New Reviews
Divergent
Django Unchained
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Les Misérables
Quartet
Chernobyl Diaries
The Cabin in the Woods
Balibo

My Boss’s Daughter (2003)

There are some things you just dont do.

Rating: 2/10

Running Time: 86 minutes

US Certificate: PG-13 UK Certificate: 12a

David Zucker used to bring us the throwaway comic genius of ‘Airplane!’, ‘Police Squad’ and the Naked Gun movies. Today, he’s directing dross like ‘My Boss’s Daughter’.

It stars the gawp-mouthed Ashton Kutcher as Tom, a pencil-pusher with a Chicago publishing house who’s eager to work his way into the good books of tyrant boss Jack Taylor (Terence Stamp) and, for that matter, his head-turning daughter Lisa (Tara Reid). He thinks his luck’s in with the latter when she invites him to spend an evening at the family home – but, as it turns out, she only wants him to house-sit so she can go out and party.

What follows is one of the most excruciatingly bad comedy experiences of the year, as Tom battles to keep order in the face of a hyperactive pet owl, a pissing drug dealer (Michael Madsen), a visiting relative (Andy Richter) , a ticked-off employee (Molly Shannon), and an impromptu Carmen Electra wet t-shirt contest. Okay, so that last bit isn’t actually all that bad – but the rest of it truly is horrendous.

Kutcher’s pseudo Ben Stiller shtick is downright painful to watch (his natural arrogance makes it impossible for him to play shy and awkward, regardless of how often or how hard he tries), Stamp looks embarrassed to be there (he stops just short of playing his scenes with a hand up over his face in an attempt to prevent us from recognising him), and Reid’s character is barely in it enough to merit being the subject of the film’s title.

The screenplay, by ‘Anger Management’ scribe David Dorfman, feels as if no level of thought has been put into it whatsoever. It strains to offend in some sort of ill-conceived attempt to be accepted as a peer of the Farrelly Brothers, but is little short of cringe-worthy in its clumsy desperation for such unattainable credibility. Simply put, the entire film is one big string of random, humourless, badly-delivered and totally witless events. The only question is, how does this sort of guff ever manage to see the light of day?

It's Got: A script that sounds like it’s been written with all the lights switched off.

It Needs: To decide whether Carmen Electra is supposed to be wearing a bra or not. It’s a little something called continuity.

DVD Extras Out-takes (a.k.a. Kutcher acting the tit), a peek behind the scenes (a.k.a. Kutcher acting the tit), and some footage of Tara Reid’s audition (a.k.a. Kutcher acting the tit). DVD Extras Rating: 3/10

Summary

This ridiculously amateurish and unfunny caper should have been handed its P45 way back at the production stage.