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