The Campaign (formerly Dog Fight)

[nathansmart]

The maid character was great. I laughed so hard next to some black people who were not laughing (even though they laughed at everything else) and that made me feel embarrassed.

[Gluehead]

The maid character is the one thing I actively hated about the movie, it was so broad and stupid and felt like an awful joke Jay Roach brought over from Meet the Fockers. The fact that they inexplicably bring her back to end the movie just seems like such an insane decision to me.

[Weinerslave]

Yeah, when she showed up at the end there, I wanted to burrow through my seat. Literally cringe-inducing, and not in a good, BBC Office way.

[slothborn]

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[nathansmart]

Well, I'm glad I enjoyed myself.

[conundrum]

I enjoyed it, will and zach were hilarious. The 2nd half wasn't as good as the 1st but I didn't think the 2nd half was that bad

[SlyBattery]

Weird because I actually thought the first 2 8ths were pretty good but then the 3rd 8th was a bit slow then the last 5 8ths funny again.

[thecomedian]

I enjoyed it.

[A_S]

I saw this in the most enjoyable way to see a comedy: in a packed theater on opening weekend with a COMPLETELY silent crowd who didn't laugh at anything. A handful of people laughed at the baby-punching but nothing else. I thought the movie was ok.

[Umlaut]

I also really liked it, I liked Zach a lot especially. He really has grown into his massive movie stardom, albeit a little uncomfortably. He owns his performance in this movie in a great way, though. Very silly and very sweet throughout. It was one of the most endearing characters I've seen in a comedy in a long time. The confession scene with his family at the beginning had me dying, as well as a few other bits.

The movie did drag a little in the middle and then took an almost Return of the King-length of time to wrap up in the end. But overall, very funny, I will own it in some form eventually.

[BillBrasky]

I watched this again on DVD today and although the movie has some funny scenes, I think the main problem with it is that Will Ferrell isn't as funny to me when he's really dirty and R-rated. It seems like every time he makes an R-rated movie with a lot of cursing (Semi-Pro was another example), the movie becomes a lot less clever and just becomes reliant on dirty stuff for its humor.

To prove my point, I watched "Anchorman" later in the day and because they had to censor themselves more in that movie, they had to present the jokes in a more clever way. The fact that they DIDN'T curse throughout the movie made it so that when they did finally have a curse word ("Go fuck yourself, San Diego"), it was legitimately shocking and funny. I'm glad they cut the "Eat this plate of cat shit" scene with Fred Armisen and the scene where Ron says "fuck" like 20 times after getting fired from the actual theatrical release of the film, because they would have detracted from the movie overall I think. In "The Campaign", you have scenes of Will Ferrell getting bit by a snake and just blatantly saying "Shove a dick up a cunt's ass!" or whatever, and it's just too much. The over the top cursing makes it not funny anymore (to me, anyway)

There is one kind of funny deleted scene on the DVD where Jack McBrayer and his family (who earlier were subjected to Ferrell's obscene telephone message) watch his campaign ad on TV where he's screwing Zach's character's wife. Zach actually was much more enjoyable to watch in the movie for me, probably my favorite character he's ever played in a movie. Not his typical obnoxious character but a more endearing, likeable one.

Edit: Having said all of this, "Stepbrothers" was R-rated and was funny so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

[Umlaut]

Yeah, but I think your point stands, because the characters in Step Brothers were excessively immature, so even though they did things like visibly put their nutsack on a drum set, because it was coming from this place of emotional 12-year-olds, essentially, it worked. I agree that some of the excessive vulgarity of Ferrell's character in The Campaign really worked against his already unlikable character, and it certainly didn't help him be any funnier. Meanwhile, as a contrast, it just made me love Zach's character more for wading into the action all wide-eyed and innocent. The funniest scene is watching him react to his family's confessions for a similar reason.

[Pimpbot]

It felt like the film was tonally stuck between zany/absurdist and (hamfisted) satire without doing a very good job of either. There are a couple of funny moments but not enough to really make the movie worth going back to.

[misscritta]

We watched it over the weekend and I wasn't crazy about it. I did love the maid and the parts with the pugs, but the rest left me...meh.

[pixel revolt]

I saw it a drive in and the movie was perfect for that venue. Loosely strung together set pieces with outrageous/shocking gags to distract us from our many snacks and food. The crowd laughed. But as a normal watch I think the plot was too plotty or in other words, neither funny nor engaging. You have to sit through the resolution and complications. I didn't really care about the characters or think the story was comedically inspired. It felt like something you'd write on assignment for a major studio looking for a Will Ferrell script than an original, creative spec that the writer wanted to hit a home run with. I'm probably being ignorant with that statement but that's how it felt after watching it.