A Bad Idea Gone Wrong (2017)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A Masterpiece!

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

When I pick a film off of Amazon Prime having never heard of it before, I always go in with lowered expectations. From time to time I'm pleasantly surprised and this was one of those cases.The film follows two men, Marlon and Leo, who break into a home in a gated community, only to find themselves trapped inside with a woman, Darcy, who has her own reasons for being in the house.On the positive side of things, all of the actors did really well with their line delivery, which elevates the writing. Matt Jones has a voice that reminds me of Jake Johnson, with that very dry humor, and the actress playing Darcy also had a very good deadpan delivery. There were also a few well done scenes of physical comedy. Given that the film basically only has the three characters, it does enough dynamic things with them (and the runtime is short enough!) that you don't really get tired of them.On the downside, the film lacks any actual compelling emotional center. The heart of the film really has to do with Leo getting over his ex-fiance, and I cannot emphasize enough how totally boring this element was for me. The ex-fiance is basically absent from the film, so we depend entirely on Leo telling us how much he loved her. It just isn't interesting, and the conflict it generates between the characters is underwhelming. I wish the writers had found a different way to create tension between the three main characters. I also didn't particularly care for the way that the film developed the relationship between Darcy and Leo--the writers go with the trope of the "nice guy" who deserves to have a woman be in love with him and I just find it to be an annoying cliche. Darcy's character is very quirky and I didn't find her attraction to Leo to be very believable.This movie moves along at a good pace, it has several well-delivered, funny lines, and the actors generally have good rapport. It is certainly stronger in the first half and loses its way a bit in the second half. The actors do a good job of delivering their lines and keeping the energy of the film up. This isn't a movie I ever see myself rewatching, but I think it's worthy of a viewing.

When I decided to watch this movie, I knew it wasn't gonna be great. All I was hoping for, was that it wasn't a plotless comedy with listless acting and lame jokes. Thankfully it wasn't. While there isn't much in the movie, as it is shot pretty much within a house, it still kept me engaged. It was well paced, though could have a bit shorter. Yeah, there are a few scenes showing the lameness of Marlon and the uncalled for relationship between Leo and Darcy, but that is just to pull the plot past an hour. But overall the comedy is subtle and entertaining, hinting at the quirkiness of each character. Its not like a dumb and dumber type of comedy. While nothing great, certainly doesn't leave me with a sense of regret, like some other films in this genre.

I'll make this a quick review because I think this film deserves one. I liked it. Its quite enjoyable and as comedy's go its pretty solid material but it's no classic, nor do I think it will receive any real acclaim.Great performances, story and script are reasonable, but it needed something more... just that little extra something that would have made it rip roaringly funny. It has good well written jokes, but nothing brought me a belly laugh. Well acted, but nothing had me whooping, shaking my head in defensive appreciation or laughing out loud. I think things needed to be dialled up a notch because the humour aspect really needed to be on the next level to make it a comedic success. I don't know humour that well so can't identify the failings, I just know funny when it happens and laugh when something's funny. This one was on the verge, it almost delivered but not quite.Still a reasonable film and worth a watch. I did chuckle in quite a few places and I did enjoy it, but it always threatened so much more and I so much wanted it to deliver.

If you are sitting bored and really need something to cheer you up, then this one is for you. A simple comedy movie with some romantic seasoning. The cast was perfect, beautiful Eleanore Pienta and the confused Will Rogers and ever shining Matt. You could say there are loop holes in the plot. But in the end you will still want more of this.