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This remake of a 1977 comedy seems timely in an age of widespread corporate malfeasance and conspicuous consumption. Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni replace George Segal and Jane Fonda in this rework, portraying upwardly mobile suburbanites who face bankruptcy when he loses his high-profile job with an imploding multinational corporation. Reluctant to sacrifice their comfortable lifestyle, the couple take up armed robbery; and, thanks to Carrey's manic mugging and broad slapstick, the movie is pretty funny. Oddly enough, and making a clear case for the DVD version, there are just as many laughs in the extras. A brief gag reel includes snippets of Carrey improvising on the set, and six deleted scenes include a howler that finds Dick being confronted by an elderly night watchman -- played by veteran character actor James Whitmore -- while heisting a toy store. Despite his advanced age, the ex-Marine proceeds to whale the daylights out of Dick in a four-minute slapstick sequence that certainly should have been included in the final cut. There are also several minutes of raw footage from on-camera interviews given by Carrey and Leoni at a daylong press junket. It's tough to repeatedly answer the same questions (many of them moronic to begin with) without occasionally getting goofy, and that's exactly what we get to see here. The stars get a big laugh when, following a query about the filming of love scenes, they suddenly go into a passionate clinch and topple off their chairs. We don't normally stress a disc's supplemental features, but in this case the extras are a decided asset. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

A not-so-ordinary family finds a new way of paying the bills in this comedy. Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) and his wife, Jane (Téa Leoni), would seem to have it made -- Dick has a high-paying job, they live in an expensive house in the suburbs, they have two luxury cars in the driveway, and a housekeeper, Blanca (Gloria Garayua), to help look after their son, Billy. But Dick and Jane's fairy-tale life crashes head-on into reality when the firm Dick works for turns out to have been using unscrupulous accounting methods to disguise the fact they've been losing money hand over fist, and Dick has been made the fall guy for some of their dirty dealings. Suddenly flat broke, Dick and Jane must find a new way to support their lavish lifestyle, and in time they discover just the thing -- crime. A remake of Ted Kotcheff's 1977 hit (which helped re-launch Jane Fonda's screen career), Fun With Dick and Jane also stars Alec Baldwin, John Michael Higgins, and Angie Harmon. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 043396102286
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Time: 1:30:00
• Sales Rank: 5,076

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) / Mr. Deeds

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