The Baxter (2005)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The Baxter starts with a really great idea, but it doesn't follow through. I'm afraid that the weakest link in the movie is the main character (who is also the writer and director) - he just didn't work for me. Still, it has some cute moments and it is fairly original.

A couple of weeks ago, the mid-90s sketch comedy show The State was released on DVD. Though many who weren't there at the time will always be in the dark about it, it was one of the most important releases of the year in my mind. It is a Gen X classic. And it holds up quite well, I'm happy to report. The State may not be as consistent as, say, The Kids in the Hall, which I've rewatched all the way through recently, but it's a lot of fun. Plus, the troupe went on to do many great things afterward. Perhaps the best known is Reno 911, starring State alums like Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant and Kerri Kenney (several other State members appear in cameo roles). The other major group of State alums created the bizarre and brilliant Comedy Central show Stella in 2005. The same year, State/Stella alum Michael Showalter (aka Doug, perhaps the best remembered recurring character of The State) wrote and directed The Baxter. It's a romantic comedy that claims up front to be subverting the genre. Unfortunately, that's largely untrue. While it begins with a common rom-com convention - a girl is getting married to a boring guy when her true love bursts into the church to declare his love - it focuses on the third wheel, played by Showalter himself. The thing is, though, that, when the film flashes back to the beginning of the story, the girl he's marrying (Elizabeth Banks) is the shrew. The real love interest is played by Michelle Williams, as a sort of manic pixie dreamgirl who pops into Showalter's life occasionally. The movie has a decent sense of quirkiness, so it's never boring. Stella/State co-stars Michael Ian Black and David Wain are great in small roles (State co-stars Joe Lo Truglio and Ken Marino also have nice cameos). But the central relationship is sweet but kind of boring. As far as rom-coms go, this isn't a half bad movie. My only real disappointment is that it comes from the mind of Michael Showalter. I felt it just shouldn't have been as conventional as it was.

The perspective is new. I mean, the main character is really a dope, a geek, the type of guy that even romantic comedies make fun of. And this one does too, a little, however, he meets the girl of his dream in the end just like in any other romcom.This movie has a lot of potential. A dorky character surrounded by nasty, egocentric people like in the real world is a great setup for real comedy, with real humour, one that you can relate to. But no. The setup is totally misused. The only way this film could have been a success would have been to be made by Brits. Or Jackie Chan.Bottom line: it was a nice try to escape the pathetic and ridiculous stereotype of romantic comedies, but it ultimately failed, being an unromantic, long, humourless, boring movie.

Because of my devotion to the boys of Stella, I was a pre-ordained fan on this movie before it came out, and a poster hung on my door even before I saw it. However, I just saw it, and I'm taking it down, because the movie sucked.Nobody could ever criticize me of 'not understanding the humor'. I am a Stella fanatic. I'm the one guy of my friends who finds it hysterical all the time. This just was not. I was really disappointed. It just wasn't funny at all. I kept waiting....'oh...it'll come....' but it didn't. There were no jokes. Some people may have said that it was subtle. It wasn't. I think that's just rationalization...sometimes you just have to accept when you have to call the bomb squad.I give it a 3 out of 10 because I didn't hate it, but it was painful to get through. It was pathetically predictable, and I found that the best part was the drinking game that was played involving impersonations. Does anyone know what game that was? Yech.