Fun with Dick and Jane (2005 film)
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| Fun with Dick and Jane | |
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 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 Richard Jenkins Aaron Michael Drozin Gloria Garayua |
| Music by | Theodore Shapiro |
| Cinematography | Jerzy Zielinski |
| Editing by | Don Zimmerman |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 21, 2005 |
| Running time | 87 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $100 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Fun with Dick and Jane is a 2005 comedy film, and remake of the 1977 film of the same name. The story revolves around an upper-middle class couple, Dick and Jane Harper, who 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.
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[edit] Plot summary
The year is 2000, and we are introduced to the Harper family. The family members are Dick Harper, who works for a company called Globodyne. Jane Harper works at a local travel agency and is often stressed at work. They have a son named Billy, who speaks mostly Spanish, as he is good friends with the family's young Spanish housekeeper, Blanca. They also have a dog, who liked to bark until he was fitted with a shock collar. Dick is 'promoted' to Vice-President of Communications by company CEO Jack McCallister and company CFO Frank Bascombe. He is also asked to appear on the show Money Life, where host Sam Samuels and then independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader dub him and all the company's employees as "perverters of the American dream" and claim that Globodyne helps the super rich get even wealthier. The company's stock is soon worthless, along with all the employees' pensions, which are in Globodyne's stock.
Dick arrives home to find an excited Jane, who informs him that she took his advice and quit her job in order to spend more time with Billy. Dick has to break the news over dinner, instantly alarming Jane. Dick tries to think positively, and tries for a few months to get a Vice Presidency at other corporations. After failing to get a job anywhere, Jane reveals that they'll end up declaring bankruptcy in couple of months due to having everything in Globodyne stock. Dick still tries to look on the bright side; stating that their house is worth 600 grand. Jane then informs him that, since the fall of Globodyne, the local property market crashed, and that if they were to sell their house, they would owe the bank 150 grand. After coming to terms with the prospect of being poor, Dick applies for low paying, dead-end jobs. After being fired from all local businesses, and finding out that they have 24 hours before being evicted from their home, he decides that it's time for the couple to turn to crime. Dick borrows Billy's surprisingly realistic squirt gun and decides to rob a local convenience store. He emerges and orders Jane to burn rubber, as he stole a slushy, much to Jane's amusement. After several failed attempts, they finally rob a head shop. Realizing that they get a thrill out of stealing, they make a profession out of this, going on nightly robbing sprees. They climb their way up the crime ladder, becoming more professional with each passing night. Their last "job" is to rob a local bank by going undercover. The plan goes as planned, until another crime spree couple enters the bank, wearing Clinton masks and armed with shotguns. They are revealed to be former employers of Globodyne; Dick's jealous co-worker Oz and his wife Debbie. Dick and Jane escape, unscathed and unharmed. They decide to stop their "profession" but it's revealed that Dick is about to be indicted. thus he starts drowning his sorrows at the local bar. While there, he and Jane encounter a drunk Frank Bascombe, who tells them that the crooked Jack McCallister signed off all of Globodyne's assets, and that he paid Bascombe 10 million dollars to keep his mouth shut. After Frank sobers up, they make a team and, through a devious and well put together plan, dupe Jack McCallister into reimbursing all of his former employees' pensions.
Although McCallister catches them in the act, Dick is able to still reimburse all of the former employees because he got McCallister's signature. Thus his wife, an art major, was able to forge his signature. The next day, Dick informs McCallister of the act as the press flock to the now poor McCallister. The film ends with the wealthy Harper family driving along the highway and into the sunset, as another car drives up to them. In the car is another Globodyne employee who urges Dick to invest in this great stock company called Enron.
[edit] Cast
- Jim Carrey as Dick Harper
- Téa Leoni as Jane Harper
- Alec Baldwin as Jack McCallister
- Richard Jenkins as Frank Bascombe
- Aaron Michael Drozin as Billy Harper
- Gloria Garayua as Blanca
- Angie Harmon as Veronica Cleeman
- John Michael Higgins as Garth
- Carlos Jacott as Oz Peterson
- 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 crossing over $115 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[citation needed]. As of July 6, 2006 Fun with Dick and Jane has generated $43.5 million from DVD rental gross.
[edit] Miscellany
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- The financial transaction form used in the film's final scenes is identified as a CRM-114, which is a number used in some of Stanley Kubrick's films.
- Dick's company Globodyne, and the way it falls, is a direct parody of various corporations early in the 21st century like Enron, Global Crossing, and MCI Worldcom. The closing credits begin with a Special Thanks To list, naming executives at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, ImClone Systems, Arthur Andersen, Cendant and HealthSouth.
- 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 leases 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.
- 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 parody of a remark of President George W. Bush highlighted 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, Cher and Sonny Bono.
- "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.
- 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.
- Reese Witherspoon can briefly be seen walking by in the super-market scene as Dick greets customers.
- Cameron Diaz was orgianally cast for the role of Jane, but had to drop out due to filming commitments with In Her Shoes.
- One of the songs heard in this movie is an exact song from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and is even named something that is a direct reference to the movie in the closing credits.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official Site
- Official Movie Trailer
- Fun with Dick and Jane at the Internet Movie Database
- PopMatters review (12/2005)
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