Blu-Ray Review: Jim Carrey Continues to Stumble With Mediocre ‘Yes Man’

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Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – What has happened to Jim Carrey’s career? The comedy superstar has stumbled more in the last few years than he ever had before with the awful “The Number 23,” dull “Fun With Dick and Jane,” and now the mediocre “Yes Man”. This return to the slapstick style that made Carrey a star isn’t a complete disaster but it’s just not that funny and the average movie has been given average special featues on its Blu-Ray release.

“Yes Man” is more forgettable than awful and that kind of mediocre comedy can sometime be all a renter is looking for on a rainy Saturday night at Blockbuster. It’s not the hit that it could have been but it’s also not the worst comedy to come out this month in HD. Heck, it’s not the worst comedy to come out this week.

Yes Man was released on Blu-Ray on April 7th, 2009.
Photo credit: Warner Brothers

Carl Allen (Carrey) is a lonely, bitter, depressed guy who rarely responds in the affirmative to anyone, not the homeless guy asking for change, the businessman looking for a loan from the bank he works for, or even his best friend (Bradley Cooper) inviting him to his engagement party. Carl is kind of a jerk, but the writers of “Yes Man” nearly excuse it by noting that his six-month marriage to Molly Sims fell apart and he works at a bank. Those two things would make anyone bitter.

Yes Man was released on Blu-Ray on April 7th, 2009. Photo credit: Warner Brothers

One day, Carl is dragged to a seminar that tries to teach people to be more positive in life and the poor guy decides to take the advice to the extreme and say “yes” to everything. His first experiment in the affirmative leads to an impromptu makeout session with the super-cute Allison (Zooey Deschanel), Carl decides that he will never say no. It leads to several montages of Carl saying yes to bungee jumping, Korean lessons, and even an Iranian wife.

Carrey is more charming than he has been in years and every single movie would be better with Zooey Deschanel in the cast. Even the supporting cast, including Bradley Cooper, Danny Masterson, and Terence Stamp, can’t be blamed. And Carrey and Deschanel actually have a bit of chemistry, even if he feels a bit too old for her. Their energy is the best thing about “Yes Man”.

Once again, as with most comedies, the problem with “Yes Man” is the script. The people behind “Yes Man” wrote “Fun With Dick and Jane” and “Bewitched” and the film was directed by the guy who did “The Break-Up”. To be blunt, these are not comedy masters. They have difficulty juggling the tones of “Yes Man” and everything outside of the gimmick and the two talented leads falls flat.

And, once again, director Peyton Reed, like he did with “The Break-Up” directs a film with all the energy of a ’90s sitcom. Reed doesn’t so much direct as puch a story forward. With a punch-up to the screenplay and a less visually flat director, “Yes Man” might have been more than a maybe.

Yes Man was released on Blu-Ray on April 7th, 2009. Photo credit: Warner Brothers

Warner Brothers continues to rock Blu-Ray, but “Yes Man” is a merely so-so product in HD. The picture in 1080p with a 2.40:1 aspect ratio isn’t bad but isn’t remarkable and the audio track in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 matches it. Neither the video nor audio will distract you but they both could have been arguably better.

So could the special features. Fans will find no commentary and no deleted scenes. Nearly all of the special features could have been combined into one doc called “Fooling Around with Jim Carrey”. That’s what you’ll get in “Downtime on the Set of Yes Man with Jim Carrey,” “Jim Carrey: Extreme yes Man,” the gag reel, and the BD-exclusive “Say Yes to Reed Bull!”. Other special features include “Future Sounds: Munchausen by Proxy” (and five full-length videos by the band in the movie), “On Set with Danny Wallace (the original ‘yes man’ on whose book the film is based)”, and “Yes Man: Party Central with Norman Stokes (Rhys Darby)”.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com