Masterminds is one of those films you marvel about how it got made. Despite the rather incredible comic cast, this is a film that feels like it was dumped on an unsuspecting public once the people making it realized how much of a disaster it nearly is. It is a film full of very funny people that is only sporadically funny. It is a film that is ostensibly based on a true story that feels like it was made up on the fly, from a series of scenes the writers thought were funny (or were improvised) that were then stitched together in the editing room.

There are times in this movie where I was thinking I was watching a disaster that will eventually be mocked on How Did This Get Made? There are a number of gags that just do not work and nearly every single person in the film save Owen Wilson (playing himself) and Kristen Wiig (playing a real character) feel like they are playing a joke character, a character that they thought would be really funny when coming up with it, but is really just an accent and bad hair.

But, that being said, I laughed a bunch of times. And one time I was almost crying I was laughing so hard. It’s those sporadic moments when I was entertained that keep me from viewing this as a terrible film. It’s still not good, but the worst comedies are the comedies that aren’t funny.

4/10

• Directed by Jared Hess
• Produced by John Goldwyn, Lorne Michaels
• Written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Emily Spivey
• Starring:
  • Zach Galifianakis as David Scott Ghantt
  • Kristen Wiig as Kelly Campbell
  • Owen Wilson as Steven Eugene “Steve” Chambers
  • Jason Sudeikis as Michael Aaron “Mike” McKinney
  • Kate McKinnon as Jandice
  • Leslie Jones as FBI Special Agent Scanlon
  • Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Michelle Chambers
  • Ken Marino as Doug
  • Karsten Friske as Cort Chambers
  • Dallas Edwards as Ken Chambers
  • Devin Ratray as Runny
  • Jon Daly as Detective
  • Ross Kimball as Eric
  • Jordan Israel as Valet
  • Njema Williams as Ty
  • Kerry Rossall as Trunk Hostage
• Music by Geoff Zanelli
• Cinematography by Erik Wilson
• Edited by Keith Brachmann, David Rennie
• Production companies: Michaels-Goldwyn, Relativity Media
• Distributed by Relativity Media
• Release date: September 26, 2016
• Running time: 94 minutes
• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Budget: $25 million
• Box office: $30.9 million