Dick and Jane are in love and living the American dream--until one day it becomes an American nightmare. When the company Dick works for becomes involved in an Enron-like scandal and he takes the rap, Dick and Jane are forced with the prospect of losing everything. After playing by the rules and getting burned, Dick has an idea: If stealing was good enough for his boss, then it's good enough for him. Using his newfound skills, he and Jane decide to exact hilarious revenge and teach big business a lesson.

I have to wonder if over the past twenty or so odd years I we as a movie going audience have gotten stupider or is it that the movie studios and executives jus think we have. Oh, don’t get me wrong Fun with Dick and Jane is one of the funnier movies released in the past few years and it even has a bit of biting wit and sarcasm as it takes on issues like Enron but for the most part the comedic relief is a cop-out because they couldn’t capture the style of the original. Much like the remake of the Longest Yard which too went the comedic route the movies aren’t as hip, they aren’t as stylish and they don’t have the panache their seventies counterparts did. I recently got the pleasure of seeing the original Fun with Dick and Jane in preparation for seeing the remake and Jane Fonda and George Segal have such a charm and wit to them that made the movie marvelously funny all the while still maintaining that hip stylish approach to the movie. Tea Leoni and Jim Carrey come close until Carrey is asked to act like a nitwit to gain the cheap laugh, I think they might have been able to pull the movie off straight up but preferred for the quick, easy and sure thing. I did laugh hard almost rolling in the seats but the remake was missing the charm of the original.

Tea Leoni and Jim Carrey were good choices for the smart modern day couple faced with adversity who find their way to crime as they both pulled their roles of quite well. My problem was that we know Jim Carrey can play it straight and still make an incredible movie so when he is being asked to revert to his physical humor its obvious what crowd they are aiming for and that’s not always a good thing. Carrey is not Adam Sandler you don’t need to dumb down his roles to make a movie with him and sometimes you just shouldn’t. Tea Leoni was a perfect counterpart to Carrey as she plays it straight forward in that smart and witty way just like the original. She reminded me of Jane Fonda in the movie as she had that charm that Fonda did in the seventies classic and it was her performance that made the movie. I laughed harder at her more subtle humor then that of Carrey’s over the top of humor. Maybe I am just getting old or that I have seen too many films, I just have come to expect a little more out of movies and I don’t like being dumbed down to. Great comedy, good caper film, smart witty couple movie, poor mans version of a much better original and an overly sensitive critic as you should run to see the movie.

The movie takes passing shots and guys like Ken Lay from Enron throughout the movie and funny enough they actually start the credits by thanking a lot of executives from Enron and other places like Worldcom. And sadly all the passing shots our true while the common everyday worker suffered the collapses of these mega corporations the top level executives walked away with millions with hardly a slap on the wrist. It might be time even though I am against the government taking too much power in the private sector to pass some laws that would make ethics more law than suggestion. It would also make the CEOs who manage to steal millions criminals who would be punished as such. A guy who steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family would get more jail time than those of top executives who stole billions and walked away scott free.
4 stars out of 5