John Hamburg
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Connections, in both directions
That’s the challenge Robert De Niro set for himself, and rose to, in the “Meet the Parents” films (though he, in effect, was playing the pest), and “Why Him?,” directed by the gifted John Hamburg (“I Love You, Man”), is a comedy on about that level of execution.
Director and co-writer John Hamburg specializes in the comedy of embarrassment, as seen in such pictures as Along Came Polly and Meet the Parents.
The plot is an inversion of Meet the Parents (which Hamburg co-wrote), with Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston) finding himself repulsed by his beloved daughter Stephanie's (Zoey Deutch) eccentric tech-entrepreneur boyfriend, Laird Mayhew (James Franco), upon meeting him in California.
Franco is Laird Mayhew, a narcissistic man-child and bro-bazillionaire who is the titular “him” of a Meet the Parents comedy in reverse.
This raunchier take on the "Meet the Parents" theme centers on Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston), owner of a Michigan printing company that's closer to financial ruin than he's told his wife, Barb (Megan Mullally).
Cowriter (with Ian Helfer)/director John Hamburg ("I Love You, Man") dusts off his old "Meet the Parents" script and flips it around with story input from Jonah Hill.
Rob Reiner, director of “A Few Good Men” and “The Princess Bride” and “Misery,” giving us “North,” which inspired Roger’s immortal passage: “I hated this movie.
This latest iteration of a story we've seen many times before — from Vincente Minnelli's Father of the Bride to Meet the Parents (which was co-written by this film's director, John Hamburg) — isn't especially good, nor is it bad.
Cowritten and directed by John Hamburg, who wrote Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, and Little Fockers, Franco's movie gleefully parodies that earlier franchise, along with classics like Vincente Minnelli’s Father of the Bride and Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
That's just one bit of generational humor that's present in "Why Him?" a comedy that follows in the footsteps -- sort of -- of the parents-meet-boyfriend films ranging from 1967's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" to the more recent "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Meet the Parents."
Cowritten and directed by John Hamburg, who wrote Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, and Little Fockers, Franco's movie gleefully parodies that earlier franchise, along with classics like Vincente Minnelli’s Father of the Bride and Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
Nor is it a “What About Bob?” situation, where someone is insufferably obnoxious but only one other character sees it and everyone else chides him for being such a grump.
The genre goes back to the ’60s sitcom “Green Acres” (where a whole town of fruitcakes addled poor Mr. Douglas) and to movies like “What About Bob?,” which gave Bill Murray one of his catchiest roles.
Rob Reiner, director of “A Few Good Men” and “The Princess Bride” and “Misery,” giving us “North,” which inspired Roger’s immortal passage: “I hated this movie.
Rob Reiner, director of “A Few Good Men” and “The Princess Bride” and “Misery,” giving us “North,” which inspired Roger’s immortal passage: “I hated this movie.
It’s “Meet the Parents” in reverse crossed with Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Teorema,” in which Terrence Stamp seduces, one-by-one, a bourgeois family.
Beatty and Hoffman and Elaine May with “Ishtar.”
Rob Reiner, director of “A Few Good Men” and “The Princess Bride” and “Misery,” giving us “North,” which inspired Roger’s immortal passage: “I hated this movie.
But in between them, will it really hurt him to do something in the vein of “Shanghai Noon” and “Rush Hour”?
Whether it’s the irreverent silliness of “The Other Guys,” the sci-fi splashiness of “Men in Black” or action hero machismo of the “Rush Hour” series, none of them would work if not for the comedic energy both stars funnel into the other.
It stretches belief that Polly would give Reuben as many chances as she does and a subplot about insuring billionaire Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown, "Gorillas in the Mist"), an Xtreme sports nut, isn't successfully integrated.
Why Him? is also a rip-off of Father of the Bride, an archetypal story to be fair, but mangles any comedy inherent in that premise anyway.
This latest iteration of a story we've seen many times before — from Vincente Minnelli's Father of the Bride to Meet the Parents (which was co-written by this film's director, John Hamburg) — isn't especially good, nor is it bad.
Cowritten and directed by John Hamburg, who wrote Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, and Little Fockers, Franco's movie gleefully parodies that earlier franchise, along with classics like Vincente Minnelli’s Father of the Bride and Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
Although the Meet the Parents/Father of the Bride template has been updated to have off-color jokes, it still keeps the angelic daughter on the sidelines for most of the film.
“Father of the Bride” zaniness gets repackaged with dope tattoos and digital-native aesthetics in “Why Him?,” a James Franco-Bryan Cranston teaming that’s not as wild as intended, but reasonably diverting just the same.
Even a running gag involving Laird's guru Gustav (Keegan-Michael Key) that's straight out of "The Pink Panther" only shows how funny Peter Sellers was.
Breaking Bad legend, Bryan Cranston, is Ned Fleming, a suburban dad none too happy when his daughter, Stephanie (Zoey Deutch, the daughter of Back To The Future’s Lea Thompson and Pretty In Pink director, Howard Deutch…now that’s a pedigree!)…
Hoffman physically works the role, playing exuberantly bad basketball, shuffling out of a room ('I just sharted' - a new word is coined, for better or worse), taking over the lead role of a Hell's Kitchen Community Theater production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" or making just lolling about funny with perfect placement of limbs.
Philip Seymour Hoffman does what he can in the best-friend role as a has-been actor so conceited that he insists on playing Judas and Jesus in a community production of "Jesus Christ Superstar."
Michael “The Deer Hunter” Cimino and “Heaven’s Gate.”
Breaking Bad legend, Bryan Cranston, is Ned Fleming, a suburban dad none too happy when his daughter, Stephanie (Zoey Deutch, the daughter of Back To The Future’s Lea Thompson and Pretty In Pink director, Howard Deutch…now that’s a pedigree!)…
Meeting prospective in-laws has probably been fodder for comedies since the time of Aristophanes, but the cliché can still strike a chord if delivered with some cleverness—witness “La Cage aux Folles” (though not the mediocre English-language remake) or “The In-Laws” (again the original, not its equally mediocre remake).
The big finale, which features Gene Simmons and Peter Criss in full KISS regalia, is a solid sendoff with faint flavorings of "It's a Wonderful Life."