RENAISSANCE MAN / (1994) *1/2 (out of four)
By Blake French:
The more serious a subject is, the easier and more fun it is to spoof. The comedy from Penny Marshal, "Renaissance Man," has a great target: the army. But it fails to create funny material within its concepts. The film seems to have uncertainties within its structure; the scenes simply do not blend well together. It is possible to incorporate comedy with sentimental emotions, but this movie does not know how to do it. It goes from straight humor to straight solemnity, leaving out subtle changes in its pace, attitude, or character's actions. When a movie can include a scene that has Danny Devito climbing a "victory" tower at a military training facility, and another where Army students rap to a theme of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," without being funny in the least, you know there has been some major miscalculations.
Devito is the right actor for a divorced, bankrupt Detroit advertiser who applies for unemployment and gets a job as a civilian instructor for an Army training facility. He must counsel a class of eight difficult students. Of course, DeVito's character has no idea of how the Army works, and proves himself to be a misfit in the base. After some effort, he eventually finds the students express interest in Shakespeare. "He wrote plays. Plays...?" he explains. "You know, like TV without the box." The class becomes a course on the understanding of the complex tragedy of "Hamlet."
We keep waiting for the movie to take off and to be about something, but it never does. It simply juggles around various ideas that go absolutely nowhere. The movie feels obligatory as it follows the predictable, contrived path in which the students reject their authorities, then the students respect their authorities, then the authorities reject, then except. Except and reject what, you ask? It doesn't really matter since the entire plot is an exercise in recycling story nuggets of movies like "Dead Poets Society" and "Private Benjamin."
To make things even worse for this excuse for a comedy: many of the performances are horrible. Danny Devito is fine, as is the rest of the more experienced cast. But the Army student cast has scenes that are down right laughable. Mark Wahlberg sits in his desk and makes childish faces to his fellow classmates, reciting his dialogue as if rehearsing a part in a high school play for the first time. During one scene, as the students explain the reasons of why they joined the Army, one breaks down in tears because of a sad emotional past. This could have been powerful if actual actors had taken the parts. But instead, we try to respect the art of filmmaking by holding a straight face while his expression of sorrow becomes so poorly portrayed we don't know whether to wince or chuckle.
"Renaissance Man" is a contrived, labored, unconvincing attempt at a comedy spoof. Without a doubt, if handled the right way, it could have had funny results. But Penny Marshal, who also directed movies like "The Preacher's Wife," and "Big," constructs scenes so awfully familiar and labored, no possible talent can save them. Even the closing sequence, the traditional false suspense moments when students show their loyalties and manhood, feels out of place. Everything feels out of place here. I feel sorry for Danny Devito, who brings a life to his character on his own. But he is stuck in a movie so mislead, even he looks like he should be contributing his talents to another production.
By Blake French:
The more serious a subject is, the easier and more fun it is to spoof. The comedy from Penny Marshal, "Renaissance Man," has a great target: the army. But it fails to create funny material within its concepts. The film seems to have uncertainties within its structure; the scenes simply do not blend well together. It is possible to incorporate comedy with sentimental emotions, but this movie does not know how to do it. It goes from straight humor to straight solemnity, leaving out subtle changes in its pace, attitude, or character's actions. When a movie can include a scene that has Danny Devito climbing a "victory" tower at a military training facility, and another where Army students rap to a theme of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," without being funny in the least, you know there has been some major miscalculations.
Devito is the right actor for a divorced, bankrupt Detroit advertiser who applies for unemployment and gets a job as a civilian instructor for an Army training facility. He must counsel a class of eight difficult students. Of course, DeVito's character has no idea of how the Army works, and proves himself to be a misfit in the base. After some effort, he eventually finds the students express interest in Shakespeare. "He wrote plays. Plays...?" he explains. "You know, like TV without the box." The class becomes a course on the understanding of the complex tragedy of "Hamlet."
We keep waiting for the movie to take off and to be about something, but it never does. It simply juggles around various ideas that go absolutely nowhere. The movie feels obligatory as it follows the predictable, contrived path in which the students reject their authorities, then the students respect their authorities, then the authorities reject, then except. Except and reject what, you ask? It doesn't really matter since the entire plot is an exercise in recycling story nuggets of movies like "Dead Poets Society" and "Private Benjamin."
To make things even worse for this excuse for a comedy: many of the performances are horrible. Danny Devito is fine, as is the rest of the more experienced cast. But the Army student cast has scenes that are down right laughable. Mark Wahlberg sits in his desk and makes childish faces to his fellow classmates, reciting his dialogue as if rehearsing a part in a high school play for the first time. During one scene, as the students explain the reasons of why they joined the Army, one breaks down in tears because of a sad emotional past. This could have been powerful if actual actors had taken the parts. But instead, we try to respect the art of filmmaking by holding a straight face while his expression of sorrow becomes so poorly portrayed we don't know whether to wince or chuckle.
"Renaissance Man" is a contrived, labored, unconvincing attempt at a comedy spoof. Without a doubt, if handled the right way, it could have had funny results. But Penny Marshal, who also directed movies like "The Preacher's Wife," and "Big," constructs scenes so awfully familiar and labored, no possible talent can save them. Even the closing sequence, the traditional false suspense moments when students show their loyalties and manhood, feels out of place. Everything feels out of place here. I feel sorry for Danny Devito, who brings a life to his character on his own. But he is stuck in a movie so mislead, even he looks like he should be contributing his talents to another production.