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"Joe
Somebody" is a film that defines lame. Everything from the
main character, to the jokes, to the storytelling is completely
dulled by the absolute lameness that constitutes for
entertainment in this after school special of a movie.
The film is basically about one spineless man's rise to stardom
by standing up for the little guy, but this Joe is no
inspirational figure and he really isn't that funny either. Tim
Allen sadly is given the horrid task of having to play him. He
is Joe Scheffer, a Video Communications specialist with a
pharmaceuticals company who spends much of his time letting
people walk all over him.
His boss, his ex-wife, and almost everybody else treat him like
dirt. The only person who even knows he exists is his obnoxious
daughter, who would much rather live with him than with her
mother and the mother's thespian boyfriend.
On "Take your Daughters to work Day", she decides to
go to work with Joe but an altercation with the office bully
ruins their time together. When Joe's parking spot is taken by
Mark McKinney (Patrick Warburton), he tries to reason with him,
but only ends up being humiliated in front of the entire office.
With his dignity shattered, Joe becomes a recluse in his house
until the office, out of fear that they will be sued, sends over
a counselor named Meg Harper (Julie Bowen) to help Joe. Her
first question to Joe is, "What do you want"? And with
that, Joe goes over to McKinney's house and challenges him to a
rematch.
The challenge takes on unexpected effects as Joe is turned into
an office hero. He becomes more popular, he gets promoted, and
above all, he gets the respect he deserves. So when Meg and his
daughter try to persuade him out of fighting, he can't bring
himself to quit.
Tim Allen brings a nice amount of enthusiasm to the role of Joe,
but even with that, he cannot overcome the character or the
script. Joe begins as a pitiable human being and then goes on to
being a glory hogging doofus. John Shepherd's script never
actually makes Joe into a hero, and the foreseeable acts of
physical humor that director John Pasquin throws in at any given
moment made me wonder how dense this character really is.
At one point, Joe tries to fix his hair while holding a cigar in
his hand. In another he manages to staple his sleeve to a
billboard. These are desperate attempts at humor and should not
have anything to do with the charismatic Tim Allen, who could
probably write a better script for this movie with his eyes
closed.
Shepherd also gets his stories mixed up. On one end he wants to
make a story of a nobody who becomes a hero and on the other he
wants to make a story about overcoming peer pressure. The result
turns in to one of the corniest and most unbelievable endings of
the year.
Another man who doesn't deserve to be a part of this filth, but
manages to be funny anyway, is Jim Belushi. A beer bellied
martial arts teacher is an easy attempt at humor, but at least
it's entertaining. That's more than I can say for the villains,
played by Patrick Warburton and Gregg Germann, as the boss, who
are both paper thin characatures of real bullies and Jerks.
"Joe Somebody" is not the least bit ambitious. It is
never an inspirational film or a funny one, it is just a
paycheck for Tim Allen and another movie to go with his short
list of film failures. Hopefully next years "The Santa
Clause" sequel will utilize his talent more than this
"nobody" of a movie.
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