I really enjoyed this movie when it came out. It wasn't so much the gross-out elements, although that started a small trend toward pushing the envelope.
But there was real heart to the movie. I completely understood Ted's inability to get past his love for Mary.
So I bought it on DVD a long time ago.
I decided I should take a look at it again, see if I should keep my copy. Something told me it wasn't going to age well.
It's flawed, but not in quite the way I expected.
The material that I thought would be most problematic, primarily the handling of the disabled characters, are actually handled very well.
The laughs are not at the expense of the disabled. The laughs are about the faults of the other characters.
Where the movie falters is with the focus. Every now and then there are scenes that have been left in because they were a good gag, but this tends to slow down the whole process. It doesn't make it bad. It remains funny. But the sidetrack just makes it not play as tightly as it could.
Oddly, the best known scenes - the zipper and the hair gel scenes - are probably the bits that have aged the worst. It may be because they're well-known, but they're predictable at this point. The gags that have aged really well are the bits that are unexpected, like Matt Dillon standing up with his pants unbuttoned.
But there was real heart to the movie. I completely understood Ted's inability to get past his love for Mary.
So I bought it on DVD a long time ago.
I decided I should take a look at it again, see if I should keep my copy. Something told me it wasn't going to age well.
It's flawed, but not in quite the way I expected.
The material that I thought would be most problematic, primarily the handling of the disabled characters, are actually handled very well.
The laughs are not at the expense of the disabled. The laughs are about the faults of the other characters.
Where the movie falters is with the focus. Every now and then there are scenes that have been left in because they were a good gag, but this tends to slow down the whole process. It doesn't make it bad. It remains funny. But the sidetrack just makes it not play as tightly as it could.
Oddly, the best known scenes - the zipper and the hair gel scenes - are probably the bits that have aged the worst. It may be because they're well-known, but they're predictable at this point. The gags that have aged really well are the bits that are unexpected, like Matt Dillon standing up with his pants unbuttoned.