A frustrated, unemployed professor joins forces with a scammer and a friend of his in a blackmailing scheme.A frustrated, unemployed professor joins forces with a scammer and a friend of his in a blackmailing scheme.A frustrated, unemployed professor joins forces with a scammer and a friend of his in a blackmailing scheme.
William Rosenfeld
- Deputy Garman
- (as Billy Asher)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJon Polito took the role of Agent Hymes because he felt that the script was "one of the sickest I'd ever read".
- GoofsGus' American accent changes throughout the film.
- Crazy creditsAt the closing titles, just as the words "No animals and no actors were harmed during the making of this film" are displayed, the credits quickly cut to an outtake in which Simon Pegg accidentally punches Billy Asher in the face. The crew rush in to make sure that Asher is not hurt. When the credits return, the words are changed to "No animals were harmed during the making of this film".
- ConnectionsFeatured in Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: Episode #11.11 (2006)
Featured review
Reasonably OK film but not as dark, clever, exciting or funny as it needed to be
Charlie is a frustrated and unpublished PhD, forced to take a job in the local call centre just to help support his family. He doesn't last a day in the job but in that period he meets Gus, who shares a plan with Charlie to blackmail some people on the company's internet customer database who had accessed very illegal pornography sites. They agree to become partners along with Josie, who overheard the whole thing. The plan is simple and there is little the three believe can go wrong however deception, coincidences and other fatal misfortunes sees the plan become anything but simple.
This black comedy sold itself on the presence of its stars but also the easy chemistry between them when they did publicity interviews. Certainly for me Pegg was the main draw, but not to the point where I expected him to do what I had seen him do in Spaced, Shaun and Fuzz. I started watching it unsure of quite what it was going to do but quickly got it that it was going to be a dark comedy that exaggerates the usual "job gone wrong" plot. This in theory is fine by me but in reality it only works so-so. As a semi-serious take on the genre, it is not really clever or funny enough to carry all the twists and turns (of which there are endless) of the plot without being all a bit silly. This knocks onto the plot proper which doesn't work that well as a dramatic story because of how much it flops around. In the middle it does work well enough to distract but in this area it is still only an OK film.
The cast help the film be better than it is. Schwimmer is OK but Pegg is better. Avoiding his usual character, Pegg makes a solid character despite his accent not being that good and I liked the way that he brought out comedy in his performance. Eve is pretty good but I'm not sure quite what made McElhone and Rogers take their tiny roles. Polito is quite fun though in a silly character but one that he makes work by virtue of being amusing.
Overall then this is a reasonable film but never a particularly successful one. The very short running time helps cover up for the weaknesses though, as do the acting stars and I suppose it is distracting and enjoyable if you can buy into the dark but silly tone.
This black comedy sold itself on the presence of its stars but also the easy chemistry between them when they did publicity interviews. Certainly for me Pegg was the main draw, but not to the point where I expected him to do what I had seen him do in Spaced, Shaun and Fuzz. I started watching it unsure of quite what it was going to do but quickly got it that it was going to be a dark comedy that exaggerates the usual "job gone wrong" plot. This in theory is fine by me but in reality it only works so-so. As a semi-serious take on the genre, it is not really clever or funny enough to carry all the twists and turns (of which there are endless) of the plot without being all a bit silly. This knocks onto the plot proper which doesn't work that well as a dramatic story because of how much it flops around. In the middle it does work well enough to distract but in this area it is still only an OK film.
The cast help the film be better than it is. Schwimmer is OK but Pegg is better. Avoiding his usual character, Pegg makes a solid character despite his accent not being that good and I liked the way that he brought out comedy in his performance. Eve is pretty good but I'm not sure quite what made McElhone and Rogers take their tiny roles. Polito is quite fun though in a silly character but one that he makes work by virtue of being amusing.
Overall then this is a reasonable film but never a particularly successful one. The very short running time helps cover up for the weaknesses though, as do the acting stars and I suppose it is distracting and enjoyable if you can buy into the dark but silly tone.
helpful•85
- bob the moo
- Apr 27, 2008
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $8,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $662,081
- Runtime1 hour 26 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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