Ten comic sketches, each dealing with one of the Ten Commandments.

CRITIQUE

The basic concept of The Ten is solid enough; the idea of doing a humorous sketch around each of the Ten Commandments seems ripe with comic potential, as well as giving a good structure for an episodic comedy film.  Unfortunately, the segments here range from mildly-amusing to just-rather-flat, and despite a chuckle or two there ultimately isn’t enough here that really works well.

Director/co-writer David Wain cut his teeth on TV comedy series like The State and Stella, but the main problem with The Ten is that, other than a few name actors popping up here and there (Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Oliver Platt) this just feels like a strained TV sketch show episode.  Some of the sketches go in unexpected, often-surreal directions, but this doesn’t necessarily make them funny.  Other sketches drag out one-note gags for too long, such as “Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Wife”, which deals with prison rape in predictable fashion.

The opening sketch, involving a man stuck in the ground after a skydiving accident, has its moments, but after that a lot of sketches just don’t go much of anywhere.  Even some of the better bits, like Ryder developing a sexual obsession with a ventriloquist dummy, find a few chortles in the material but somehow just don’t manage to elicit the solid laughs that they could.

The segments are introduced by Paul Rudd, in a running gag that has him also dealing with his wife (Famke Janssen) and his mistress (Jessica Alba) in a bit that soon becomes wearying; the characters are eventually spun into the ninth sketch, which is the weakest of them all.  The tale climaxes with many of the characters coming back out to sing in a big musical number that is the lowlight of the whole film; there just aren’t any laughs in it.

Ultimately, this is just rather forgettable; aside from the vulgarity, too often these feel like Saturday Night Live bits from a best-forgotten lost season.

THE VIDEO

The Ten is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.  Picture quality is nothing special.

THE AUDIO

The Ten is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Surround.  Dialogue, music and sound effects come through clear.  There are Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

There is a Commentary with David Wain, co-writer Ken Marino and Paul Rudd that is unexpectedly entertaining throughout, largely helped by the fact that Wain’s parents are there and they happily criticize parts of the film as not working very well.

There are 55 minutes of Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes.  Some of the improvised alternate one-liners are amusing, but otherwise it’s just a lot of stuff that was cut from the movie because it wasn’t particularly funny.

There’s a 7-minute Interview taped with Wain, Marino and Rudd at the South by Southwest Film Festival, in which they make a lot of jokes, most of which fall flat.

There’s a 3-minute episode of David Wain’s Internet series “Wainy Days” that is notable only because of an appearance by Elizabeth Banks.

There is a 5-minute Making of Featurette that edits together a lot of production shots without much structure to it.

There are some Trailers for the movie, as well as Ringtones and Wallpaper.

FINAL THOUGHT

For die-hard fans of The State or Winona Ryder completists only.