Caffeinated Clint
You can change the title as many times as you like (the film was previously set for release earlier this year as “Fast Track”), but at the end of the day, shit is still shit – regardless of how it goes down.
Zach Braff, Jason Bateman, Amanda Peet, Charles Grodin, Mia Farrow, Amy Poehler
Whenever someone wants to say sorry to someone in “The Ex” they don’t approach him or her and apologise to their face. No, instead they give each out a little bit of sticky paper with their request for forgiveness written on that.
I’m expecting to be handed one of those sticky notes any minute now. Surely director Jesse Peretz is so ridden with guilt that he’s scrawling an admission of guilt down as we speak, right? … Something along the lines of ‘Dear Audience, I am so sorry for making you pay, and consequently watch, the cinematic equivalent of having your ass chomped on by a hyena”.
You can change the title as many times as you like (the film was previously set for release earlier this year as “Fast Track”), but at the end of the day, shit is still shit – regardless of how it goes down.
A three-hander starring Zach Braff, Amanda Peet (she needs a new agent; this, “The Whole Ten Yards” and “Evil Woman” in the same decade?!) and Jason Bateman, “The Ex” tells of a couple of new parents that are forced to move to New York so he (Braff) can make some money to support his unit.
Once he starts working for her father’s (Charles Grodin looking every bit the 72-years-of-age he is!) advertising company, Braff’s character is immediately introduced to his new ‘wingman’; a wheelchair bound schmuck, played by Bateman. The critical cripple, of course, used to date Braff’s wife (he’s apparently a stud in bed, too) so some rivalry comes into play.
With such a great cast – Mia Farrow, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd and Donal Logue also appear – you’d think “The Ex” would have something going for it, but it doesn’t. It really doesn’t. It’s a sad excuse for entertainment. The laughs are forced, the storyline’s all over the place and the top-shelf talent (why would Grodin choose this to make his comeback in?!) are cast off and done in like disposable nappies.
The curse of the two-word title comedy, perhaps?
Rating : 
Reviewer : Clint Morris
