Slackers (2002)

Absolutely brilliant

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

There are women in the film, but none has anything you could call a personality.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Poop jokes, fart jokes, masturbation jokes: this movie's got them all. A love story that's as bad as Jason Schwartzman's eyebrows, and a plot which moves as fast as carousel. How could anybody enjoy this movie? At one point Schwartzman gives a sponge bath to a topless old lady, and it's supposed to be funny. A guy has a sing-along session with his penis, I mean what the eff? Was this movie meant for perverted five-year-olds who go sneaking into 'R' movies? *sigh* You know, if they had dropped all the immature bullish, moved the beginning cheat scene to the middle, and make more sense of the whole Schwartzman character, this would be tolerable. But this makes me want to throw up.

The film is amusing and Devon Sawa plays himself, yet again, in this teen comedy fare that takes place in College. The story centres around these three guys who cheat their way (elaborately) throughout college. This one 'loser' who calls himself Cool Ethan (played by Jason Schwartzman in a stand out role, discovers this and blackmails them in order to get a date with this hot chick that he is stalking. I use the term stalking loosely, he has a shrine dedicated to her, a video of her playing in this shrine 24/7 and he collects her hair all over campus and made a hair doll that he sleeps with/talks to and uses to masturbate. Weird right? Formulaic script goes on and Sawa falls in love with the girl he was paid to seduce for Schwartzman. She discovers this and hates him, he has to do something romantic and win her back, yawn. Jason Segel is one of the three 'slackers' before his rise to fame and right after his role Freaks and Geeks. It's nothing big, just a supporting role. The film is really weird and out there, even for a teen comedy. One of the slackers, the ginger one, sings to his penis...and his penis literally sings back to him. He has a sock on it and it sings, mouth moves and everything. Why is this scene here? What does it do for the film? I have no idea. This character is weird and funny though, one standout scene is when he has to finish an exam and the teacher calls for pencils down. He continues to write and flips off the teacher, the teacher yells that he has failed. When he walks up to the desk the teachers says don't even bother handing it in, the ginger asks if he even knows who he is. The teachers replies no, so the kid throws his paper in the middle of the pile of tests and throws them around, then runs away. Funny and something I can see actually happening....singing penis, not so much.I did laugh, mainly because Schwartzman stole the film. Segel has gone on to be a part of a hit show and a regular for the Apatow crew. Schwartzman has a new show on television and has his bits with Wes Anderson. Sawa? I don't even know what he's doing anymore. He has his fame when he was younger and the girls wanted him. He got ugly and fell off the map. I wanted more of their elaborate cheating schemes and less of the love story that doesn't make sense. They love each other after two or three dates?

I'll start by saying I wasn't offended because of any raunchy or debauched stuff. I am not sensitive at all when it comes to sex humor or any sort of sophomoric low-brow stuff. If it's funny, I like it.That's the problem though: this piece of crap movie simply was NOT FUNNY!!! It's just a stupid, worthless collection of "this is how crazy college guys live" stereotypes, with a truly cringe-worthy love story slapped on top. I don't think there was a single line that I found interesting or unique in any way.Again, I am the last guy to be offended by anything "explicit". But I am offended when formulaic BS crap is passed off as comedy.

The Slackers as titled in this movie are three college friends Dave, Jeff and Sam(Devon Sawa, Michael Maronna and Jason Segel respectively), who are about to graduate from university without sitting through an honest exam but making it end successfully. This continues until the very end when unlikeable but the most likable character of the movie Nathan(Schwartzman) figures out what they are up to. Nathan starts blackmailing in order to make up with his dream girl as he cant pursue that in normal conditions. The only problem is when the trio starts to work on it, Dave falls in love with the gorgeous and good hearted Angela(James King) Unfortunately, not a brilliant genre movie. Schwartzman makes to watch the movie easy as his performance is brilliant. King's performance is average, I think she was hired just to be around with her gorgeous look. The Slackers is reminiscent of American Pie with a different direction. Jokes are as shallow as in American Pie. But aren't they all used? I think this movie is a warning to the filmmakers of the genre that they are running out of originality. Overall, a few smiley moments but a horrible movie in terms of acting(except for Schwartzman) and subject. * out of *****