Disenchanted Suburbanites Get More Excitement Than They Bargained For in Date Night

I generally get a kick out of Steve Carell’s characters, and I often find Tina Fey funny, so I was interested to see that they had co-starred in a comedy-adventure. I don’t ever recall seeing a preview for 2010’s Date Night, written by Josh Klausner and directed by Shawn Levy, so when my cousin and I stumbled upon it recently, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but she reported that she’d seen it and found it funny. While I didn’t end up liking it as much as most of Carell’s comedies, it was a fairly fun romp.

Phil (Carell) and Claire Foster (Fey) are a busy couple living in the suburbs of New York City. They both keep pretty busy with their jobs, and Claire spends a lot of time running the household as well. Alone time with each other is rare, and when they do go out to dinner, their favorite pastime is poking fun at nearby couples by imagining ludicrous conversations for them. But when friends of theirs decide to separate, Phil and Claire decide to put some spice back into their marriage by having a real date night. What starts out as a romantic evening escalates into a series of disasters as they get caught up in a world of thugs and theft.

Fey and Carell both have serious comedic chops, and they’re on display here much of the time, though the dialogue is rather hit-and-miss. Too often the movie substitutes “crude” for “funny,” with the result that this tale of rekindling romance in middle age often feels like it was written by junior high schoolers. On the other hand, there are genuinely funny moments, and Carell and Fey make a nice couple. They feel believable together, and their squabbles throughout the film seem a natural outgrowth of two people who are used to each other but now have more of a tendency to see each other’s irritating habits than their endearing qualities. As absurd as some of their adventures throughout the night are, it’s sweet to see them rediscover what attracted them to one another in the first place.

The movie has slapstick aplenty, particularly in the form of elaborate car wrecks. One sequence in which the Fosters’ car becomes entangled with a hapless cabbie is especially memorable. While Fey and Carell anchor the movie, various supporting players also add to the humor, or sometimes to the groans. I didn’t find much to like about William Fichtner as D. A. Frank Crenshaw, who spends most of his time on screen lusting creepily after various exotic dancers, particularly the under-cover Fosters. I found Ray Liotta’s performance as a mob boss rather corny but fun, and James Franco and Mila Kunis provide some of the movie’s biggest laughs as a pair of petty thieves who get mixed up with the Fosters and unwittingly help them rekindle their passion. As suave millionaire Holbrooke Grant, Mark Wahlberg doesn’t have to do much beyond standing around looking like a shirtless Ken doll, but his brief moments of interaction with the Fosters drive much of the movie’s action.

Date Night isn’t a movie I would watch more than once, but it made for decent late-night viewing for my cousin and me. Carell and Fey both have better movies to offer, but this wacky comedy isn’t a bad way to kill a couple hours.

Steve Carell Makes a Lovable Villain in the Sweet and Funny Despicable Me

Last year, I saw a lot of previews for Despicable Me, as well as a lot of commercials making use of the little yellow minions who populate the movie. I was so taken with these odd critters that I got my picture taken with them in the display at my local theater. Somehow, though, I didn’t see the movie until this week. I’m glad I finally got around to it.

I’m generally a fan of Steve Carell, whose career has consisted largely of him playing roles in which he is some sort of lovable loser. That’s the case here as well, but this time, he’s a super-villain named Gru. He’s certainly got the equipment for it; he has an enormous secret lair under his hazardous home, and he oversees thousands of minions, strange jabbering humanoids who are super-short and resemble yellow pills. He rumbles through town in an enormous metal contraption, and every time someone annoys him, he whips out his freeze ray and makes a popsicle out of him. But as the movie begins, he’s bemoaning the fact that a younger villain has pulled off the amazing feat of stealing the Pyramids, and suddenly all his accomplishments look pretty paltry. He needs to think big in order to compete, and what could be bigger than the moon? Indeed, Gru has been obsessed with the moon his whole life, and his plan to steal it, with some help from a shrink ray, is the culmination of that fixation.

Carell puts on a thick Russian accent for Gru, who is grumpy and anti-social but really not prime super-villain material. His hideous dog steals his food and chomps on his arm without repercussions. He leaves money in the tip jar at the coffee shop. He expresses concern for his minions’ job prospects when he believes that his plan is a bust. And whenever he’s in the presence, even by phone, of his severe mother, voiced by Julie Andrews, all of his boyhood vulnerabilities and disappointments come rushing back to him. He desperately wants her validation.

When Vector (Jason Segel), the twerpy, tracksuit-wearing villain who pulled off the Pyramid heist, gets ahold of the shrink ray Gru needs, he realizes that it’s going to take some fancy maneuvering to retrieve it. How can he get inside that fortress? Enter clever, cynical Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), mischievous, disaster-prone Edith (Dana Gaier) and adorable, affectionate Agnes (Elsie Fisher). These three orphan sisters live in a home run by sugary-sweet but sadistic Southerner Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig), who is eerily reminiscent of Dolores Umbridge, one of the most bone-chilling villains in the Harry Potter universe. She forces them to spend their days peddling cookies, and Vector has a sweet tooth, so Gru decides these girls are his ticket to the access he needs. He adopts them merely as a means to an end. But then a funny thing happens. He starts to get attached to them…

It was pretty obvious from the previews where this story was leading, but that didn’t make getting there any less fun or endearing. This computer-animated movie is visually attractive and filled with sight gags, particularly whenever the minions are on screen. These little guys all look pretty similar, yet each one has a distinct feature or two, and they’re always squabbling or goofing around or creating something in the background, always in the same incomprehensible language. Some of the movie’s most laugh-aloud moments involve them. Gru, meanwhile, is a terrific character, too easy to sympathize with to be repulsive. Each of the girls, so thrilled to have a home at last, reacts to him differently. Agnes adores him instantly, while Edith delights in defying him and Margo is afraid to get too close to him. His interactions with the girls are hilarious but often strangely sweet.

I rented this from Netflix, and I had a strange experience I’d never encountered before. I couldn’t play the bonus features. Instead, a message filled the screen, informing me that I would need to buy the DVD in order to watch the extra features. Is that unique to this movie, I wonder, or will this soon be a commonplace practice? I don’t tend to be that interested in bonus features beyond deleted scenes, but I still found it disappointing. However, the movie itself was every bit as entertaining as I’d hoped it would be. As touching as it is funny, Despicable Me isn’t despicable at all.

Carell and Clement Are Endearingly Odd in Dinner for Schmucks

I’ve been seeing a lot of promotion lately for Dinner for Schmucks, the Jay Roach-directed comedy that opens this weekend, but all those ads didn’t manage to give me a very clear idea of what the movie was about. All that really stuck with me was the fact that one of the stars was a distinctly odd-looking Steve Carell and that based on the quick clips shown in the previews, it looked pretty stupid. I was much more interested in Carell’s other movie, Despicable Me, but when my friend suggested we go see the schmucks, I was game. It turned out to be one of those movies I’m glad someone else suggested; I wouldn’t have gone on my own, but I ended up really liking it.

While it is Carell’s performance that really drives the action of the movie, Paul Rudd is the main character here, which I found interesting, since I last saw him in I Love You, Man, in which he plays a man on the verge of marriage whose engagement and life in general become overhauled when he meets the strange man who will quickly become his best friend. In this movie, he’s in a solid relationship, but he and artistic Frenchwoman Julie (Stephanie Szostak) are not yet engaged, much to his dismay. Tim is a clever, resourceful guy who is willing to do his homework in order to get ahead at the office. When a promotion pops up, his initiative and extensive research place him in an ideal opportunity to advance. But then complication arise...

Those complications come mostly courtesy of Carell’s Barry, a sweetly eccentric IRS agent who spends all of his free time building dioramas and scouting out tiny, already-deceased residents to fill them. Like most of Carell’s characters, Barry is endearingly naive, with character quirks that cause him to appear quite moronic. He has spectacles, an absurd set of teeth that cause him to talk strangely and an absolute inability to pick up on most basic social cues. And once Tim dramatically enters his life - in a manner that serves as a blatant warning about the dangers of driving while using a cell phone - he’s stuck with Barry, who is desperate to do all he can to assist his new (and only) friend.

Tim immediately sees in Barry his ticket to that bigger office, since he seems the perfect candidate for the top-secret dinner upon which his promotion largely hinges. The tradition? Each person from the office brings someone with a strange ability to dinner, and by the end of the night, one of them will be awarded a trophy. What the winner will be too clueless to realize is the fact that he and his fellow guests have only been invited so these executives can have a laugh at their expense. As soon as Julie learns of the dinner, she is horrified, and this is the cause of the initial friction between her and Tim. Barry sets off a series of mishaps exacerbating their problems, but it all boils down to the fact that this job has turned Tim into someone who does despicable things.

I was surprised at how much I came to like Julie so quickly. In these types of movies, there’s usually at least some question as to whether the main character might be better off without his current girlfriend. Usually there is a grating side to her personality, but Julie is utterly charming in one of the few straightman roles in the movie. I’d never seen Szostak in a movie before, but I’ll keep an eye out for her name; her radiant performance as the vulnerable but fiercely moral Julie won me over completely.

Also reeling me in was Flight of the Conchords‘ Jemaine Clement as Kieran, the artist whose show Julie is in the midst of curating. Though I’ve found Clement hilarious ever since his run of ads for Outback Steakhouse several years ago, I failed to recognize him in the previews. That’s not so surprising, however, since he plays a completely different character than the painfully awkward version of himself I grew used to seeing on his short-lived HBO sit-com. This long-haired incarnation of Clement bristles with brazen intensity. Julie and Barry both refer to his appeal as “animal magnetism,” and he’s certainly tapped into something visceral by surrounding himself with exotic wildlife at his ranch.

Unflappable and virile, he initially comes across as narcissistic since he is the focal point of every one of his carefully composed photographs, which depict him in animalistic costumes against provocative backdrops, but there’s something very Zen about his approach to the world. He’s an oddball, to be sure, but he’s also refreshingly honest and attuned to the emotions of others, and although he’s a rival for Julie’s affections, I found it impossible not to like him.

Although fellow FotC alum Kristen Schaal never shares the screen with Clement, it’s fun to see them both appear in the same movie. Her role is much smaller than his; she plays Tim’s personal assistant, who desperately wants Tim to make a play for power so she can move up to the seventh floor with him. Carell isn’t the only familiar face from The Office, either; Larry Wilmore, who plays a drab fellow from corporate trying to clean up Michael Scott’s messes in several episodes, portrays an officemate who would horrify that uber-politically correct character. Among the many other minor players, the one who caught my eye most was Patrick Fischler. Here, he’s Vincenzo, a bandaged vulture handler whose control over his bird is less than complete, while I know him as beady-eyed Dharma drone Phil on LOST.

Exuding a sort of smarmy executive charm is Bruce Greenwood as Tim’s boss Lance Fender, who tries to dismiss this young go-getter but finds himself increasingly impressed. While this is a man who seems to delight in the misfortunes of others, his charisma makes Lance’s crass nature harder to see. Same goes for Mueller (David Walliams), the Swiss businessman whose support is so crucial to the future success of the company. Mueller comes across as very sophisticated, and he’s pleased with Tim’s smooth attempts to court his favor, but before the movie is over, we get to see just how undignified he can be.

In many ways, this movie reminded me of the comedy What About Bob?, in which a psychiatrist played by Richard Dreyfuss has his perfect weekend obliterated by the affable patient who crashes his family getaway. This uptight professional on the cusp of the greatest triumph of his career watches in horror as his wife and children become attached to disaster-prone Bob, whose presence poses a grave threat to his big break. Barry is an incredibly sympathetic character, but some of his actions truly are idiotic, and when Tim’s mouth twitches in suppressed rage, it’s easy to understand why.

It’s a comedy of extravagant errors, and the resulting wanton destruction is my least favorite element of the movie. That sort of thing always makes me cringe a bit, whether it’s in Mouse Hunt or Bean. Both of those movies aim at a younger audience; Dinner for Schmucks is clearly for adults, with no characters under the age of 20 and a fair amount of sensuality. There’s also a smattering of profanity, though that’s kept to a minimum; more potentially offensive is a scene involving Barry’s artistic representation of The Last Supper, but everything Barry does is so earnest that while Tim’s reactions bugged me, the initial artwork seems almost reverent.

Barry, for all his eccentricities, is an exceptionally talented artisan. His attention to detail is astounding, as we see in the whimsical opening sequence set to the Beatles’ Fool on the Hill. It may sound a bit morbid to turn taxidermied mice into works of art, but his intricate displays pop with a candy-coated joy that reminds me of Pushing Daisies. This is a lonely man who has not had much success in life, but his ability to see the best in every situation clearly comes across in his artwork.

While I’ve become a pretty solid fan of Carell in recent years, I had serious doubts about Dinner for Schmucks. It’s a gentler film than I expected, and while it does have its crude and painfully disastrous moments, I spent a majority of the movie with a smile on my face. My conclusion? This bunch of schmucks did all right.

Two Paper Companies Are Better Than One In The Office: Season Five

This past Christmas, my brothers got my parents and me hooked on NBC's workplace sit-com The Office. We breezed through four seasons in a few months before playing catch-up with the fifth season online. It's the only season of which we saw some of the episodes as they aired. With 23 episodes, it's nearly twice as long as the strike-shortened fourth season, and although affable salesman Jim (John Krasinski) and sunny receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer) are officially a couple and nothing comes along to threaten their relationship much, all sorts of other entanglements are happening around them.

In the beginning, the big question on the Jim and Pam front is when Jim will pop the question, since it's obvious he's been burning to do so for a long time and is simply waiting for the right moment. The inevitable engagement scene comes early in the season and is surprisingly underplayed, considering how much buildup was behind it. They're also forced to endure long-distance romance while Pam takes art classes in New York, though this doesn't last long.

Meanwhile, preppy warbler Andy (Ed Helms) remains engaged to prissy accountant Angela (Angela Kinsey), but he as he eagerly makes wedding arrangements, she has covert meetings with her old flame, the relentlessly eccentric Dwight (Rainn Wilson). Clueless boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) finally gets his shot at true love with the new public relations person, the daffy Holly (Amy Ryan), but his life takes a turn for the worse when David Wallace (Andy Buckley) from corporate get wind of their romance, which breaks company policy.

The most surprising story arc of the fifth season involves Michael's rash decision to leave Dunder Mifflin after David hires the no-nonsense Charles (Idris Elba) as an intermediary between himself and Michael. Dunder-headed Michael has no idea how to get along in the world outside of his cozy position, and he seems likely to flounder, especially when he announces that he will be starting up his own rival paper company. However, Pam demonstrates initiative and loyalty by offering to join him in his new venture, and it isn't long before Michael tracks down former know-it-all intern Ryan (B. J. Novak), now working in a bowling alley, and convinces him to join the team. The three of them have an interesting dynamic, with Pam the go-getter who keeps the project from unraveling and Ryan the useless tagalong. Back at the office, Angela and flirtatious Kelly (Mindy Kaling) compete for the favor of the nonplussed Charles, and Dwight struggles to retain his clients in the face of the sudden threat from Michael.

Dwight is the most outlandish character in a show full of kooks, so many of the season's most memorable scenes belong to him. Crime Aid has him emulating Jud Fry in an amusing parody of Oklahoma!'s auction scene. In Moroccan Christmas, he brings to mind the Tickle-Me-Elmo and Furby crazes as he stocks up on the year's "it" toy and charges his officemates exorbitant rates for their children's satisfaction. Prince Family Paper is Dwight at his most infuriating, undermining Michael's soft-hearted decision not to use the information gathered on a Mom and Pop paper company during an undercover mission against them, as is Stress Relief, in which Dwight goes so overboard on creating a realistic fire alarm that Stanley (Leslie David Baker) has a heart attack.

My very favorite Dwight moment of the season occurs in conjunction with Andy in The Michael Scott Paper Company, in which the two, caught up in rivalry with each other even as they try to nourish a friendship, throw together a guitar-banjo rendition of John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads that is more like Dueling Banjos. It was a sublime surprise for this John Denver fan - particularly as they happen to be singing for the benefit of a character named Erin - followed by a disagreeable jolt when wet blanket Toby (Paul Lieberstein) cut the concert short.

We watched part of this season out of order, and it didn't really make much of a difference. It's best to watch episodes of The Office is the proper sequence, but it isn't critical to one's enjoyment or understanding. The shake-ups that occur in the fifth season are entertaining, and several developments in the final episode set us up for excitement in the sixth, which is already upon us. I can hardly wait!

The Office's Shortened Fourth Season Doesn't Fall Short

My brother was home from college for spring break a couple of weeks ago, which gave us the chance to watch the last of the four seasons of the NBC muckumentary sit-com The Office, which he got on DVD for Christmas. While it was considerably longer than the teensy first season, thanks to the strike, the fourth season spanned a mere 14 episodes, making it pretty easy to get through in a week.

The Office spent three seasons getting salesman Jim (John Krasinski) and receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer) together. After all that romantic tension, the season four premiere finds them a couple. Thus, season four marks a fundamental change in the show, much like season eight of Frasier, in which Niles and Daphne finally get together. While Frasier's lovebirds still must clear several hurdles at that point, over the course of the season, nothing really comes along to threaten Jim and Pam's relationship. For them, it's a season of bliss.

Not so much for their office mates, however. Toby (Paul Lieberstein), the human resources representative so reviled by off-his-rocker boss Michael (Steve Carell), always got along well with Jim before, but now he bitterly views him as a romantic rival. Jan (Melora Hardin), Michael's former boss, moves in with him, but their relationship continues to deteriorate as she displays increasingly erratic behavior. Eccentric farm boy Dwight (Rainn Wilson) repulses Angela (Angela Kinsey) when he mercy-kills her cat instead of administering her complex treatments; dorky Andy (Ed Helms) wins her over with a dramatic romantic gesture, but she finds she can't stop thinking about Dwight.

Kelly (Mindy Kaling) is miserable because her boyfriend Ryan (B. J. Novak) dumped her and ran off to be a corporate bigwig. While he loves being able to lord his power over his old officemates, Ryan soon discovers that life in the fast lane has its downsides. Grumpy Stanley (Leslie David Baker) flirts with the idea of transferring to Utica and befuddles Michael with an aggressive show of insubordination. Meredith (Kate Flannery) starts off the season in traction when Michael accidentally runs her down with his car, and lethargic Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) finishes the season flattered by the considerate attention of Holly (Amy Ryan), a new addition to the office, not realizing that she thinks he is mentally challenged.

Although the season is abbreviated, there is still plenty of fun packed into it. Highlights include a fierce salesmanship battle between Dwight and Dunder Mifflin Infinity, the company's just-set-up website; the employees' creative efforts to put together a more interesting television commercial than the one proposed by corporate; Michael's attempt to prove that he can survive in the wild; Ryan's hyperactive antics when Michael and Dwight visit him in New York; Kevin and Andy confronting the other office park bosses about one company's encroachment into Dunder Mifflin's parking lot; and Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) finally getting her big break as head of the party planning committee, leading to the most spectacular going away party the branch has ever seen. Of course, some of the funniest moments still stem from the characters' straight-into-the-camera confessionals.

Obviously, the writers' strike affected the course of this season, but I'm not sure to what extent. The only plot development that feels really rushed is Andy's courtship of Angela, and that seems to be largely a reflection of his overbearing personality. Ironically enough, the season's biggest weakness is probably the unfettered happiness of Jim and Pam; though it's what most viewers were rooting for and it's wonderful to see them so content, that tension drove a lot of the show's comedic conflict. Still, season four is a solidly entertaining chapter in Dunder Mifflin's ongoing saga of silliness.

The Office's Third Season Brings a Breaking - and Re-forming - of the Fellowship

Anytime you have a show with a large cast, there's the potential for some fracturing as various characters move in different directions. In The Office, the NBC comedy about a pack of quirky office drones working for the Scranton branch of fictional paper company Dunder-Mifflin, the third season is marked by this sense of disconnectedness. The first third of the season alternates between Scranton and Stamford, the branch to which lovable everyman Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) has relocated. Though a branch merger eventually brings him back to Scranton, it's in the company of several new characters, and it takes most of the season for the Scranton branch to settle back into its old groove. While the shake-up isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does facilitate the most awkward moments yet in the series.

Probably more than in any season, Jim is the focal point here, as the camera follows him to Stamford (where one co-worker hilariously mocks his habit of gazing meaningfully into the camera and slowly shrugging). While the position and the pay are better there, his main reason for going was to avoid the heartache of working with his best friend, engaged receptionist Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), to whom he bared his soul without receiving the response he had hoped for. Meanwhile, Pam, belatedly admitting that her feelings for Jim are strong enough to keep her from the altar, has called off her wedding to the insensitive, incompatible Roy Anderson (David Denman) and is missing Jim terribly. Roy, who spends the first half of the season meek and disheveled, becomes much more likable in his chastened state, though his brutish side comes roaring back when he discovers the true reason Pam broke off the engagement.

With Pam all at once available, we start off season three thinking that Jim ought to come running back to Scranton so he and Pam can live happily ever after. But the show doesn't let us off that easily. First, Jim has to get settled into his new environment, where he thrives at his job but misses the laid-back atmosphere of the Scranton branch. We are introduced to several co-workers, most notably Andy and Karen. Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) is Stamford's version of Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and his aggressive streak and active attempts to make a nuisance of himself make Jim actually appreciate his geeky former nemesis. There's an air of affection in the way he continues to pester Dwight from afar, and we're rewarded with one of the funniest scenes of the season when the gullible beet farmer reacts to a fax sent by "Future Dwight". Karen Filippelli (Rashida Jones) is a driven young businesswoman who slowly but surely succumbs to Jim's charms, creating great tension when she is one of the employees who joins Jim in Scranton after the Stamford branch closes.

For everybody rooting for a Jim and Pam romance, Karen is not a particularly welcome addition here. She's now standing in the way of their happy reunion, and her interference is more galling than Roy's since it probably wouldn't be an issue if Jim had just stuck around Scranton instead of running away from his problems. While Karen has some pleasant qualities, she carries herself with a very icy air. There's definitely a sense that she, like hot-shot young temp Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak), thinks she's above most of her co-workers - including new boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell), who is as clueless as ever.

Initially, boot-licking Andy is pretty obnoxious, and when he connives to dethrone Dwight, it suddenly becomes apparent that despite all his irritating qualities, Dwight is actually a pretty great guy to have around. After a stint in anger management, however, this hammy uber-WASP, a Cornell grad who is excessively fond of singing a cappella, becomes much more endearing. Though he and Dwight have very different personalities, their tendency to be over-the-top makes them play off each other wonderfully. Especially amusing is the extensive interview of Andy that Dwight conducts when he believes that management of the Scranton branch will soon fall to him and he'll need a second-in-command. (Highlight for this LOST fan? Dwight: What is the DHARMA Initiative? Andy: It is the center of all energy on Earth. Dwight: Wrong! It is a corporation run by aliens. In a DVD set packed with deleted scenes, this kooky conversation from the last episode of the season is my absolute favorite.)

With so much focus on Jim, Pam and the newbies, some of the supporting characters take more of a backseat, but there's still plenty for them to do here, particularly in the terrific Beach Games, in which Michael uses a team-building field trip to determine which of his underlings is most qualified to serve as his successor. Throughout the season, H.R. Eeyore Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) resignedly bears the abuse Michael heaps on him, and hints of his attraction to Pam become stronger. Lovably cranky Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker) shows surprising enthusiasm for Pretzel Day, while Phyllis Lapin (Phyllis Smith) must fret over whether the wedding of her dreams will be compromised by the overzealous Michael.

Creed Bratton (Creed Bratton) candidly reveals more unsavory tidbits about himself, and chatty Kelly smothers the reluctant Ryan in their less-than-blissful relationship. Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) spends a good chunk of the season missing as he enjoys a vacation compliments of the company, attempting to smooth over an unintentional slight by Michael regarding his orientation. Petite, severe Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey) continues her unlikely affair with Dwight, while fellow accountant Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) finds his non-office-related relationship on the rocks. Meredith Palmer (Kate Flannery) has a close encounter with a bat in a bizarre but quite touching episode directed by Joss Whedon of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog; Michael's buttoned-up corporate love interest, Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin), demonstrates that she doesn't quite have her act together; and warehouse king Daryll Philbin (Craig Robinson) gives Michael some pointers about negotiating a higher salary.

There are 23 episodes in this DVD set, several of which are forty minutes long instead of twenty, all of which include deleted scenes. Aside from those always-amusing gems from the scrap heap, my favorite extra this time around is the music video Lazy Scranton, a parody of Saturday Night Live's Narnia-touting Lazy Sunday that Michael and Dwight prepare as a welcome to the Stamford gang. Given the fractured nature of this third season, I wouldn't recommend starting here, but if you've breezed through seasons one and two, number three will not disappoint.

The Office Gets Down to Business in Season Two

This past Christmas, my brother received the first four seasons of The Office on DVD. He didn't have to head back to college until mid-January, so we got a fair bit of viewing in during that time, and he managed to get us completely hooked. While the first season is a fun introduction to the characters, it's so short, at only six episodes, that it seems more like a mini-series that kicks things off than a full season. Season two really plunges into the characters, letting us scrutinize all the quirks and foibles of the employees of the Scranton branch of the Dunder-Mifflin paper company.

The fearless leader is Michael Scott, played to the zany hilt by Steve Carell. Michael is a boss who is desperate to be liked by all of his employees, though he often sabotages his efforts to ingratiate himself by cluelessly making inappropriate remarks. He excels at wasting time, and the logic behind his thought processes tends to be truly baffling. In this season, one of his primary preoccupations is Jan Levinson-Gould (Melora Hardin), a hard-nosed superior with whom he unexpectedly shares a tender moment. Convinced that there's more to their relationship than one tipsy encounter, he pursues her for the remainder of the season, even as he puts the moves on Carol (Nancy Walls), the real estate agent who sold him his house. Meanwhile, he manages to wreak havoc with his staff time and again, whether he's proving himself inept at keeping a secret, leading uncomfortable seminars or handing out office awards that nobody really wants.

Michael's second-in-command is Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), an aggressively anti-social beet farmer whose off-the-wall remarks are among the strangest on the show. While Dwight is often maddeningly self-serving, he becomes more sympathetic this season as he embarks upon a covert relationship with uptight accountant Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), a devout Christian and cat lover who relishes her role as head of the party planning committee, and reveals greater depths of geekiness, making allusions to the likes of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and LOST. In the fourth episode, The Fire, Dwight demonstrates the extent of his oddness when Jim initiates a "What three books would you bring with you to a desert island?" game. His answer? "Physician's Desk Reference - hollowed out. Inside: waterproof matches, iodine tablets, beet seeds, protein bars, NASA blanket and, in case I get bored, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. No, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." This was the moment when I declared my allegiance to Dwight for the rest of the series.

Perhaps the most normal people in the office are salesman Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and receptionist Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer). They make the drudgery of their jobs bearable by collaborating on elaborate pranks, of which Dwight is almost always the victim. They're young, attractive and totally into each other. There's just one problem: Pam is engaged to the boorish Roy Anderson (David Denman), a warehouse worker who isn't really a bad guy but who certainly doesn't seem like a good match for Pam. The gradual resolution of the romantic tensions between Jim and Pam reminds me of the long-deferred Niles-Daphne relationship on Frasier; in both cases, the heart of series lies largely in wanting these star-crossed lovers to finally have a shot at real happiness together.

With the main players already well established, season two delves more deeply into the less prominent but still crucial characters. The only other woman in Pam's age bracket is Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling), a customer service representative of Indian descent who is scarily skilled at speaking at Micro Machine Man speeds. She has her eye on Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak), the fresh-out-of-college temp on whom Michael fawns, much to Ryan's discomfort. Kelly is ditzy, while Ryan has plenty of book smarts and a pretty high opinion of himself, though when it comes down to it his value to the company is rather limited, especially since he considers himself above many of the tasks Michael assigns him.

Sharing the accountants' corner with Angela are articulate, well-coiffed Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez), an underused character who has a moment in the spotlight late in the season, and pudgy, lethargic Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner), who reacts to the shenanigans of his office-mates with an elementary school mentality. Back in the annex with Kelly is sad-sack Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein), the human relations guy who is constantly butting heads with Michael over his management style. Consequently, Toby is the one employee who Michael detests, which adds to the pervasive exhaustion reflected in the bags under Toby's eyes.

Middle-aged saleswoman Phyllis Lapin (Phyllis Smith) generally brings a kind, maternal presence to the office, though party planning encounters with Angela bring out some less admirable aspects of her personality. Her demeanor tends to be quiet but cheerful, while fiery-haired alcoholic Meredith Palmer (Kate Flannery) comes across as sour and oversexed. Creed Bratton (Creed Bratton), the oldest member of the staff, first makes a big impression in Halloween, when he talks Michael, who has been pressured into laying off an employee, into letting him stay. In charge of quality control, he rarely plays a significant role in the workings of the office, but this creepy, out-to-lunch renaissance man can often be counted on for a hilariously random aside.

Down in the warehouse with Roy is Daryll Philbin (Craig Robinson), a no-nonsense black man who is leery of Michael interfering with his team's productivity and enjoys yanking Michael's chain by feeding him phony ghetto phrases. Up in the office, the only black employee is Staney Hudson (Leslie David Baker), a grumpy bulldog of a guy whose rolled eyes and terse statements make it very clear that he doesn't take kindly to Michael's interruptions, which could cost him sales. When that interference comes in the form of mandatory meetings, Stanley expresses his disdain by ignoring the presentation and working crossword puzzles.

This season gives all of these characters opportunities to interact with one another in ways that are sometimes meaningful and always amusing. The mockumentary style of the series allows for frequent instances of characters directly addressing the camera; some of the funniest bits of dialogue and most revealing character details come out in these short soliloquys. Several episodes take characters into a different setting, whether it's the Chili's where Michael hands out the annual Dundies awards, the ice skating rink where he holds his birthday party or the warehouse he so gleefully infiltrates. The office itself takes on a different flavor at times, too, particularly when Jim institutes a competition consisting of all the games that people have made up to stave off boredom and when various employees bring their children and step-children to work with them.

No matter what the circumstances, this show is full of surprises, with every episode guaranteed to have loony lines that will catch you off guard. With 22 episodes, there's a lot more to chew on here than in the first season, not to mention that there are more - and funnier - deleted scenes for each episode than for any series I've seen on DVD, with the possible exception of Freaks and Geeks, the other series produced by Paul Feig. Other special features like PSAs presented by various characters and a series of short scenes dealing with an accounting mystery add to the set's value.

When I started watching The Office, my friend informed me that season two was her favorite, and I can understand why. In terms of establishing character, it's the cornerstone of the series, and there is still plenty of new territory to explore at this point. It's also pretty easy to pick up the series here without having watched the first season, as my dad did; in later seasons, there are some pretty substantial plot twists that might throw new viewers for a loop, but if you want to dive into The Office with a full set of episodes, season two won't leave you confused. Still, I recommend catching it from the beginning, especially if you're a Netflix member, as the first four seasons are not only rentable but also available for instant viewing. Just be warned: It's mighty addictive!

The Office Starts Out Strong and Leaves This M*A*S*H Fan Smiling

For some time now, I've been bemoaning the lack of decent sit-coms on the air. The Simpsons is still consistently funny, but it's also been on the air for twenty years. A couple months ago, I would have said that the only recent sit-coms that really tickle my funny bone are Everybody Hates Chris and Flight of the Conchords, neither of which is on one of the major networks. Happily, I've now found another sit-com that is genuinely funny. I've been aware of The Office ever since it came out, but the snatches I caught of it didn't reel me in, and I wasn't so sure a corporate comedy was my kind of show. But my brother received the first four seasons on DVD for Christmas, so immersion was inevitable. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

The Office was originally a Brit-com, and like most, it had short seasons. I don't know if the mere six episodes in the American version are an intentional reflection of that or if the show just happened to start when the season was almost over, but it makes getting through the first season incredibly easy. I watched all six episodes in one sitting; it only takes about two hours, closer to three if you watch all of the deleted scenes (which I recommend). It's the perfect way to plunge into the show, and the DVD doesn't cost any more than a typical movie.

The Office follows the day to day business of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of a paper company called Dunder Mifflin. Mostly, it's funny business; rarely do we see these people actually working. My first impression of The Office was that it mirrors the comic strip Dilbert, with a bunch of people stuck in meaningless jobs who, on the rare occasion that they actually have an opportunity to accomplish something, are invariably thwarted by their brainless boss. Cult classic Office Space also comes to mind. What I didn't expect was that I would find myself drawing comparisons to my all-time favorite sit-com, M*A*S*H.

In M*A*S*H, the residents of the 4077th use laughter as a means of dealing with the horrors of war. Their problem is not a lack of purpose; they do incredibly important work but wish they didn't have to. In The Office, laughter combats utter tedium, which can, in its own way, be almost as soul-crushing as a war zone. Both shows poke fun at corporate red tape; I even have a Valentine's Day card which has company clerk Radar saying, "I have the forms to order the forms to apply to be your Valentine." Forms are always flying around at Dunder Mifflin, and usually they seem pretty ridiculous.

What's even more ridiculous, however, is the way boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) reacts to them. He goes to absurd lengths to avoid them, and it falls to his underlings to force him to pay attention to these mind-numbing tasks. Michael reminds me very much of Colonel Henry Blake, the leader of the 4077th during the show's early years, which tended to be more silly than somber. While Blake is a perfectly competent surgeon, he's pretty hopeless as a leader, and his laid-back attitude makes it all the easier for troublemakers like Hawkeye and Trapper to pull the wool over his eyes as they engage in their shenanigans. Like him, Michael has enough skill in one particular area - sales - that his rise to management doesn't seem wholly implausible. He is a kind, decent man who is so determined to have his employees' friendship that he has a hard time commanding their respect. Unlike the colonel, he's always undermining his branch's productivity by interrupting his workers with pointless activities and awkward attempts at humor. Michael, as likable as he is, has an astonishing lack of understanding when it comes to appropriate conduct and terminology, and he has a habit of offending the very people to whom he tries to endear himself. He's more off-the-wall than Colonel Blake, the sort of guy who seems too ludicrous to be real, but Carell has the comedic chops to keep us laughing our heads off instead spending all of our time wondering why this guy is still in charge.

Just as M*A*S*H has Hawkeye and Trapper serving as the resident practical jokers, The Office has salesman Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and receptionist Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), who are practically inseparable during this season and always cooking up new schemes with which to aggravate Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), whose rigid, antagonistic streak is reminiscent of weasely Frank, Hawkeye's preferred target. Dwight, like Frank, aspires to a loftier position and is always trying to assign more power to his role than he has actually been given. His quirks are even more bizarre than Michael's, and Wilson's deadpan delivery of consistently outlandish lines makes Dwight the character most likely to cause me to squirt milk out of my nose.

These four are the most important characters in an office full of unique individuals. There's Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), whose uptight attempts to exert control over her fellow office-dwellers recall Margaret Houlihan. The comparison is even more striking in the second season when she embarks upon a covert relationship with Dwight. Wunderkind temp Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak), like boyish Radar, is more competent than his boss - though he's nowhere near as lovable as Radar is. Sturdy saleslady Phyllis Lapin (Phyllis Smith), like the Chinese-Hawaiian Nurse Kellye, is a quiet positive force in the office, a kind woman who's always there but rarely gets noticed. I could probably continue, but you get the idea.

Do I think The Office consciously borrows from M*A*S*H? Probably not. But if this mockumentary, which develops its characters as often through their asides to the camera as through the scenes carrying the action (a device M*A*S*H uses on occasion), inspires such reflections from me, it's because I find it worthy of the comparison. I should have given The Office a shot sooner. Now, if I could just convince Alan Alda to put in a guest appearance...

Carell and Freeman Keep Carrey-less Evan Almighty Afloat

Four years ago, I went to see Bruce Almighty on opening night, having been tipped off about it at a Don McLean concert in Buffalo the previous year. My interest was sufficiently piqued, and the movie didn't disappoint. So when I heard about the sequel, Evan Almighty, earlier this year, I was eager to check it out. Though the lack of Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston - who were asked to reprise their roles and declined - was potentially ominous, given the nature of the film it seemed plausible for a legitimate sequel to focus on an entirely different group of people, as long as God was still in the picture. With Morgan Freeman back on board, joined by Steve Carell and a huge assortment of animals, the film had promise. And then the reviews started rolling in, and I wondered whether this would be another of those disastrous sequels that would manage to sap life out of the original by mere association.

So I was pleasantly surprised to disagree with Richard Roeper and a host of other critics. Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough, but I found Evan Almighty thoroughly enjoyable, starting with the previews, which not only announced VeggieTales' second big screen adventure but also gave me a Dick King-Smith adaptation about the Loch Ness Monster to look forward to. These family-friendly previews gave me a good sense of what sort of movie we were about to see. While Bruce Almighty was primarily aimed at adults, with a fair share of rather raunchy humor, the PG-rated Evan Almighty has much more in common with old school live action Disney flicks than contemporary comedies. The genre shift could be jarring to some, but Freeman's performance is consistent throughout the two films, tying them together.

Less consistent is Carell as Evan Baxter, the narcissistic newsman who was Bruce's rival in the original; while he comes across as a bit self-absorbed, particularly in the beginning, he soon becomes sympathetic, just an overworked guy trying to make a difference in the world but leaving his family behind in the process. I'm willing to overlook it, though, particularly since our perception of him in the first film was probably skewed by the fact that we were seeing him as Bruce was. Some of the humor in the sequel comes from the fact that Evan is an immaculately groomed neat freak who suddenly has an unshavable beard, much like Scott Calvin in The Santa Clause, and a wild assortment of animals following him around. The almost Hitchcock-esque sequences in which he is tailed by dozens of pairs of birds are among the most entertaining in the film. Once he accepts all the not-so-subtle hints, the animals become a welcome rather than oppressive presence and even manage to aid him in his divinely appointed task of building an ark.

On the home front, Evan has to deal with his wife Joan (Lauren Graham), who first chides him for being an inattentive dad and later for apparently cracking up. It does seem a little odd that the people who live with Evan would not find anything amiss in the fact that a week's worth of beard has appeared overnight, but even when Evan tells Joan about his meeting with God, she remains convinced that the hair, the boat and even the animals that seem magnetically drawn to Evan constitute some sort of massive mid-life crisis. Meanwhile, his sons - Dylan (Johnny Simmons), Jordan (Graham Phillips), and Animal Planet-addicted Ryan (Jimmy Bennett) - prefer the new Evan, since he's around a lot more.

In his new role as congressman, Evan has three close advisors: the sassy Rita (Wanda Sykes), anxious Marty (John Michael Higgins) and excessively admiring Eugene (Jonah Hill). They soon have more than they bargained for in presenting a positive image of Evan to the press, which hungrily fixates on his increasingly bizarre antics. He also has an unexpected ally, Congressman Long (John Goodman), a fat cat who happens to be Evan's neighbor in the fancy new development where he recently moved his family. This alliance quickly turns sour as it becomes clear the corrupt congressman intends to bribe and cajole the rookie into helping him pass through a bill that will allow him to develop peripheral national park lands. Goodman makes a great villain along the lines of Alonzo Hawk, the despicable developer who graced several Disney films in the 60s and 70s.

When we get wind of the piece of legislation he wants Evan to sign, its ecological bent is no surprise; the film drives home Evan's reckless consumerism early on, from his massive, gas-guzzling hummer to a conversation he has with the man building the cabinets in his new home in which he cheerfully chooses wood made from old growth trees. Stewardship of the environment forms a strong undercurrent for the story, most effectively illustrated when God shows Evan how the valley in which he lives used to look before it became a victim of urban sprawl. The other main message of the film is to treasure one's family and, more generally, to never miss an opportunity to perform an "Act of Random Kindness".

Watching the movie, I was reminded of several of director Tom Shadyac's previous films. Like Ace Ventura it concerns itself with the well-being of animals, and with so many of them on screen at once, it's sure to attract animal lovers of all ages. Like Liar, Liar, it involves a dad who's too wrapped up in his career to make time for his family. Like Patch Adams, it focuses on the importance of making life better for individuals. And, of course, like Bruce Almighty, it depicts God as compassionate and involved in our lives. Shadyac is a devout Christian attempting to bring his sensibilities to the big screen, and he succeeds in this aim especially well here. While putting words in God's mouth always runs the risk of blasphemy, Shadyac's motivation is sincere, and Freeman's gentle but insistent portrayal commands respect.

I read that Evan Almighty is the most expensive comedy ever made. While I enjoyed the film very much, I find that categorization a little strange, since comedy really wasn't the focus of this movie. There's the unfortunate barrage of defecation, particularly of the avian variety, which I suppose is hard to resist when you've got hundreds of animals and you're trying to get a laugh out of a PG crowd; thankfully, that's about the only crude humor to be found in the movie. Most of the amusing moments are visual, such as God appearing as several passersby while trying to convince Evan to build the ark or a pair of primates downing lemonade with Evan on a break from pounding boards. There's a running joke involving a silly dance that Evan does, and much as Bruce kept seeing the same mysterious phone number repeatedly, our hero can't escape the number 614, a reference to Genesis 6:14, in which Noah is commanded to build the ark. Evan's realtor (Molly Shannon) is named Eve Adams, while a movie theater marquee he passes reads The 40-Year-Old Virgin Mary. It's a funny enough movie, but it's really more of a feel-good film the whole family can enjoy together, which in a too frequently cynical age may be even better.