The Invention of Lying – Movie Review (?)

invention_of_lying

So, the boss (David Rodriguez, not Bruce Springsteen) and I were invited to a screening of the new Ricky Gervais movie, The Invention of Lying. Upon out arrival, as always with these screenings, we were asked not to post a review of the film until opening day (October 2).

Being the inquisitive smartass that I am, I decided to ask why there was this “review embargo,” as they call it, on all the films that we have seen thus far. We were told that this is standard practice for all studios. When I countered that reviews are up sometimes weeks before a movie comes out, they just smiled like they had no clue what I was talking about.

Here’s a link to the reviews for The Invention of Lying on RottenTomatoes.com right now.

David and I entered the theatre and found two seats up in the nosebleed section of the theatre. Suddenly, and without warning, an angry and possibly menopausal soccer mom with a Brooklyn accent and bad hair went off on us for sitting in the “reserved” section. These were crappy seats, behind a metal rail that would clock the view of anyone under 5’9”, but she kept complaining that we were sitting there.

No one else seemed to care. And we kept waiting for security to come and toss us. But, like the lady who told Larry David he couldn’t bring his water into the theatre on the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm called “The Doll,” she was just a person in a bad mood.

And if you’re thinking we stole her seats, she and her young son already had seats three rows behind us. What a loon!

And then the movie started. Now, I like Ricky Gervais, I thinks he’s a very funny guy. I’ve enjoyed him on the series Extras and he was amusing in Ghost Town. I love British comedy, as well. From the classics like Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and Are You Being Served ?, to the more recent Black Books. I put this out there because this movie blew…hard…as in we walked out of the theatre it was so awful.

But you jerks didn’t even give it a chance! How dare you walk out on a movie before it gets going. Trust me; this movie is over before it even starts. In fact, in the first few moments you find out everything you need to know about the movie and its basic premise. The rest becomes overly repetitive, annoying, and almost redundant in how each scene is pretty much a carbon copy of the previous one. I think this idea would have been a great short film, but here it just doesn’t work all that well.

But the cast! So many talented people from Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Edward Norton, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman grace the film with their acting presence. How can it be bad? It’s bad when they ARE NOT funny! Note to anyone who makes films: If you are going to pack a comedy movie with lots of comic actors, please make sure they have funny things to say and do.

Annoyed and rather pissed that we had driven all the way to The Grove for no apparent reason other than a nice nap, we walked out. But that’s not where the story ends. As we made our way out, David noticed that an advanced screening of Zombieland (October 02, also) was playing. He asked the security folks if we could go in, and we were fortunate enough to run into the nice man in charge of the event who showed us in.

Check out my review of Zombieland by clicking here. Just so you know, we did stay the entire time and in a word, Zombieland was awesome!

So, save your money this weekend and don’t see The Invention of Lying. Unless boring, lackluster, and snooze-worthy comedies are your thing.

Bring on the nasty comments!

Here’s the trailer:

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