Fun with Dick and Jane (2005 film)
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Fun with Dick and Jane is a 2005 film, a remake of a 1977 film. In it, an upper-middle class couple, Dick and Jane Harper, turn to robbery after Dick's company goes bankrupt and they run out of money. It stars Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni as the title roles.
The film is also a satire of corporate America, particularly Enron, especially in the CEO of Dick's company.
Plot Summary
In the year 2000 (before the corporate accounting scandals of 2001), Dick works for a company called Globodyne. He is "promoted" to Vice-President of Communications. He then appears on the show Money Life, where the host and then independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader blast him, the CEO, the CFO, and the company as a whole. Almost instantly the company's stock is worthless and the employees' pensions (in Globodyne stock) are diluted. In fact, while Nader and the moderator were ranting on about Globodyne on television, the screen shows that the company's stocks are lowering second by second, with Dick unaware of such during the conversation.In the months that follow, Dick cannot find a job, and the family gets poorer and poorer.
Desperate, Dick and Jane go on a crime spree which ends with them pitting their wits against the CEO of Globodyne and ultimately duping him into reimbursing employee pensions.
Reaction
After a disappointing opening weekend of $21,530,160, the film managed to have decent legs throughout the holiday season, eventually grossing over $110 million at the domestic box office and $92 millions at foreign box office. With a budget of over $100 million, the film was a minor success but was considered a disappointment by many when compared to other Carrey films. As of July 9, 2006 Fun with Dick and Jane has generated $41.3 million from DVD rental gross.
Trivia
- The financial transaction form used in the film's final scenes is identified as a CRM-114, referencing an encryption device from and the amplifier from Back to the Future.
- Dick's company Globodyne, and the way it falls, is a direct parody of Enron (which is hinted to for comedic effect near the end of the movie).
- When Dick pulls into the parking lot for Globodyne, everybody but him drives a new BMW 7 Series. Dick himself has a BMW 3 Series from the late 1980s. He later buys a BMW 7 Series, which gets traded for a Ford Festiva and he has a Volkswagen Cabrio at the end.
- The suburban neighborhood in the film consisted the construction of 12 homes (only a front facade), and one fully-functioning home all built on the site of the abandoned Marineland of the Pacific theme park in California.
- While filming the coffee shop robbery scene, Téa Leoni seriously injured her shoulder while sliding on the counter.
- At around 1:01:10 into the movie, Dick and Jane watch a TV interview with Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin). After stating his innocence and seemingly unable to find anything else to say, he breaks off his speech with "Now watch this shot!" This is a direct re-enactment of a President George W. Bush interview which can be seen in Fahrenheit 911.
- Throughout the film, which is set in the year 2000, there are numerous references made to the presidential campaign that year between George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Ralph Nader including Dick being interviewed by Nader, a TV screen showing a Bush campaign speech clearly from 2000, and signs across city streets, stores, and on cars reading "Gore/Lieberman" or "Bush/Cheney".
- In the scene where Dick tells Jane that Globodyne crashed, he's reassuring her saying, "I am a winner." Jim Carrey's character Edward Nigma from Batman Forever said this line as well.
- In the scene before Dick finally robs a store, Jane talks to him about the movie Heat with Val Kilmer. Jim Carrey has worked with Val Kilmer previously on the hero film Batman Forever where Kilmer played the title role and Carrey played the manic Edward Nigma/The Riddler.
- Among the disguises Dick and Jane use include Bill and Hilary Clinton, the Blues Brothers, and Cher and Sonny Bono.
- Although it most likely wasn't intentional, there are a lot of references to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, such as a lot of uses of the number 42, as well as Dick's line "DON'T PANIC!" that frightens Jane.
- At the scene when Alec Baldwin's character writes a check for Dick in the sum of "what [he thinks he's] worth", you can magnify the picture and see the check is for $100. In the theatre, this piece of trivia is easier to see due to the size of the screen.
See also
External links
- [Official Site]
- [PopMatters review (12/2005)]
- [Fun with Dick and Jane] at Jim Carrey Online
- [Movie Review] Xdafied.com.au
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