The Third Wheel (2002)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The clumsy and shy Stanley (Luke Wilson) is a nice fellow, beloved by his colleagues in the office. He has a crush on the gorgeous new-hire Diana (Denise Richards), but he has difficulties to get close to her. When Stanley finally invites Diana for a date, he hits the homeless Phil (Jay Lacopo) with his Taurus and his planned night turns upside down."The Third Wheel" is a cute movie. The screenplay has many flaws, but the charming lead couple and the situation of Stanley, with the whole office cheering for him and a stranger simply ruining his dreamed night is very sweet and funny. The story practically has no plot point, the film is far from being a masterpiece, but I liked. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Triângulo Amoroso" ("Love Triangle")

Jordan Brady tries hard to make this comedy work. This screen play was written by Jay Locopo, who also appears in it. The film shows a director that wants to please his audience. Mr. Brady has assembled a young group of performers in "The Third Wheel", which was backed by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who also are seen in the movie.The nerdy Stanley finally is able to get Diana to go out with him and this serves to create the kind of curiosity his office friends are betting on. Would he succeed in making Diana see him for what he is really like, or would she be turned off by the way Stanley acts? The date turns out to be something that Stanley didn't bargain for.As Stanley and Diana are on the way to the theater, they encounter turbulence along the way when a homeless man, Phil walks in front of the car and is hit. Phil will stay with the couple throughout the rest of the movie. At times, this homeless man can be annoying beyond words!Take the scene when Diana and Stanley finally get to the theater for the second act of the boring play in the park. Who happens to come out on stage? Well, you guessed it: Phil! This man delivers a monologue so inane, but everyone in the place goes nuts about him. One wonders about those L.A. audiences... Hmm!Denise Richards gives a low key performance as Diana. Luke Wilson is Stanley. Jay Locopo is seen as Phil. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon also show up in small roles.The best thing is the last minutes when the credits are rolling. Stay for that, or better yet, fast forward to that and then go back to the beginning!

I found this movie on cable on dreary evening in winter. It was light and delightful and funny. The plot follows at a great pace, the characters are memorable, and Phil is hilarious. Call me naive, but I followed the movie at face value, not trying to guess what is going to happen next, and found it very entertaining. When you expect too much from a film like this, you are looking to watch a different movie. This is light romantic comedy at its finest. The casting was on mark and I really enjoy Ben and Matt in these minor roles where they are just having fun, I don't think they do that enough in movies anymore. Happy to see Melissa McCarthy (Sookie of Gilmore Girls) kiss Ben, and Jeff Garlin along with a really solid ensemble cast of comedic actors. Small movie, great cast, lots of fun.

I admit this movie is not worth more than 3 US dollars per person to view, however, a previous comment by another IMDb user mentions two scenes being stupid.The first criticized scene involved a coin being thrown from a very tall building and accidentally breaking a parked car's windshield. The IMDb user said that this was "some coin". The scene is a classic "exaggeration humor" scene that plays on the ideas of altruism gone wrong (the context within which the coin it tossed) and on the idea of a small object accelerating during free-fall due to gravity (9.8meters/sec sq). The movie did over-exaggerate the speed of the coin for it to be able to have enough momentum (mass x velocity) to break a stationary windshield. An quarter could come close to the mass of a small caliber bullet...very small yes...and with enough speed, a bullet of such caliber could shatter a windshield...especially a windshield that is not new or has defects in it's structure which may or may not be obvious. So, ignoring "terminal velocity" of the quarter by ignoring air resistance that would vary throughout free fall along with the potential flipping of the said quarter, if tossed from a high enough building, the windshield could definitely have shattered as it did. Ignoring these facts, this was simply a silly joke, an excerpt of one example of one form of "silly humor". It's possible that the IMDb use who made the previous comment is from a different culture where silliness is dumb. Cameos rock too.