You could be forgiven for rolling your eyes: Has Hollywood really come to the bottom of the glib 1970s barrel? The original Fun with Dick and Jane starred an actual Jane—Fonda, hinting at her yuppified resculpting to come—and George Segal, playing freshly unemployed white-collar types diving comically into crime to keep up with the Joneses. Here, it's rubber-faced Jim Carrey and brittle Ta Leoni donning ski masks and robbing muffins at Starbucks.
Trailers don't reveal, however, the delightfully sharp fangs that soon get bared in this brazenly topical refreshening partly credited to Judd Apatow and Larry Sanders alum Peter Tolan. The first thrill comes with the appearance of Alec Baldwin's Texas-accented exec, selling off millions in stock just before taking off, Saigon-style, from his private helipad. The second is Richard Jenkins's slimeball financial officer, drunkenly revealing his illusory profit scam. The third is Carrey's temporary gig at megachain "KostMart," whose break room is adorned with a poster that reads UNIONS HAVE ONLY ONE PERSON IN MIND: THEMSELVES.
Ouch. There's still more to come, too, and hooray for that. Yet for all its corporate spanking, this is still a broad Jim Carrey vehicle, with an abundance of cringeworthy mugging and tired slapstick routines. A long-telegraphed climax, in which pension plans are heroically restored, cements the film firmly in the realm of satire—and fantasy.—Joshua Rothkopf
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