Fun with Dick and Jane is a 2005 American comedy film and remake of the 1977 film of the same name, directed by Dean Parisot and written by Judd Apatow and Nicholas Stoller. It stars Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni as Dick and Jane Harper, an upper-middle-class couple, who resort to robbery after the company for which Dick works goes bankrupt. Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins, Angie Harmon, John Michael Higgins, Richard Burgi, Carlos Jacott, Gloria Garayua and Stephanie Weir also star.
The film did well at the box office making a worldwide total of $202 million, weekend grossing only $30,383,515, but was able to eventually make eight times its opening weekend gross during the holiday season. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. It was released by Columbia Pictures on December 21, 2005.
Plot summary
The year is 2000, and we are introduced to the Harper family. The family members are Dick Harper, who works for a company in Los Angeles called Globodyne. Jane Harper works at a local travel agency and is often stressed at work. They have a son named Billy, who speaks mostly Spanish, as he is good friends with the family's young Hispanic housekeeper, Blanca. They also have a dog, who liked to bark until he was fitted with a shock collar. Dick is 'promoted' to Vice-President of Communications by company CEO Jack McCallister and company CFO Frank Bascombe. He is also asked to appear on the show Money Life, where host Sam Samuels and then independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader dub him and all the company's employees as "perverters of the American dream" and claim that Globodyne helps the super rich get even wealthier. As they speak, the company's stock goes into a free-fall and is soon worthless, along with all the employees' pensions, which are in Globodyne's stock.
Dick arrives home to find an excited Jane, who informs him that she took his advice and quit her job in order to spend more time with Billy. Dick has to break the news over dinner, instantly alarming Jane. Dick tries to think positively, and tries for a few months to get a Vice Presidency at other corporations. After getting no job anywhere, Jane reveals that they'll end up declaring bankruptcy in the next couple of months due to their assets being comprised entirely of now-worthless Globodyne stock.
Dick still tries to look on the bright side; stating that their house is worth $600,000. Jane then informs him that, since the fall of Globodyne, the local property market crashed, and that if they were to sell their house, they would owe the bank $150,000. After coming to terms with the prospect of being poor, Dick applies for low paying, dead-end jobs. After being fired from all local businesses, (with Dick being mistakenly deported to the Mexican border because of his slurring from getting punched in the mouth by an illegal alien trying to catch a painting job, and further complicated when Dick tries to call home and the authorities hear Billy say "hola" instead of "hello" when answering to the phone) and finding out that they have 24 hours before being evicted from their home, he decides that it's time for the couple to turn to crime. Dick borrows Billy's surprisingly realistic squirt gun and decides to rob a local convenience store. He emerges and orders Jane to burn rubber, as he stole a slushy, much to Jane's amusement. After several failed attempts, they finally rob a head shop. Realizing that they get a thrill out of stealing, they make a profession out of this, going on nightly robbing sprees.
They climb their way up the crime ladder, becoming more professional with each passing night. Their last "job" is to rob a local bank by going undercover. All goes as planned, until another crime spree couple enters the bank, wearing Bill and Hillary Clinton masks (which Dick and Jane themselves used earlier) and armed with shotguns. They are revealed to be former employees of Globodyne; Dick's jealous co-worker Oz and his wife Debbie. Dick and Jane escape, unharmed. They decide to stop their "profession" but it's revealed that Dick is about to be indicted for his role in Globodyne's demise (as most of the other employees of Globodyne have also reverted to criminal lifestyles), thus he starts drowning his sorrows at the local bar. While there, he and Jane encounter a drunk Frank Bascombe, who tells them that the crooked Jack McCallister signed off all of Globodyne's assets (totaling $400 Million), dumped the entire stock, and that he paid Bascombe $10,000,000 to keep his mouth shut (as it was McCallister's plan from the beginning because he felt burnt-out).
After Frank sobers up, they make a team and, through a devious and well put together plan, dupe Jack McCallister into reimbursing all of his former employees' pensions.
Although McCallister catches them in the act, Dick is still able to reimburse all of the former employees because he obtains McCallister's signature; his wife, an art major, was able to forge it. The next day, Dick informs Jack of the act as the press flock to him. The film ends with the wealthy Harper family driving along the highway and into the sunset, as another car drives up to them. In the car is Garth, his neighbor who tells Dick he's got a great new job at a company called Enron.
Cast
Reception
After a disappointing opening weekend of $14,383,515, the film managed to have exceptionally good staying power throughout the holiday season, making nearly eight times its opening weekend gross, eventually earning $110,332,737 at the domestic box office, and $91,693,375 in international receipts, for a total of $202,026,112 worldwide. With a budget of $100 million, the film was a much needed success for distributor Columbia, which had struggled throughout the year. As of July 6, 2006 Fun with Dick and Jane has generated $43.5 million from DVD rental gross.
This success was despite the mostly negative reviews from critics, and the film currently maintains a meager 29% rating on the website RottenTomatoes.
Production
Dick's company Globodyne, and the way it falls, is a direct parody of various corporations early in the 21st century like Enron, Global Crossing, and MCI Worldcom. The closing credits begin with a Special Thanks To list, naming executives at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, ImClone Systems, Arthur Andersen, Cendant and HealthSouth.
The suburban neighborhood in the film consisted of the construction of 12 houses (only front facades), and one fully-functioning house all built on the site of the abandoned Marineland of the Pacific theme park in California.
While filming the coffee shop robbery scene, Téa Leoni seriously injured her shoulder while sliding on the counter. During the scene where Jim Carrey jumps into the ceiling and hangs above the bank desk, when he was stepping down, he accidentally fell and smacked his face on the floor. This painful blooper made it into the film.
Paramount Pictures paid Sony to pause filming for a week, so that Carrey could promote his previous movie, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
See also
External links
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