Screwed

Norm MacDonald is funny. Movies starring Norm MacDonald are not. So what's the problem? His ABC sitcom is funny. His version of "Weekend Update" used to be the only reason to watch Saturday Night Live. Yet the man clearly has no sense for what makes a feature film comedy work, if the press kit ("When MacDonald eventually read Screwed, he thought it was the funniest script he had ever read") can be believed. Even his last attempt at screen comedy, Dirty Work, looks brilliant by comparison. About the wittiest thing in Screwed is that the lead characters all have names that are parodies of dead presidents: Willard Fillmore, Rusty P. Hayes, and Grover Cleaver. Grover Cleaver is also a mortician. Are you laughing yet? Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who also codirected this, have written some of the best biopics in recent years (Man on the Moon, Ed Wood, and The People vs. Larry Flynt), but Screwed, which has been languishing in the can for about a year and undergone three title changes, harkens back to the duo's days as creators of the Problem Child franchise. As a disgruntled butler who tries to kidnap his employer's dog, MacDonald is astonishingly miscast: Instead of being able to capitalize on the wry line delivery that normally makes him funny, he's required to constantly panic and freak out. Sidekick Dave Chappelle follows suit, and verges on serious racial stereotyping in the process. Danny DeVito essentially reprises his role as the Penguin in the mortician role, and Sherman Helmsley shows up in a Speedo, which is not something anyone particularly needs to see. The film's only redeeming qualities come in the form of Elaine Stritch (Woody Allen's September) as the ball-busting hag who employs MacDonald, and Daniel Benzali, here playing a tough cop, whose inherent over-the-top creepiness makes him perfectly suited for comedy.