|
JOE SOMEBODY Send This Review to a Friend
For a while "Joe Somebdy" is engagingly funny as Tim Allen plays Joe Scheffler, somewhat of an oaf who works for a pharmaceutical company and is looked down upon as a non-entity. The turning point in his life comes when a boorish employee takes his parking space that seniority has earned him. As his young daughter waits in the car, Joe gets out and objects, only to be knocked to the ground by his arrogant, more powerful adversary. Humiliated, Joe refuses to come to work until an attractive co-worker Meg (Julie Bowen) persuades him to return.
She triggers in Joe a new will to succeed, and there is humor in the way that challenging the man who decked him to a public fight turns the situation around. Now Joe becomes one of the guys and is invited to join their elite club and play squash. Joe becomes a changed man, and in preparation for the planned fight begins taking boxing and martial arts lessons from Chuck Scarlett (Jim Belushi), who provides some very funny scenes with Allen.
But the humor soon thins as screenwriter John Scott Shepherd and director John Pasquin concentrate on making the film more meaningful via romance, the relationship with his daughter and finding the right values in life. "Joe Somebody" is amiable, but the corn ultimately inundates the comedy. A Twentieth Century Fox release.
|