The Darwin Awards, 2006: Rated R
Subtitle: A comedy…to die for (or die watching?)
Who to look for:
Joseph Fiennes – kind of an odd (looking) fellow
Winona Ryder – not as odd as usual, for which we are most grateful
Once Upon a Time…
How do you spell actuarial? That’s about as interesting as this movie.
I’ve been accused of collecting facts and then telling people what I’ve found. I’m afraid that is correct. But a whole movie of talking random facts…he’s the 2nd child…people over 40 take risks…office workers tamper with vending machines… OMG, just shut it.
Not only does investigator Michael Burrows like to spout boring trivia like this, he also faints at the sight of blood. Is that the new kind of character device we should watch out for?
I only made it through half an hour of this movie. Death can sometimes be funny, but body after body dying in accidents, and no chemistry between the leads, and no plot at all…that will kill anyone’s joie de vivre.
Now I have to go look for the plot. From Letterboxd:
Detective Michael Burrows loses his job with the San Francisco Police. He becomes an investigator for an insurance company and joins forces with a cynical field agent to probe suspicious and unusual deaths.
OmGah. That was a tough writing assignment – the inside scoop on insurance agencies.
Explain the Ending and SPOILERS
Who paid for this script with unconnected scenes? Blumhouse Productions.
I also note that Finn Taylor both wrote and directed it. You can see how well the writer-slash-director thing works by watching lotsa Netflix. It’s a low-budget feature, even though most people don’t have this skill-set.
Amazon gives us a good synopsis of The Darwin Awards:
Based on four best-selling non-fiction books of over 700 Darwin Award cases, The Darwin Awards takes a darkly comic view at the people who risk their lives pursuing a crazy idea, only to end up improving the human race by removing themselves from the gene pool (DYING) and thus earning a “Darwin” award.
So…people have accidents and die while taking chances, and the human race gets stronger. & smarter. But risk-taking can also lead to discoveries!
Other Audience Commentary
AV Club: I didn’t understand anything this writer said until the last sentence: Just How Bad Is It? Pretty fucking awful.
From Amazon: I cannot believe it has a 4.3 star rating. I guess there are still some dumb people left in the wings.
From William Highfill: The Darwin Awards is a cavalcade of knuckleheads, numbnuts and overall cretins. Really funny! Recommended to me by a friend who was a psychology major. This started off as a book, which is interesting.
Scooby Doo says: Logical and filed with common sense. Something this society lacks much of. Funny as hell too. Some other viewers liked it, too – fans of the book series. (UGH – thank goodness I’m not reviewing those books here.)
Google: There’s no rating for the movie there! No one cared. Google linked to a Chechoslavkian film site, though, instead. I kid you not. (5 years later update, as Google tries to gather every eyeball to count as a reviewer: 84% Liked. LI-AR.)
That’s a Wrap
I gave it 1/4 of a star.
But seeing other reviews, maybe I’m overruled! Make up your own mind!
What did you think?
Set painter in studio Art Depts. Member Scriptwriters Network, script analyst.
Author, 2 hardcopy books, Barnes & Noble Calendar.
- Emma in the Night ~ Wendy Walker ~ Thriller - May 11, 2023
- Still Alice (2014) ~ Psychology Movie Review ~ Julianne Moore - January 25, 2023
- The Other Emily ~ Dean Koontz - January 23, 2023
Funny review. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score was only 45%, so it must be pretty bad.
You know, I don’t read Rotten Tomatoes, because I don’t understand that site! Is it just a composite of published reviewers? How do they decide who gets included? I’d rather have one person’s opinion at a time. 🙂