Fun with Dick and Jane (2005 film)
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| Fun with Dick and Jane | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for Fun with Dick and Jane |
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| Directed by | Dean Parisot |
| Produced by | Brian Grazer |
| Written by | Judd Apatow Nicholas Stoller |
| Starring | Jim Carrey Téa Leoni Alec Baldwin Conrad Bachmann Michelle Arthur Gloria Garayua |
| Music by | Theodore Shapiro |
| Cinematography | Jerzy Zielinski |
| Editing by | Don Zimmerman |
| Distributed by | Sony |
| Release date(s) | December 21, 2005 |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $100 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Fun with Dick and Jane is a 2005 film, a remake of a 1977 film. In it, an upper-middle class couple, Dick and Jane Harper, turn to robbery after Dick's company goes bankrupt and they run out of money. It stars Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni in the title roles.
The film is also a satire of corporate America, particularly Enron, especially in the CEO of Dick's company.
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[edit] Plot Summary
In the year 2000 (before the corporate accounting scandals of 2001), Dick works for a company called Globodyne. He is "promoted" to Vice-President of Communications. He then appears on the show Money Life, where the host and then independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader blast him, the CEO, the CFO, and the company as a whole. Almost instantly the company's stock is worthless and the employees' pensions (in Globodyne stock) are diluted. In fact, while Nader and the moderator were ranting on about Globodyne on television, the screen shows that the company's stocks are lowering second by second, with Dick unaware of such during the conversation.
In the months that follow, Dick cannot find a job that pays him nearly as much as he was earning previously, and the family gets poorer and poorer.
Desperate, Dick and Jane go on a crime spree which ends with them pitting their wits against the CEO of Globodyne and ultimately duping him into reimbursing employee pensions.
[edit] Cast
- Jim Carrey as Dick Harper
- Téa Leoni as Jane Harper
- Alec Baldwin as Jack McCallister
- Richard Jenkins as Frank Bascombe
- Angie Harmon as Veronica Cleeman
- John Michael Higgins as Garth
- Aaron Michael Drozin as Billy Harper
- Gloria Garayua as Blanca
- Ralph Nader as Himself
[edit] Reaction
After a disappointing opening weekend of $21,530,160, the film managed to have decent legs throughout the holiday season, eventually grossing over $110 million at the domestic box office and $92 million at foreign box office. With a budget of over $100 million, the film was a minor success but was considered a disappointment by many when compared to other Carrey films. As of July 6, 2006 Fun with Dick and Jane has generated $43.6 million from DVD rental gross.
[edit] Trivia
- The financial transaction form used in the film's final scenes is identified as a CRM-114, which was a recurring code in Stanley Kubrick's films (referencing an encryption device from Dr. Strangelove, and the "medicine" from A Clockwork Orange.) The code has been used in many different places in film since it first appeared, such as the amplifier from Back to the Future.
- Dick's company Globodyne, and the way it falls, is a direct parody of Enron (which is referred to for comedic effect near the end of the movie).
- When Dick pulls into the parking lot for Globodyne, everybody but him drives a new BMW 7 Series. Dick himself has a BMW 3 Series from the late 1980s. He later buys a BMW 7 Series, which gets traded for a Ford Festiva and he has a Volkswagen Cabrio at the end.
- The suburban neighborhood in the film consisted of the construction of 12 homes (only a front facade), and one fully-functioning home all built on the site of the abandoned Marineland of the Pacific theme park in California.
- While filming the coffee shop robbery scene, Téa Leoni seriously injured her shoulder while sliding on the counter.
- At around 1:01:10 into the movie, Dick and Jane watch a TV interview with Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin). After stating his innocence and seemingly unable to find anything else to say, he breaks off his speech with "Now watch this shot!" This is a direct re-enactment of a President George W. Bush remark which can be seen in Fahrenheit 9/11.
- Throughout the film, which is set in the year 2000, there are numerous references made to the presidential campaign that year between George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Ralph Nader including Dick being interviewed by Nader, a TV screen showing a Bush campaign speech clearly from 2000, and signs across city streets, stores, and on cars reading "Gore/Lieberman" or "Bush/Cheney".
- Among the disguises Dick and Jane use include Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Blues Brothers, and Cher and Sonny Bono.
- In an obvious jibe at yuppie parents, Dick and Jane's son speaks English with a Spanish accent, having been raised by the Mexican housekeeper.
- "Officer Red Green" who calls the Grand Cayman Bank is probably a Jim Carrey tribute to The Red Green Show, an iconic Canadian television comedy.
- The closing credits begin with a Special Thanks To list, naming executives at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, ImClone Systems, Arthur Andersen, Cendant and HealthSouth.
- Paramount Pictures gave Sony more than $100,000 to pause filming for a week, so that Carrey could promote his previous movie, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.[1]
- If examined closely, while they are driving away after robbing their first store, Dick is wearing his hoodie when a shot of the car is shown. He does not have his hoodie on when a shot of Dick and Jane inside the car is shown
