It is what it is. This movie won’t surprise anyone, and will deliver almost exactly what you’d expect.
What Works: A fine cast–really better than this movie deserves–and a few decent chuckles. It’s also good to see Eddie Murphy finally get back to straight comedy over lukewarm family films.
What Doesn’t Work: The ending is total bullshit (the bad guy pays, the good guys get their money back in a way that never happens in real life Wall Street dealings) but the audience seemed to enjoy it. Ben Stiller affects a New York accent of convenience that is distractingly inconsistent from scene to scene.
What I Would Have Done Differently: All of the right elements are there: the great Gabourey Sidibe, Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, and Ben Stiller as screwed over employees. Alan Alda as an artificially “nice” corporate swindler. A plot that COULD have scored great points by channeling some of the “Occupy Wall Street” rage out there. And yet…nothing happens that lives up to the potential. It would be great if Hollywood would make a dark comedy dealing with income inequality rage that dared to push it and/or actually get into that rage.
I want to see this movie it looks like it could be funny. And it has Eddie!