Waiting...

Waiting… (2005)

30% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 86 reviews)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Rob McKittrick

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Justin Long, Anna Faris, David Koechner, Chi McBride

From: Lionsgate/Element/Eden Rock Media

Here is a movie that doesn’t have too much to do with Valentine’s Day besides the fact that relationships are part of the plot, but I noticed that this vulgar comedy was showing on Comedy Central tonight (in 15 minutes from the time I’m posting this) and tomorrow, so I figured I would talk about it here and also explain how the DVD is pretty great.

This is a pretty vulgar film (if you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean by “The Goat”) that is a day in the life of various young (and some old) people who work at Shenaniganz Restaurant, an obvious spoof on Bennigans, a restaurant chain that is now out of business aside from some independent franchises that are still around, like one in Tampa in the Channelside complex. It includes the sarcastic and smartass Monty (Reynolds), a guy who realized that he should’ve done more with his life and he should’ve graduated regular college by now (Long), and a newbie who is a trainee (John Francis Daley, a guy who I understand you can see on the TV show Bones). It’s a large ensemble cast and you get to see the likes of Dane Cook AND Andy Milonakis. Me, I almost always can never stand the either of them, so you’d think that the both of them means major trouble. However, here they were more than fine with their small roles and in fact, the end credits has Andy rapping a *very* explicit tune that he wrote himself, and it’s so over the top that you have to laugh at it, and it has to be the best thing that he’ll ever do. Also, there’s a large collection of very attractive ladies to look at, including Faris, Jordan Ladd, Kaitlin Doubleday, Vanessa Lengies, and Emmanuele Chriqui. There are also quality character actors such as Koechner, McBride, Luis Guzman, and Wendie Malick. So, it’s a fine cast and it helps to make this some good stuff. Aside from the vulgarness there is a nice story about how Long wishes that he had done more with his life than hanging out with pals at the restaurant and he has to decide whether he wants to stay there or to do more with his life. So, it’s not a pointless grossfest with no point to it. I won’t give more away as I don’t want to spoil any of the small stories that are intertwined throughout the flick. Sure, you can see it on Comedy Central tonight or tomorrow night, but it’s in edited form and I’ve never seen it that way; I can only imagine how much they had to bleep out or completely remove, so it may be best to see it on DVD in original form.

Besides it being the unrated cut, the DVD also has the likes of a feature length documentary that’s almost as long as the movie itself and in a real neat innovation, a “telestrator commentary”, where it’s a commentary but the title device is used and often, the movie is stopped or even moved back to point out various things. It’s something that should be done more often, I say. So, again, if you like crass comedies, then you’ll probably enjoy this.

Check back here on Friday. I plan on seeing more than one movie, and they’ll be wildly different from each other, so you can look forward to that.