Did These Three Vince Vaughn Films Help Get Him Back On the Stand Up Stage?

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In recent years Dodgeball and Anchorman funnyman Vince Vaughn has returned to his original passion of stand-up comedy, and we love having him there. For years, Vaughn had become primarily known for his film roles. His film career took off after the release of Swingers, and stayed hot for years with a string of successes like The Wedding Crashers and The Break Up. But Vaughn’s credibility as a box office draw has suffered recently, with his most recent films have been less well received by critics and audiences, and we can’t help but wonder if the poor reception of some of his films are the reason he decided to head back to the stand up stage.

Vaughn is a fantastic comedy performer, with his ability to tread delicately between the roles of straight man and comic foil still unrivaled. But recent films – three in particular — have failed to make best use of his talents.

Lay The Favourite

Online casino games, from slots to blackjack, have seen a massive spike of popularity within the last 10 years. These virtual gambling havens, offering live events and massive cash prizes, have almost eclipsed their real-life counterparts, and inspired the film, Lay the Favourite. Therefore it is unsurprising that Hollywood decided to get in on the action and make a film to entice the audience of this emerging market. However, Lay The Favourite fails to match the success of its subject matter. A strange comedy-drama starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Bruce Willis, the film is never as slick or emotive as it wishes to be. Jones is uneven as unhinged housewife Tulip, and Willis, who plays her crooked husband, seems disinterested. And, Vaughn’s supporting turn as eccentric bookie Rosie is an odd mishmash of comic foolery and sinister undertones with neither elements being successful. Overall, this movie appears completely unsure of what it wants to achieve. You’d be better off sticking to the actual online casinos.  Look here for games that will make you laugh, rather than attempt to find laughs in this cinematic misfire.

Fred Claus

Tim Allen, Will Ferrell and Billy Bob Thornton have all hit it big in Christmas comedy films, so it is understandable that Vaughn wanted a piece of the action. However, whilst Allen’s The Santa Claus was a gentle and polished family affair and Thornton’s Bad Santa was an anti-Christmas blast of vulgarity, Fred Claus‘s attempts to straddle both these tones means it fails to achieve either.

Vaughn plays the disgruntled failed brother of everyone’s favourite big-bellied gift-giver. Fred is resentful of his brother’s success and universal love. However, the film is never outrageous enough to match Bad Santa‘s bad-taste fun and lacks the loveable central character, or potent family moral, of Tim Allen’s hit. Vaughn is admittedly restricted by a script that makes Fred both an unlikeable and inconsistent character without the wit or vulgarity to make him at least entertaining.

The Internship

Shawn Levy’s film reunites Wedding Crashers stars Owen Wilson and Vaughn in an attempt to recapture the sublime chemistry that catapulted the 2005 comedy to box office success. However, the Wedding Crashers also had a tight script, an interesting concept and strong supporting players to help it. The Internship, on the other hand, is a tired, fish-out-of-water tale that is both forced and formulaic.

The film’s premise, which takes an odd stab at commentating on the effects of the global recession before promptly dropping any sense of realism, involves laid-off watch salesmen Billy’s and Nick’s misadventures when they begin an internship with Google.

The film amuses briefly with the friends’ technophobic tendencies creating some comical situations; there is also some amusing interplay between them and the techno-savvy younger interns but the script quickly runs them in to the ground. Wilson and Vaughn keep the film afloat with their joint charisma but are so restricted by the lacklustre material that the film crashes about as often as a 1980s computer.

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