Badmovies.org Forum

I recently watched Dinner For Schmucks and realized although it was a bit funny, the theme has been done time and time before in Hollywood:

Man meets goofball
Man can't get rid of goofball
Man learns goofball has some good qualities but still doesn't like him
Goofball gets told off by man
Man and goofball feel awful
Goofball helps man out of sticky situation
Man and goofball become friends at the end

I can think of a few like this but I wanted to see which ones people brought up.

Due Date is the first one that I thought of. I never really did notice this but now that you do mention it... it's in tons of movies!

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is one of the best examples of this formula. Dinner For Schmucks is so-so, but can't hold a candle to the aforementioned classic.

That descibes most of Adam Sandler's repitoire.
UGH.

And Jim Carrey. 

What About Bob? comes readily to mind. Chevy Chase in the National Lampoon's series and his cousin Eddie - Randy Quaid does too.

Good examples so far, I honestly think Shrek fits this bill.  Shrek and Donkey have the same plot elements.

The one with Pauly Shore...he moves onto a farm...dam depressing for a comedy...because of Shore. He's so unfunny it brings tears of pain to my eyes. It's painful. Heartwrenching,even.
I might cry right now.  :bluesad:

You must be talking about Son In Law. For reasons I can't exactly explain, I actually like that one a little bit.

However, Pauly Shore is one of those weird anomalies where you can't quite get why he's able to have a career, yet somehow he is. It goes well beyond Adam Sandler, because Sandler will at least occasionally turn in something of merit.

The thing about Planes, Trains and Automobiles is that John Candy is genuinely a sweet and good person, and the annoying part really only comes into play because of personality conflict - and the life ruining isn't his fault at all.  For that reason, it's easily among the best of this type of film.

Anger Management is one of the worst of this sort.  Hate that film.

Yeh. DAM. I m crying. Pauly Shore is not an actor. Hes not a comedian.
Hes a blight on the human race...like the Black Plague,or AIDS,
HES f**kED.

I've always liked the guy. 

well,definitely CABLE GUY to a certain extent. I watched that again a few days ago for the first time since it came out in 96. don't quite understand the torrent of hate it generates tbh, it's not amazing but it's okay

Not to go too off topic, but Pauly was on the Howard Stern show recently.  As most would know, Pauly's big screen movies haven't been out since about '97 or so (he's done mostly tv and straight to dvd movies since).  Howard asked Pauly why his movies sorta faded out and guys like Adam Sandler have a career, since Adam's and Pauly's characters are basically the same: a grown man who's a big buffoon/idiot.  One would think that if Sandler's films do fine, Pauly's should've.  Pauly didn't really seem to have a straight answer.  He could only muster out: "Well, first off, Adam's pretty talented, but most knock him.  If I had any reason for my career stalling, it could've been overkill.  I was on MTV 12 hours a day, and in the span of 4 years made 6 or 7 movies and had a sitcom.  I think America got tired of seeing my pretty face all the time."  He also said he didn't make that much from his movies.  He signed a bad 4 movie deal with a studio for only a small fee of around $250,000 per film and Jim Carrey made a better deal, getting like, $10 Million or more. :smile:

Does 'Midnight Run' count?

 :question:

Well, all semantics aside, Steve Carrell's character from Dinner for Schmucks that started the thread is also a genuinely sweet and good person. I think that's the point.

But yes, Candy's character in Trains is not directly responsible for ALL of the havoc in Martin's character's situation, but he does contribute, like the mixing up of credit cards and unintentionally setting fire to the rental car that the latter is financially responsible for. So he definately causes some havoc.

I LOVE YOU MAN comes to mind right away.

Also, NIGHT AT THE OPERA, Harpo and Chico pretty much destroy Groucho/Driftwood's life until the very end. (I guess you could argue that Driftwood sort of deserves it, but still....)