Glenn Beck, Vince Vaughn, and Peter Billingsly ("Ralphie" from "A Christmas Story") Team Up To Produce Reality TV Show About Producing Documentaries

A while ago I read something about Vaughan that seemed to indicate he wasn't liberal. Which I took for code for "might be a conservative."

And Ralphie too? Well, Ralphie has been a frequent producer on Vaughan or Favreau movies, so he's part of the deal. I don't know if we can infer anything about Ralphie.

Anyway, they'll be doing a show called "Pursuit of the Truth," in which they will make a documentary about... well, making a documentary.

The show is called “Pursuit of Truth,” and it pits 20 documentary filmmakers against one another, with the grand prize being the financing and distribution of their documentary film.

"I am proud to announce that Vince Vaughn and I are going to be the executive producers," Beck said Wednesday. "That should make everybody's head spin. What the hell is Vince Vaughn doing with a crazy man? I know, that's what my friends say. Glenn, what are you doing with the crazy man Vince Vaughn?"

By the way, I saw "The Watch" a couple of weeks ago. It stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill.

I think a fair review would be this: Three very funny guys team-up for a high-concept, low-ambition bit of money-making movie-making and while none of them are exactly working hard in this movie, it's still good for a painless few laughs, so long as you don't mind a lot of dick and sex jokes.

No one's re-inventing the wheel as far as their on-screen personae here. Stiller does the Control Freak persona he does all the time (Royal Tannenbaums, for instance) and Vaughn plays a slightly stupider version of his Good Time Charlie Frat-Boy type. Jonah Hill I guess does something a little different -- he kind of steals Seth Rogan's character from Observe and Report, the dark, crazy wannabe cop who should never actually be a cop.

Three or four bits are clearly improvised, and... you guys? Three of the funnier people in the world? This was your best take?

It's not a great movie but here's the thing: I did re-watch the whole last half of the film soon after watching it the first time, to enjoy a couple of jokes again (and to also spot the Lonely Island guys (Andy Samberg & the other two) who show up for a cameo). So while a lot of these jokes are shopworn (the whole montage where they pose with the alien is very similar to the ending montage of The Hangover), they're still decent jokes with a little bit of life in them.

Low ambition, very little work or thought being put in... Basically guys just showing up for a reasonably cute premise and doing what they usually do in movies. It's a cash-in sort of movie where they do actually manage to barely earn their checks.

Given how godawful and unfunny most comedies are, I give it a positive rating of two stars out of four. I did not hate it at all. It's sporadically pretty funny and even when it's not funny -- the basic plot of a suburban neighborhood watch uncovering a massive alien infiltration is just a pretty fun idea.

The nagging feeling is just that: Shouldda been better. But, still, not so bad. Set expectations to low and it's a good enough timewaster.

posted by Ace at 05:25 PM

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