask yourself, “Ok, what the hell am I watching?” The characters in the
film are played by a good number of comedians, but they’re not characters.
They’re exaggerated caricatures from a coloring book who have been given lines.
I don’t want to disrespect the material, but it became entirely too difficult
to make out fact from fiction. The caricatures involved repeatedly acted as if
they were in a video game and nothing mattered. If the real men and women
involved in this robbery were real, it’s not clear why their real personalities
couldn’t be adapted. My only guess would be the real events weren’t that
interesting to make a film about.
I love
satires, spoofs, anything silly and everything goofy, but Masterminds is
in a league of its own. If the script was written in thirty minutes or less I
wouldn’t be surprised. The only event that is true may be the actual robbery.
Everything else is a mixture of stupidity magnified to the highest power. That
may be your cup of tea, but when you think about the budget of such a film it’s
depressing. Director Jared Hess (Nacho Libre, Napolean Dynamite)
is behind this film, which I’m a fan of, but this time he doesn’t seem like
the best fit.
Masterminds is a whirlwind of nonsensical
bizarre mishaps, bridged together by a bucket of dumb downed characters to the
highest degree. That may not be a bad thing, and exactly what you’re looking
for. I wasn’t looking for anything and walked out feeling the outtakes were the
best part of the film that actually contained real people. Other than that, no
one was acting. It’s like everyone was suped-up on silliness, but was trying to
make the environment silly too. Imagine living in a world where you feel that
water is the source of life, but everyone else thinks it’s bleach. That’s the
world of Masterminds, and if going in intoxicated or high off your
substance of choice is your thing, that may be the best decision you could make
before you waste away ninety-four minutes of your life.
6/10
Release Date: September 30, 2016
Director: Jared Hess
Writer: Chris Bowman
Cast: Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, Jason
Sudeikis, Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Leslie Jones, Mary Elizabeth Ellis,
Ken Marino, Devin Ratray, Jon Daly, Allegra Nova, Rhoda Griffis, Jill Jane
Clements, Nicole Michele Sobchack, Daniel Zacapa, Ross Kimball, Matt Corboy
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 94 minutes
Production Company: Broadway Video, Michaels-Goldwyn,
Relativity Media
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Language: Spanish, English
Country: USA
Budget: N/A
Read more reviews by Brandon Keith Avery at Just My Opinion.net.