I’d honestly watch “Plan 9” before I’d watch “Dude, Where’s My Car?” again.
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I´ll never quite understand the allure to the 2000 comedy "Dude, Where´s My Car?" At the time Seann William Scott was fairly bankable and Ashton Kutcher was riding a wave that began with "That 70´s Show." Teaming up with capable director Danny Leiner, the film had all the makings of a fine comedy, but "Dude, Where´s My Car?" makes so many missteps along the way on its overly short eighty three minute running time that the film feels far longer than it actually is and the limited number of laughs that actually succeed just do not seem enough for the film to have earned its minor cult status nearly a decade after it hit theaters. My twelve year old nephew absolutely loves the film, although I´m not sure he fully understands all of the humor the PG-13 film delivers to its audiences. I have no clue why he things it is such a great film.
Ashton Kutcher has top billing and stars as Jesse. Seann William Scott stars alongside Kutcher as his best friend Chester. They are unsuccessful post teenage party boys who barely hold onto their jobs for a local pizza shop. One morning they awake with strong hangovers and no recollection of the previous evenings events. They only remember that it is their first anniversary for their girlfriends and they believe they are going to receive some ´special´ presents from twins Wanda (Jennifer Garner) and Wilma (Marla Sokoloff). Their highest hopes is that these special presents involves sex, but the two quickly remember they did not buy the girls anything and rush out the door to find some gifts to make the girls happy so that they could possibly get laid on their anniversary.
The problem is that their car is missing. Throw in the film´s title as a catchphrase uttered by Kutcher and the film´s misadventures begin to move along. During their day the two begin to piece together the events of the previous day and find that they have become heroes to police officers and strippers alike. They have also gotten tattoos, bought some spiffy work out suits and rented a sweet Mercedes to help them along the way while they try to find their car and perhaps presents that they bought Wanda and Wilma. Additionally, a strange cast of characters are following Jesse and Chester and looking for an alien device called the Continuum Transfunctioner. A band of nerds tell tales of global destruction, some black clad self-proclaimed "hot chicks" offer sexual pleasure and a bunch of jocks also want the Transfunctioner; which only adds to the mystery of Jesse and Chester´s previous night.
There are a few decent laughs to be had while watching "Dude, Where´s My Car?," but in general the film falls flat. Scott and Kutcher portray stoners without drugs and the characters are nowhere near as entertaining as a later film directed by Leiner, "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." Jesse and Chester are two friends with no direction, some chemistry, but no purpose in life and it is very difficult to get beyond the two bumbling boys as they try and discover just what happened in a night when they learned Japanese and held a huge party at their girlfriends´ home. Scott and Kutcher are both capable of so many better things that I often wonder why they signed up for "Dude, Where´s My Car?" The laughs are not nearly enough to compete with many other comedies from the same timeframe as this film was released.
"Dude, Where´s My Car?" has its audience and while I don´t particularly enjoy the film or find it terribly funny, there are those that do. The movie is neither a gross-out comedy nor a sexually charged romp like "American Pie." It is a short little film with a series of poorly written jokes that pretends to be a plot. The film is more laughably bad than it is laugh inducing. Even with cameos by Fabio, Christy Swanson, Brent Spiner and Andy Dick the film doesn´t provide much reason to sit through the film more than once. I´ll never fully understand why this is considered a cult classic, but then again "Plan 9 From Outer Space" has a large cult following. This film has goofy science fiction elements too, but I´d honestly watch "Plan 9" before I´d watch "Dude, Where´s My Car?" again.
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[release]24316[/release]