You, Me and Dupree

Kate Hudson is really, really cute, three hundred watt cute. But that's about all that this film has going for it. It seems to me like a lot of films I've seen, where someone comes up with a really neat premise, one that gets the green light from the studio. But then someone has to write a compelling story to go on top of the premise. And this film, like so many others, peters out at that stage. There were a few laughs, but the movie got boring pretty quick, and stayed that way. Sometimes it aimed for zany, but missed by a fairly wide margin. Unless you are a huge fan of one of the actors, you probably should pass on this one. But Kate was really cute.

I thought this movie was painfully slow. I also thought considering the comedic talent involved that it would have been much better. I think I chuckled at a couple of scenes but not once did I gasp out in laughter as what I would normally do if a comedy were in fact 'funny'. The main problem with the film is the severe lacking in the script department which left the actors no room to improvise and made them rather bleak and uninteresting people. It wasn't a terrible movie but very average!

Michael Douglas also was an unusual candidate to play along side the 3 main leads - as when it came to Douglas's scenes that is when the film draged the most. You are never really told the reason as to why he dislikes Matt Dillion's character so much - which seems to be a large portion of the plot?!

Kate Hudson was great as usual and did well considering what she was given - she looked insanely hot in that black bikini though!!!

Last night a friend coaxed me into seeing "You, Me and Dupree." Even though I have liked all four of its principal actors for years, I hadn't planned on seeing it last night or possibly ever. The reviews have been uniformly terrible, so I was expecting the worst. I sat in a movie theater that was perhaps one-third full, and I was waiting for the boredom to set in, which the critics said was coming—in spades.

Yes, Owen Wilson has bleached-blond locks, again, but that is probably the only accurate comment in any of the reviews that I saw, and I must have read at least ten of them, from various parts of the country. He was very good, as he was in the "Wedding Crashers." Kate Hudson was perky as always, and did a splendid job; and anyone who has loved her mother over the years will find Goldie's "clone" just as lovely as ever.

Matt Dillon did a terrific job, and was totally believable comically; and Michael Douglas was very good too, playing his character with aplomb. In short, it was a very funny movie, and quite refreshing given the alternatives; namely, movies that are loaded to the gills with special effects, which jar one's cranium to the uttermost.

It seems like the critics were in lock step in panning this film, which may be driving away audiences unfairly. Indeed, this may be a perfect example of the critics being wrong, dead wrong. Go see it in a theater, or buy a DVD when it comes out, and my guess is that you will not be disappointed one iota—and may actually love it. All four principal actors are perfectly balanced, and they are strong enough to be wonderful foils to one another.

In the Russo Brothers' disappointing You, Me and Dupree, Owen Wilson's Dupree expounds an existential philosophy of keeping one's own character, a "ness" tacked on to a first name, such as his best friend's (Matt Dillon) "Carlness." It's a good idea dramatically to remind us all of our uniqueness and the necessity to nurture and protect it from, say, marauding fathers-in-law (in this case Michael Douglas), who might want to efface our individuality as well as get us vasectomies.

Yet the philosophical theme doesn't fit this comedy as it might Chekov's. Dupree's warm-hearted house guest slacking tests the patience of Carl and new wife (Kate Hudson). I can't figure out what Carl's character is, much less know what's worth preserving. Duprees's immature, likable, sometimes witty persona is much easier to determine. Kate Hudson's Molly is even easier, however, because all she has to do is put up with the boys' adolescent behavior and show up now and then in a bikini or white panties with her yellow hair in a breeze to let us know she inherited all of her mom's (Goldie Hawn) good traits including the promise of fine comedic timing should a script offer the chance. This script offers stinky scatology and humorless masturbation instead.

Wilson is establishing himself as an accomplished light comedian with a regrettable tendency to play the same type of charming bumbler who always has a pithy remark to make himself the poetic soul of the piece. His recurring sides of wit and boyish mischief are keeping him in enough cash to keep him from his even more talented role as co-writer with director and buddy Wes Anderson. So, I ask myself, why doesn't he do only projects that suit his creative gifts—maybe because he's lost his sense of "Owenness."

I went into this movie tonight not expecting much based on the HORRIBLE reviews given to this movie on IMDb and critics reviews in today's paper. I was pleasantly surprised to find this to be another sweet movie about two male buddies that are learning to grow up.

Owen Wilson was adorable and his character was not a loser. Dupree (I won't give away his real name because it surprises you when it comes up in the movie...) gives sage advice throughout the movie. In one scene is he standing in for Matt Dillon's character at a career day, in Molly's (Kate Hudson) 3-4? grade classroom. He tells the kids that some of them will go on to traditional or socially acceptable success, while some of them (pods, he calls them!) will "float" for a while, while they wait for the calling from the "mother ship" for their destined path in life. He says "the pods that needed to hear this, did," and I laughed my butt off. His "floating pod" theory was hysterical and very accurate.

It sounds ridiculous, but it isn't. Dupree's character is consistent throughout as a lovable guy looking for his path. He's a smart, charismatic guy that makes lots of mistakes along the way. Of course the previews showed all the stupid humor (bathroom jokes, jacking off, etc) but it doesn't play as crazily over the top in the movie as it is edited for in previews.

I think the movie was as fun as it was because of the great casting. No one else could have been Michael Douglas' character (besides perhaps James Caan but he might have been too scary) and NO ONE could have done Dupree like Owen Wilson, because Dupree IS Owen Wilson.

If you're like me and you like Owen Wilson movies, you'll really enjoy this movie.

PS: There is a (hush hush) cameo in this movie when you least expect it and you'll laugh.