REEL REVIEWS COLUMN: Save money from 'Silverman'
By Justin Smith
The Internet Movie Database lists "Saving Silverman" as a "comedy". As near as I can figure, this must be an error because I can honestly say that the number of times I laughed at this movie can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Call me refined, but shocks from cattle prods and heads in toilets rarely induce my laughter.
Darren Silverman, played by the typecast Jason Biggs ("American Pie"), is split from his friends J.D. (Jack Black) and Wayne (Steve Zahn) when he begins to date the dominating and utterly bitchy Judith (Amanda Peet). She forbids Silverman from seeing his idiotic friends who spray each other with beer for fun and idolize Neil Diamond. As the title suggests, J.D. and Wayne then devise a plan to save Silverman.
Their plan involves kidnapping Judith, faking her death, and keeping her in their garage. Meanwhile, they attempt to set Silverman up with his high school sweetheart who is days away from becoming a nun.
Problems arise when J.D. and Wayne find out that the captive Judith is smarter than both of them and they have trouble keeping her locked up. They seek advice from their ex-football coach who is now in jail. His advice is to "kill her." But when neither of them can kill Judith, their coach gets parole, comes to live with them, and tries to do it for them. This leads to another escape attempt.
And just when you thought the movie couldn’t get any worse, it wraps up with an abysmal wedding scene with Neil Diamond singing and chairs breaking over heads. By this time, "Saving Silverman" had wasted enough of my time.
Aside from lacking humor, this film is a tremendous waste of talent. Both Jack Black and Steve Zahn are in throwaway roles. On more than one occasion, Black, who shined in "High Fidelity," reminded me of a cheap Chris Farley persona. This may have something to do with the direction of Dennis Dugan who also directed "Beverly Hills Ninja."
Be warned, save your money from "Silverman". Instead, go see the smart and ultimately funny, "Sugar and Spice". Seriously.
Rating: 3 (out of 10)