Danny Leiner’s DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR [8/10]

US 2000. 84 minutes
script: Philip Stark // cinemtaographer: Robert Stevens

Just in case the title doesn’t tell you all you need to know, how about these character names?: Christie Boner, Jumpsuit Chick #5, Stripper #1, Super Chick, Dancer #8, and four Muscle Heads? Yes, this is yet another teen slacker comedy—but its also one of the best, mixing gross-out elements of American Pie and Road Trip with old-skool stoner traditions dating back to Cheech & Chong via Bill & Ted and Wayne & Garth.

Here we have a pair of likeable California morons, Jesse (Ashton Kutcher) & Chester (Seann William Scott; after prominent roles in American Pie, Road Trip and Final Destination, Scott currently reigns as this sub-genre’s clown prince and, as usual, he’s the best thing about the picture.) The duo wake up after a wild night of partying, totally unable to recall any of their shenanigans. Retracing their steps to find the titles missing auto, they meet various aliens, nerds, strippers, jumpsuit chicks, muscle heads, etc. along the way. Stupid, sexist nonsense? Definitely. But very funny, breezy, energetic, inoffensive nonsense, all the same.

2nd February 2001

BOX OFFICE UPDATE!!

Dude, Where’s My Car? opened the UK on Friday, February 9th, 2001, on 270 screens. Over the three-day weekend, it took a total of £943,442 behind only holdover smash What Women Want (£2,510,000) for an average of £3,494. The week’s other new entries were The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle at #5 (average £2,056), Almost Famous at #6 (£1,924), Remember The Titans at #9 (£1,005). Dude, Where’s My Car? was, of course, aggressively marketed, but so was Almost Famous which didn’t have to cope with the shit-storm of incomprehension that greeted DWMC?‘s arrival on our shores.

Positive reviews such as the one above were very thin on the ground, with Hotdog magazine’s reaction fairly typical. They sent four readers pushing thirty, at the very least (to judge by their photos) who each gave the movie one star out of five, with the comments “Not cool,” “Not funny,” “Boring,” “A big pile of poo,” and “Hmmm.” This didn’t dissuade DWMC?‘s target teenage audience, of course, few of whom would take much notice of critics. In this instance, they were spot on.

17th February 2001

 

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