PLOT: A lifelong screw-up moves in with his uptight and newly married best friend, leading to comic chaos.
You, Me And Dupree is a summer movie starring Owen Wilson as a lovable loser who wreaks havoc in the lives of Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon.
Wilson, as Dupree, moves in with Hudson and Dillon, a newly married couple, sparking comedy chaos.
Trouble is, the funniest thing about this supposed romantic comedy is the advertising tagline: "Two's company, Dupree's a crowd." And the quip isn't even that funny.
As written by Mike LeSieur and directed by the Russo Brothers, Anthony and Joe, You, Me And Dupree takes a cotton candy idea, spins it out to an overlong 109 minutes and sugars its viewers into submission.
While the tone is juvenile, there is little here that mainstream audiences would find offensive. There are some tired masturbation jokes in a scene during which Hudson catches Wilson in the (simulated) act while watching an off-screen porno. Compared to most Farrelly Brothers movies, though, this is tame PG stuff.
So we are left to deal with what they call star chemistry, their emotional and sexual frisson, their appeal together as friends, lovers or comic foils. The movie is disappointing in this department, too.
Hudson is instantly appealing physically but the Russo Brothers waste her acting talent by giving her virtually nothing to do. Her job is to nag Dillon, parade about in panties and pop up in a bikini fantasy scene with Wilson.
Wilson does what he always does in movies: Plays the doofus who doesn't have a brain in his head or a mean bone in his body. He is good at it, but the character is now overly familiar, too often recycled, and only interesting in a fresh milieu. This isn't it.
Dillon is the biggest bore (if you don't count Michael Douglas in an awful support role as Hudson's piranha-like pappy). No one but these misguided filmmakers would ever match flirty Hudson with a fuddy-duddy stiff like the one Dillon plays.
Nor, for that matter, is it convincing that Dillon's best friend would ever be Wilson's character, a New Age slacker with Old School manners.
Without core chemistry, the already flimsy plot is unbelievable. Without any sexual tension, the fate of the Hudson-Dillon marriage is irrelevant. Without any reason for Wilson to cut up and caper, why watch him do it?
The only unusual element is a single conceit: The Russo Brothers (who gave us the very different but still problematic Welcome To Collingwood) populate the screen with females. But, except for Hudson, none of these wives or girlfriends or mothers is ever seen face-on. It's bizarre and interesting, although utterly pointless.
In the end, as Wilson's Dupree spouts phony New Age philosophy, the emphasis of the movie shifts onto finding your "-ness" -- as in your Dupree-ness. The filmmakers would have been better off looking for a little more clever-ness and a little less silli-ness.
BOTTOM LINE: Unless you think having hottie Kate Hudson in her panties or a bikini is reason enough to endure this romantic comedy, then I can't recommend it.
(This film is rated PG)
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