Review: Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000)
Written by: Brian J. Sumner
Ideas.
We all have them.
Sometimes they’re good.
Sometimes they’re bad.
Occasionally, you can start with a bad idea, give it a little love and finesse, and then miraculously you end up with something that turns out to be a great idea! In Hollywood, good and bad ideas come in the form of movie scripts which are then shuffled around and pitched to various executives and studios by young and old film makers alike in the hopes of getting their idea transitioned from the script page to the big screen. That’s the goal. Regardless of what you may think of the end product, every film that you see always starts as a simple idea.
Now, some ideas should never see the light of day. In fact, there should be safeguards in place to insure that terrible ideas never make it from the page to the big screen. Like maybe an automated blow torch that is programmed to sense terrible scripts ideas and then just blast them into oblivion once the stupidity of its concept is blurted out? Or how about a big guy with a large tree branch at the ready to smack a movie executive in the head when he agrees to green-light a really horrible script??
Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have such measures instituted back in 2000, when Hollywood decided it would be a smart idea to release Dude, Where’s My Car? a stoner-style comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Sean William Scott. The film follows our two leads after waking up with massive hangovers from an apparent long night of partying only to discover that Jesse (played by Kutcher) can’t remember where he left his car. So Jesse, along with his boozen buddy, Chester (played by Scott), decide to retrace their steps from the night before with what memory they have left in the hopes of finding the car, leading to a wacky adventure where they meet. . .
<snore>
<snore>
<snore>
....WHAT?! What?!
Oh, sorry....
I dozed off writing down the plot. Which is what must have happened when the writers sat down to put this script together! The basis of the story is incredibly weak with regard to cultivating a plot that is remotely entertaining for a wide audience.
Dude, Where’s My Car? ©2000 20th Century Fox
“Two hungover dudes looking for a car.”
Wow.
Now, I know that beyond the introduction of the main characters and the initial foundation of the story there will come so many more aspects of the plot that will help in creating what the story eventually becomes, but within the genesis of the story, you have nothing but elevated levels of stupidity to drive the script! It may be hard to believe, but there is actually such a thing as being “too silly.” This film goes from 0 to 100 on the ridiculousness scale in a matter of just a few scenes and the proverbial snowball down the mountain causes an avalanche of dumbness that crushes everything in its path. The dialogue between the characters is base level effort with elite level silliness but not in a good way. The characters were written to be incredibly dumb but by doing that it makes it hard for your audience to care about them. They’re dumb to a fault, intentionally, and not by carelessness, and because of that, as an audience member watching this story, you only care about what sight gags are about to happen or what inappropriate things will be said for a cheap laugh. Movies like that never have staying power and always fall by the wayside.
Dude, Where’s My Car? ©2000 20th Century Fox
The problem with Dude, Where’s My Car? is that the writers and the director only cared about focusing on “What will make people laugh?” instead of actually asking “How do we make an entertaining story?” To steal a term from professional wrestling, the movie, itself, became a “gimmick.” It’s overall intention was to be a wacky farce of a movie filled with comedic gems, but by making it so extreme, it totally wrecked any notion of being a tangible film experience. The movie did succeed, however, in becoming a caricature of itself and ultimately just ended up being a 90 minute film of overlapping terrible gags, unnecessary plot points, and convoluted storytelling. Just because you write something in a way that is so silly it’s meant to be funny doesn’t mean it will translate that way. This film was written in such a ridiculous fashion, it became unwatchable.
Dude, Where’s My Car? will always be a reminder of what a bad idea looks like when you try and take comedy to a ridiculous level without executing a solid script for the comedy to play around in. Hopefully Hollywood took note when this film was released and maybe they’ll put a little more effort into seeking out and working on good ideas from now on.
Brian J. Sumner is the Host of Dude, What?!, author of The Secrets of Dr. Killiecrankie and is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ”Dude, Where’s the blurb?”
