Dick (1999)
9/10
Easily one of the two or three best comedies of '99
16 October 2000
Dick is so unbelievably funny. It's one of those movies that gets funnier with repeated viewing, kinda like Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (doesn't hurt that it has two former Hall cast members). And what a cast it has. Lets take a look, we got the SNL crew (Will Ferrell, Ana Gasteyer, Jim Breuer), the Hall boys (Bruce McCulloch, Dave Foley), Simpsons voice Harry Shearer, and two cute as a button up and coming young actresses (Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams). But the big surprises for me were Hedaya and Rubinek, who would gave the most subtle, brilliant performances, and some of the biggest laughs. Rubinek, for example, only had a handful of lines in the film as Kissenger, but they're the ones that stuck with me. Little things like, "I'm familiar with these girls. Don't you look at me that way!" and "Yes, I know what nyet, nyet means". And Hedaya's evil Nixon was just hysterical, probably the most perfect comedic bad guy since Dr. Evil. How can you not love a villain with lines like, "Checkers--shut up! Or I'll feed you to the Chinese!". These guys had me in hysterics.

This from the writer/director of The Craft? Talk about a step in the right direction! But I could probably tell you without checking that The Craft made more money at the box office, sadly. But the centre of the film is Dunst and Williams, and if they weren't so incredibly good as the two air heads, the movie probably wouldn't have worked, despite the best efforts of the talented cast. Foley says it best, "I have met yams with more going on upstairs than these two." The movie keeps sneaking up on you with these quite, brilliant little lines, like the girls walking down a hallway, "I think it was left.", "That's because you couldn't turn right". Not to mention a terrific 70's soundtrack, and I don't even like music from that era (Nixon walking off to "You're so Vain" was the greatest!) Okay, I've said enough. Did I mention I liked this movie? See this movie. I'm Canadian, I don't understand exactly what Watergate was about (despite having seen Oliver Stone's Nixon twice), and I was just learning to walk when Nixon was forced out of office so I didn't recognize many of the names thrown around, but I loved it all the same and was able to get all of the jokes. 9/10 stars. G'night!
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