 Duplex (2003) Danny DeVito, on the other hand, seems to think he is, in fact, a master of dark humor, crafting brilliantly twisted films in which all taboos are broken and everything that can go miserably wrong does. He's mistaken. Death to Smoochy? Throw Momma From the Train? The War of the Roses? Please. This guy is about as black-comic as "Rugrats." Perhaps it's the height … it may be that his tiny body can not hold a large capacity of dark comedy, whereas a taller person may simply have more room for it. This would also explain why Robert Wadlow was the most brilliantly dark humorist the world has ever known.
As for Duplex: they should have left it as a trailer. At 90 minutes, it's at least 88 minutes too long, padded with interminable set-pieces of "outrageous" misfortune that are as unfunny as they are unrealistic. It's witless Hollywood bullshit banking on the notion that people still want to see Ben Stiller getting into impossibly frustrating situations. No thanks; I'll stick to the old silent classics of Robert Wadlow, truly the Buster Keaton of black comedy. My favorite is Everything Goes Wrong For the World's Tallest Man, although The World's Tallest Man Gets in a Terrible Scrape is a close second. They don't make 'em like that anymore, boy.
Review by Timothy Hay |
