‘Buddy Games’ fails to hit target
Buddy Games
Rated: R for strong crude sexual content and language throughout, some graphic nudity, drug use and brief violence. Running time: 96 minutes. Available on video on demand. 66out of 4
“Buddy Games” is the story of a group of guys, friends since childhood, whose competitiveness is off the charts. They’ve created a thing called “The Buddy Games,” an annual competition in which they strive to beat each other in a variety of contests. All the men are in their 40s, but they are developmentally stuck at around age 10.
Co-written and directed by Josh Duhamel, who also stars, “The Buddy Games” never drops below being mildly amusing. It has a wicked sense of comedy that is occasionally quite funny. But there’s something about the treatment of the men and the movie’s sentimental presentation of their friendship that doesn’t feel real, that feels like a movie thing, not an honest thing.
Vulgarity is fine when it’s pure and democratic. But when it’s mixed with sentiment, it feels false. That’s the problem with “Buddy Games.”
Comedy depends on an adherence to truth. Laughter is usually a response to hearing a truth expressed in an unexpected way. So a comedy can’t be selective in the truths it chooses to accept but must be true in all ways. For example, Duhamel plays Bob, a man who feels more loyalty to his friends than he does to his wife. He’d rather be with them than with her, even though the wife is played by Olivia Munn.
Perhaps you’re not grasping the significance of this. So let’s go through this slowly. Olivia Munn plays the wife, and yet he’d rather be with his flatulent, disgusting friends. And the movie isn’t science fiction, and the man isn’t presented as mentally ill. Sorry, but this is just not possible. Short of being at the straitjacket stage, short of spending one’s days smearing feces on the wall, there is not a single man (gay or straight) who would not prefer the company of Olivia Munn to a bunch of gross guys. None. Such men do not exist. Not on this planet.
The movie begins with the Buddy Games underway. Shelly (Dan Bakkedahl), the most avid competitor, is having a glorious time, until someone shoots him in the testicles with a paint gun. Cut to five years later: Shelly has been in a funk ever since, having lost both precious orbs of manhood. To rescue his friend from the possibility of suicide, Bob (Duhamel) decides to revive the Buddy Games, so as to give Shelly something to live for.
“Buddy Games” is at its nasty best in the minutes leading up to the revived games. Once the men start competing again, some of the air goes out of the proceedings, as the audience has exactly zero investment in who wins. It’s mere spectacle. At one point, the men go to a bar and drink a laxative. The competition is to find a woman to buy them a drink before the inevitable happens. This is not as funny as it sounds,
and it doesn’t sound that funny.
Meanwhile, the real question here is what’s the deal with Olivia Munn? Why isn’t somebody writing movies tailored to her? Why hasn’t she had her great role? She’s the best thing in every movie she’s in, even in this guy movie in which she shows up spo
radically. Somebody, somewhere, write something for this woman. Give her the chance to show what she can do.
As for the rest, you could do a lot worse than spend 90 minutes watching “Buddy Games.” You could do better, too.