Joe Blows
Tim
Allen's the only tool in this humorless revenge comedy.
Novice
screenwriter John Scott Shepherd was obviously paying attention in 1999. He no
doubt noticed the massive mainstream and critical success of American Beauty
and the cult followings of Fight Club and Office Space, and
surely said to himself, "Hmmm, this whole thing about cubicle workers
being full of pent-up frustration seems to be significant. I'll bet I can do
something like that -- but make it really funny." And so, Joe
Somebody was born. Then producer Brian Reilly somehow came to the
conclusion that the perfect person to play the central role of a put-upon nebbish filmmaker for a big corporation would
be...Tim Allen.
Yeah, that makes sense -- a guy
best known for grunting like a pig and blowing things up on TV playing a
sensitive filmmaker who really wants to be a creative writer. Allen clearly
wants to stretch, but he isn't Plastic Man. It isn't until Joe starts getting
confident and cocky that Allen starts to feel a little more natural in the
role, and by then the movie's plot has all but evaporated into a series of
wispy gags that barely register.
About that plot: Allen's Joe
Scheffer, sensitive AV-club nerd gone corporate, makes commercials and
intraoffice films for a pharmaceutical company. He's still recovering from a
messy divorce from wife Callie (Kelly Lynch), and his only friend is his
12-year-old daughter (Hayden Panettiere). On Take Your Daughter to Work Day,
his parking space is snagged by the office bully, Mark McKinney (not the Kids
in the Hall cast member, but Seinfeld's Puddy, Patrick Warburton).
Confronting Mark, Joe gets smacked in the face a couple of times, humiliating
him in front of his daughter and co-workers. One three-day drunken binge later,
he decides to take revenge and challenges Mark to a rematch.
Having thus set up Mark as Joe's
bête noir, the film proceeds to then ignore him for virtually the rest of the
movie (anyone expecting a prolonged battle between the two Buzz Lightyears --
Warburton voiced him in the 2000 animated TV series -- will be sorely
disappointed). Newly energized with confidence when his co-workers stand behind
him for threatening violence to the hated bully, Joe buys new suits, sings
Backstreet Boys songs on karaoke night, accidentally sets his hairspray on
fire, spontaneously learns how to master squash during the course of a single
game and shakes hands with Jesse Ventura. (The entire film seems to have been
set in
There are minor chortles to be
had, but they aren't induced by Allen. Ally McBeal's Greg Germann does
his patented annoying-office-guy routine, which is what he's best at, while Jim
Belushi amuses (something he hasn't done in a while) playing a very unlikely
karate teacher -- and the washed-up star of such films as Maximum Punishment
and Tom Sawyer Must Die. It's possible